Increasing riparian and coastal areas resilience to climate change, including in waterfront cities and islands.

Scope: Riparian and coastal areas play a critical role in local climate regulation and serve as the buffer regions between land and waterways, providing a wide array of important ecosystem services such as acting as natural barriers against storm surges, flooding, and erosion, filtering pollutants from the water, regulating floods, providing habitats for species and increasing soil health. sequestering carbon. Islands, which offer invaluable natural resources that support people, cultures and livelihoods, are particularly vulnerable to climate change. [1] The proposal should build (when relevant) on previously developed or existing solutions by other projects, funded by EU and national programmes, in particular the European Union Framework programmes for Research and Innovation [2] , the co-funded Partnership Water Security for the Planet (Water4All) [3] as well as ERDF, INTERREG and LIFE programmes. Proposals are also encouraged to consider -- where relevant -- the services offered by European research infrastructures [4] . The proposals should take in consideration the projects to be funded under HORIZON-MISS-2025-01-CLIMA-03: Demonstrating solutions to help hotspots in coastal regions to adapt to climate change. Each proposal should address only one basin/Mission 'lighthouse', which should be explicitly stated in the proposal, i.e.: 1. Atlantic and Arctic sea basin or 2. Mediterranean Sea basin or 3. Baltic and North Sea basin or 4. Danube River basin (including its delta and the Black Sea). Activities should be tailored to address regional/sea basin specificities, with strong and meaningful involvement of public administrations, including relevant island public authorities. The basins / Mission “lighthouses” include the river basins flowing into the respective sea basins. Proposals should: Test and demonstrate effective solutions in riparian and coastal areas including in waterfront cities and islands to achieve the Mission’s objectives and targets and to address resilience of communities living in those areas to relevant climate change impacts. Proposals are encouraged to have an emphasis on Nature-based Solutions, an integrated source-to-sea approach including land-sea interactions, transboundary actions and the regeneration of the blue economy; Show a significant replication potential by identifying areas and locations where the proposed solutions could be replicable. An action plan and roadmap needed for the replication and scale up of the solutions for improving resilience to climate change of islands and riparian and coastal areas are expected to be drawn up by the end of the project; Monitor the impacts and effectiveness of demonstration activities at a local scale. The project should link with the activities carried out under the Digital Twin Ocean, in particular those addressing coastal and freshwaters, and support data and knowledge sharing through the Ocean and Water Knowledge System, as well as benefiting from it to foster cross-region, pan-European approaches. Monitoring should cover the societal acceptance of the proposed measures; Monitoring effort should be aligned with long-term ecological and biodiversity observation programmes to ensure the resilience of islands and riparian and coastal areas tracked and understood over decadal timescales. Work in a meaningful and very close way with and empower public authorities to accelerate the implementation of innovative solutions and encourage the active participation of citizens (e.g. through living labs); Provide recommendations and guidance to align the improvement of resilience to climate change of riparian and coastal areas including in waterfront cities and islands regarding new policy measures and green infrastructure projects and to strengthen cooperation across relevant sectors (water, navigation, fisheries, hydropower and energy, etc.); Facilitate synergies [5] with other R&I-relevant EU, national or regional programmes, and facilitate the leveraging of funding (e.g. structural or cohesion funds such as ERDF, or LIFE) through meaningful engagement with regional/local/city authorities, and the private sector where relevant; Projects should carry out at least 6 demonstration activities in different types of riparian and coastal areas, including in waterfront cities and islands, to prove in real conditions the operational feasibility and economic viability of innovative solutions to enhance resilience of riparian and coastal areas to climate change and provide biodiversity co-benefits. The consortium should carry out demonstration activities in at least 3 different countries of the basin addressed by the proposal. Regional and Local authorities, as well as inland water management bodies, are encouraged to be partners in the consortium to ensure that effective solutions are tailored to the context of each island and riparian and coastal area. Projects are expected to work with and engage at least 5 ‘associated regions’ (represented by local/regional authorities/public bodies) to show the effectiveness of solutions to increase resilience and develop a replication plan for its uptake in an ‘associated region’ and build capacity at local level. Beneficiaries may therefore provide Financial Support to Third Parties (see the Specific Conditions table for this topic). Projects should (1) proactively reach out to the 'associated regions' to enable them to follow closely the project’s activities, (2) continuously share their outcomes and knowledge with those ‘associated regions’ and (3) provide them with technical assistance to build capacity and to implement in their territory the approach they developed. Proposals should collaborate with the Coordination and Support Action (CSA) for the relevant Mission 'lighthouse '[ [Information on the Mission Lighthouse CSAs is available at https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe/eu-missions-horizon-europe/restore-our-ocean-and-waters/mission-lighthouses and the Mission Implementation Platform [6] , including to track progress toward Mission objectives. Collaboration with the Water Oriented Living Labs promoted by the Water4All partnership is welcomed where appropriate. Cooperation with the EU Outermost Regions [7] is encouraged, given these regions’ natural assets. This action supports the follow-up to the July 2023 Communication on EU Missions assessment. null Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. [1] Final version of the text will include a definition of areas covered, including links to Copernicus Land Service layers. It will include also transitional waters. [2] e.g. FP7 REFRESH [3] https://www.water4all-partnership.eu/ [4] The catalogue of European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) research infrastructures portfolio can be browsed from ESFRI website https://ri-portfolio.esfri.eu/ [5] See Commission Notice on synergies between Horizon Europe and ERDF programmes C(2022) 4747 final [6] https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe/eu-missions-horizon-europe/restore-our-ocean-and-waters/mission-ocean-and-waters-service-portal [7] https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/policy/themes/outermost-regions_en

Eligibility and submission conditions

"> General conditions 1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible countries described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide . 3. Other Eligibility Conditions If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds To ensure a balanced portfolio covering the 4 different Mission basins[[For the purposes of Mission Ocean and waters, Member States/Associated Countries, are considered to be part of a given sea/river basin if they have a coast/riverbank on the relevant sea/river or contain river basins flowing into the relevant sea]] (1. Atlantic and Arctic sea basin, 2. Mediterranean Sea basin, 3. Baltic and North Sea basin, 4. Danube River basin, including Black Sea), grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to one proposal that is the highest ranked within each sea basin, provided that the applications attain all thresholds. described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual . 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. The support to Third Parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The Financial Support to Third Parties may only be awarded to local and/or regional authorities (established as public bodies by public law and governed by public law), which are not already involved in as beneficiaries in a demonstration site of the same project and which are located in Member States/Associated Countries. The maximum amount to be granted to each Third Party is EUR 100,000, aiming at showcasing the effectiveness of solutions demonstrated by a project and develop a replication plan for their uptake in an ‘associated region’[[Regional or local authorities established as public bodies by national law and governed by public law.]]. A recipient may only benefit from this Financial Support to Third Parties once within the entire duration of the project. Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional obligations regarding open science practices: if projects collect in-situ data and marine observations, beneficiaries must make them openly available through the European Marine Observation and Data network (EMODnet), based on the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme] Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA): Application form templates Please use the application form that you will find in the Submission System. You can find examples of standard application forms in the Reference Documents page . Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) Guidance HE Programme Guide   Model Grant Agreements (MGA) HE MGA   Call-specific instructions   Information on financial support to third parties (HE)   Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?" Additional documents: HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 12. Missions HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695 HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764 EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Hivatkozott dokumentumok

Annex A Horizon Europe Programme Guide Online Manual Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) HE MGA Information on financial support to third parties (HE) Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?" HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 12. Missions Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions