Supporting the long-term resilience and European sovereignty of critical research data and knowledge repositories and scientific services for the life sciences

Scope: Europe is home to some of the world’s key research data repositories, scientific services and facilities that are indispensable for the life sciences. Despite their crucial role in advancing the life sciences in Europe, such infrastructures are often vulnerable to risks that can critically impair their sustainable operation and serving of the community, such as overdependence on precarious funding streams, overreliance on a too limited number of experts or organisations for the operation and further development of technical components or features that could otherwise benefit from more distributed solutions and appropriate safety nets against ‘single points of failure’. EOSC is the Common European Data Space for research, a flagship initiative to transform Europe’s landscape of research data and knowledge repositories and scientific services towards a more coherent and harmonised common space of high-quality, FAIR research data, knowledge and interoperable services. It aims to benefit research infrastructures by increased economies of scale, higher efficiencies and sharing of resources and costs, and to benefit researchers by facilitating access to quality services and enabling research data and knowledge sharing and reuse within and across disciplines and borders in Europe. The aim of this action is to increase the resilience of key research data and knowledge repositories and services used in the life sciences, i) by supporting their participation and integration into the EOSC Federation as well as relevant European or global collaborative frameworks to interconnect, share and scale resources, and ii) by supporting a vibrant broad community of infrastructure operators that diversifies and enriches these services, strengthening their operational sustainability and expanding their uptake by end-users. The action targets critical research, data and knowledge infrastructures in the life sciences as well as other key facilities that serve the needs of researchers in the life sciences. Proposals should address all the following activities: Reinforce the integration in the EOSC Federation of key data and research infrastructures and scientific service providers that serve the needs of the life sciences. Activities should include fully operational contribution to and adoption of EOSC federating capabilities, interconnection of relevant data and services within the EOSC Federation, and development of concrete use cases that demonstrate increased efficiencies and economies of scale across multiple EOSC Nodes as well as scientific use cases to demonstrate the value of the EOSC Federation for researchers and other end-users in the life sciences and for cross-discipline research. Develop and deploy solutions and set up collaborations and agreements that enable the broader community to sustain and enrich these repositories and services, strengthening technical reliability, cybersecurity and trusted access mechanisms, and reducing risks of service interruption. Develop and demonstrate business and financing models that minimise the risks of service downgrades or disruptions, such as diversifying funding sources, federating technical components and features across multiple competent organisations, and further expanding their user base beyond researchers. Support the participation in European or global collaborative initiatives or frameworks that aim to diversify funding sources and support load sharing and balancing commitments across multiple actors in EU Member States, Associated Countries and globally, such as the Global Biodata Coalition (GBC) [4] . Support training and upskilling programmes for technical and scientific staff needed for operation of these resources, and aiming to avoid loss of critical expertise. Proposals should identify the specific key digital repositories and services that their activities will focus on, justify their importance for the advancement of the life sciences in Europe with concrete performance indicators and other metrics, and describe the specific risks of these resources that will be addressed by the action. They should ensure broad participation of organisations across EU Member States and Associated Countries. Proposed actions should ensure complementarity where relevant with projects funded under topic HORIZON-INFRA-2026-DEV-01-07: “Risk management, mitigation and contingency for ESFRI/ERIC and other world-class research infrastructures” and HORIZON-INFRA-2026-01-EOSC-02: “Trusted frameworks for secure and efficient data sharing in EOSC (EOSC Partnership)”. Synergies with other Common European Data Spaces may be considered, where relevant. [1] For a description of disciplines within the life sciences, see the ‘Choose Europe for life sciences’ strategy, COM(2025) 525. [2] FAIR data are data which meet the principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability. [3] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/strategy/strategy-2020-2024/our-digital-future/open-science/european-open-science-cloud-eosc_en [4] https://globalbiodata.org

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 Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks. 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 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 Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [This [decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf ]]. The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5. 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) Lump Sum MGA Call-specific instructions 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 – 14. Horizontal Activities 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 Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme 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 [This [decision Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) Lump Sum MGA Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?" HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 14. Horizontal Activities Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions