Cluster 6 is dedicated to achieving a sustainable and healthy future for our planet and its people. Its main goal is to drive transformative changes through research and innovation that ensures athriving bioeconomy and responsible management of natural resources, good security and healthy food systems for all, along with environmental protection, including reducing pollution, preventing biodiversity loss and mitigating climate change.
By tackling these challenges, Cluster 6 aims to create a more resilient, inclusiveand sustainable future for Europe.
The seven destinations of cluster 6 are:
- Biodiversity and ecosystem services: This destination supports R&I activities that help maintain ecosystems in good ecological condition and a clean and healthy environment for the EU, including water, soil and air. This will contribute to the implementation of relevant policies such as health, climate adaptation and mitigation, disaster risk reduction, sustainable circular bioeconomy and blue economy.
- Fair, healthy and environment-friendly food systems, from primary production to consumption: This destination steers and accelerates the transition to sustainable, safe, healthy and inclusive food systems from “farm to fork”, ensuring food and nutrition security for all and delivering co-benefits for the environment, health, society and the economy.
- Circular economy and bioeconomy sectors: This destination focuses on climate-neutrality, zero pollution and circular and bioeconomy transitions. These cover safe, integrated circular solutions at territorial and sectoral levels, for important material flows and product value chains, such as textiles, electronics, chemicals, packaging, tourism, plastics and construction, and key bioeconomy sectors such sustainable bio-based systems, sustainable forestry, small-scale rural bio-based solutions, environmental services and aquatic (including marine and freshwater) value chains.
- Clean environment and zero pollution: This destination seeks to stop and prevent pollution by focusing on removing pollution from fresh and marine waters, soils, air, including from nitrogen and phosphorus emissions; substituting harmful chemicals; improving the environmental sustainability and circularity of bio-based systems; and educing environmental impacts of and pollution in food systems.
- Land, ocean and water for climate action: This destination aims to achieve sustainable ocean, water and land management. Using natural resources efficiently to help mitigate climate change implies finding the right balance between productivity, climate, biodiversity and environmental goals in the agriculture and forestry sectors, with a long-term perspective. R&I activities will support solutions for climate and environmentally friendly practices to reduce emissions of major greenhouse gases, other pollutants and the environmental impact of ocean and land use changes and agricultural activities. R&I will rely on the application of digital technologies where relevant.
- Resilient, inclusive, healthy and green rural, coastal and urban communities: This destination aims to increase our understanding of the different ways that climate, environmental, socio-economic and demographic changes affect rural, coastal and urban areas, and to identify ways to turn these changes into equal, and, when needed equitable, opportunities for people wherever they live. It explores innovative ways to tailor policy responses to the place-based challenges and needs identified at various levels of governance. It supports bottom-up community-led innovation to empower communities to develop, test and upscale solutions that answer global challenges in locally adapted ways.
- Innovative governance, environmental observations and digital solutions in support of the Green Deal: R&I activities under this destination aim to both experiment with new ways to govern the transition process and strengthen governance by ensuring appropriate and inclusive engagement with stakeholders, civil society and regional and local actors; environmental observations coverage; and that information and knowledge are available and accessible. The projects in this destination should provide insights into the opportunities to overcome potential institutional barriers such as lock-ins, path dependency, political and cultural inertia, power imbalances and ways to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of regulatory pathways. It should also help create synergies and linkages between different policy instruments and funding opportunities.
Who can apply?
- A consortium of at least three independent legal entities (“beneficiaries”), each established in a different EU member state or Horizon Europe associated country (e.g. Israel); at least one member of the consortium must come from an EU member state.
Funding
- Up to several million Euros per project, according to the specific topic description. Participants will usually receive hundreds of thousands of Euros per project according to their role and responsibilities in the project
- The funding rate of this grant will be 70% or 100% of the eligible costs + 25% overhead, depending on the type of funding mechanism. Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) will cover 100% of the expenses and Innovation Actions (IA) will cover 70% of the expenses.
Submission
The submission deadline date is available on the calls for proposal webpage. Applications should be submitted by 17:00 Brussels time. It is highly recommended that you submit a few days prior to the official deadline!
RIA/IA proposals must follow this provided template; CSA proposals must follow this provided template.
Evaluation Process
- Your proposal will be first evaluated and scored remotely by at least 3 EU expert evaluators, each giving it a grade of up to 5 on the three evaluation criteria: Excellence, Impact, and Implementation
- The evaluation process is expected to take 5 months afterthe deadline.
Important links –
For questions and more information: Destinations 4,5,7: Asaf.aharon@iserd.org.il
Destinations 1,2: eleanor.cohen@iserd.org.il
Destinations 3,6: Reut.cohen@iserd.org.il