Climate security and civil preparedness – new ways to develop pre- and post-crisis climate-change related scenarios for a more resilient Europe
Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
Climate change is a global challenge with profound security implications at the global, regional, and local levels. It exacerbates risks across multiple sectors, including agriculture, biodiversity, health, border security, economy, financial stability, transport, telecommunication and human displacement, leading to severe socio-economic consequences and destabilizing communities.
The increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters highlight the urgent need for a holistic, long-term strategy to address climate security, integrating risk assessment, crisis management, and adaptation measures, while also leveraging the expertise of the insurance sector.
Detailed Call Description
While climate services based on data analysis have reached a high level of trust among users, their application to civil security remains underdeveloped. Proposals should aim to develop methodologies, tools, and technologies that enhance situational awareness both before a crisis (pre-crisis) and after a crisis (post-crisis), enabling decision-makers and populations to respond effectively. Research should focus on defining priority climate security scenarios in the EU, identifying key stakeholders, and establishing essential indicators for informed decision-making.
Efforts should be directed toward understanding and mitigating the impacts of floods, landslides, wildfires, and other climate-induced disasters. This includes developing improved methods and models for risk prevention and reduction, early detection, emergency response tactics, and rescue efforts under extreme conditions. The study of cascading effects and compounding disasters is critical, particularly regarding groups in a vulnerable situation such as older people, people with disabilities, and children. In this view, the proposals should build on the European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) and consolidated national risk assessments as well as find synergies with project’s chosen for the similar EU Mission: Adaptation to Climate Change topic. Both the European Preparedness Union Strategy, the European Water Resilience Strategy and the upcoming European Climate Adaptation Plan act as policy guidance.
Diverse climate and environmental security scenarios should be developed, supported by innovative, reliable tools that leverage multiple data sources, enabling a comprehensive and adaptive response. Proposals should also integrate space programme components such as Copernicus and Galileo to improve data accuracy and crisis response capabilities. A strong emphasis on international cooperation should foster knowledge exchange, enhance policy integration, and share best practices. Proposals should support transnational collaboration within the EU, facilitate improved data-sharing mechanisms, and align with global initiatives such as the Sendai Disaster Risk Reduction Framework. Capacity-building efforts to strengthen resilience to climate-related security threats and ensure a coordinated approach to addressing worst-case climate scenarios, as identified in the Niinistö report.
Projects may take into account the assets but also particular challenges faced by the European outermost regions and may include entities from these regions in the consortium’s composition.
Where applicable, proposals should leverage the data and services available through European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud, Copernicus, Destination Earth, as well as data from relevant Data Spaces. Particular efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of this topic is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).
Where relevant, funded projects are encouraged to liaise with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, for complementary real-scale testing at the Reaction Wall and HopLab of the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment (ELSA).
Technology Readiness Level – Technology readiness level expected from completed projects
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
70%
Expected EU contribution per project: €4.50 million
Thematic Categories
- Environment and Climate Change
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Information Technology
- Justice - Security
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
Eligibility for Participation
- Businesses
- Central Government
- Large Enterprises
- Legal Entities
- Local Authorities
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Services Providers
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding as a beneficiary with zero funding, or as an associated partner. The JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal – see General Annex B.
Due to the scope of this topic, relevant international organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country are exceptionally eligible for funding.
The following additional eligibility criteria apply:
This topic requires the active involvement, as beneficiaries, of at least 3 authorities in charge of disaster risk[[Authorities in charge of disaster risk entail public bodies operating at the national level that hold legally defined responsibilities in the area of disaster risk management. This includes national civil protection authorities as well as other institutions that can demonstrate, through appropriate legal or administrative acts, a formal mandate to design, coordinate, or implement disaster risk prevention, preparedness, or response, measures.]] from at least 3 different EU Member States or Associated Countries. For these participants, applicants must fill in the table “Information about security practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, following the template provided in the submission IT tool.
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).
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.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Research and Innovation Foundation
29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia,
P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/
Contact Person:
Christakis Theocharous
Scientific Officer A’
Telephone: +357 22 20 50 29
Email: ctheocharous@research.org.cy