Proposals should:

• select and analyse a set of case-studies of degraded soil, sediment and water affected by pollution and contaminants in the EU and Associated Countries. This could include cases where the degradation is exacerbated by climate change or biodiversity loss or other natural events or anthropogenic forcings;
• include a task in the project to develop bio-based solutions for the environmental remediation of the degraded soil, sediment and water in the selected case-studies, driven by biotechnology applications, and the integration of such bio-based solutions with nature-based solutions. The task should include the assessment of the alignment with the precautionary principle, environmental sustainability and efficiency of the developed solutions in remediating soil, sediment and water, also addressing biodiversity loss and the functional state of the ecosystems. Moreover, it should evaluate the improvement of resilience to the impacts of climate change on the affected ecosystems, due to the applications of the developed solutions;
• include a task in the project on the development of models enabled by digital innovation, including based on artificial intelligence, for the optimization of remediation approaches, also in case of emergency facing disaster sand extreme climate and environmental events like fires, droughts, floods, etc.;
• identify and assess the economic, social and safety risks and benefits of the remediation activities in the selected case-studies, in particular in terms of circular economy and of the reduction of the risks for human health resulting from exposure to the contaminants (e.g., vulnerable populations, integrating the gender dimension). The risk reduction should take into consideration the bioavailability and mobility of the contaminants, including heavy metals, other metals (e.g., the ones used in electronic devices, Li, REE, etc.), plastics and organic chemicals (i.e., PFAS, PAHs, pesticides, etc.);
• include a task in the project to deliver the overall environmental, economic, social and safety risk assessment for the developed integrated bio-based and nature-based solutions.

Integrating Citizen Science in research approach is encouraged to contribute to the selection and analysis of case-studies of degraded ecosystems. This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines, including citizen social science approach and gender studies, especially for the risk assessment on human health.