Fostering animal breeding and genetics for climate change adaptation and mitigation, improved robustness and resilience
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
Breeding and genetic improvements are some of the tools that can help the livestock sector to increase the efficiency and sustainability of production, to adapt to changes in the environment (e.g. harsh climatic conditions, health risks, changes in feed quality or availability) and to contribute to reducing emissions.
By selecting specific traits that are important for adaptation and mitigation purposes and incorporating them into breeding programmes, farmers and breeders can contribute to more sustainable livestock systems.
Detailed Call Description
The aim is to optimise the selection of animals with genotypes that are best suited to thrive in different production systems and environmental conditions, with different diets and rumen/gut microbiota by incorporating adaptation and mitigation objectives into breeding and sustainable management decisions.
Proposals should address all the following activities and should cover various terrestrial livestock farming systems/approaches, one of which should be organic farming:
- identify new traits, including proxy indicators from -omic or meta-omic data, that consider genotype-environment interactions on the whole animal lifespans to renew breeding goal, i.e. desirable traits for lower greenhouse gas emissions and other climate-change related challenges, validate and integrate them into indexes used to benchmark farm performance;
- develop tools/systems/methods to measure genotype-environment interaction and traits of interest, predicting the breeding value at animal and population levels in diverse farming conditions, while maintaining genetic diversity;
- demonstrate in an operational environment breeding programs and management practices for improving robustness, lifetime efficiency and resilience, including the contribution of livestock to climate change mitigation efforts and the adaptation to climate change conditions (TRL 7) while considering trade-offs including with animal health and welfare and demonstrating gender-responsive strategies where relevant;
- analyse the cost effectiveness of the identified breeding programmes and assess private and/or public incentives or rewarding schemes for the use of certain mitigation-related traits currently used in some European regions or countries, with their advantages, limits, and ways to overcome them.
Proposals must implement the ‘multi-actor approach’ and ensure adequate involvement of the main stakeholders involved in livestock breeding in Europe, including farmers, breeders, advisors, private sector/industry, and policy-makers.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
Expected EU contribution per project: €6.00 million
Thematic Categories
- Agriculture - Farming - Forestry
- Environment and Climate Change
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Rural development
Eligibility for Participation
- Businesses
- Farmers, Agriculturalists
- Legal Entities
- NGOs
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Services Providers
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
The proposals must apply the multi-actor approach. See definition of the multi-actor approach in the introduction to this work programme part.
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 Persons:
Marcia Trillidou
Scientific Officer A’
Email: trillidou@research.org.cy
Dr. Mary Economou
Scientific Officer
Email: meconomou@research.org.cy