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
The success of carbon farming in Europe will be judged on the quantity and quality of the sequestration of carbon in plants and soils and the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural soils, as well as on the benefits for sustainability objectives (notably biodiversity) of the activities leading to such carbon sequestration or emission reductions, in a context of increasing impacts from climate change.
To upscale carbon farming successfully and to establish long-term business perspectives, it is essential to standardise the methodologies and rules for monitoring, reporting and verifying (MRV) the gains or losses in carbon sequestered.
Currently, private schemes apply very different benchmarks and rules to the carbon credits placed on the voluntary markets. With a high degree of transparency, environmental integrity, and methodology standardisation, buyers should have more trust in the quality of the offered carbon farming credits, land managers should also be able to more easily estimate their potential revenues, and policy makers should be keener to allow the use of such credits to warrant compliance with the EU climate regulatory framework, including currently existing 2030 targets (Effort-Sharing Regulation, Regulation on land use, land use change and forestry – LULUCF) and the 2050 climate neutrality goal. Therefore, such a regulated framework should contribute to develop a successful market for carbon farming.
Detailed Call Description
Proposed activities should:
- Coordinate the continuation and expansion of the existing network of key stakeholders drawn from European research facilities, systems developers, solution providers, administrations, farm advisors and managers and others, involved in soils programmes linked to carbon sequestration and emission reductions, in particular at the landscape scale.
- Support the work of the Expert Group on carbon removals by providing concrete, operational and solution-oriented recommendations, based on best practice and identifying the actors (European/national/regional authorities, certification bodies, land managers, etc.) which should implement each specific recommendation.
- Continue developing a platform for networking, knowledge sharing, exchange of experiences, mutual learning, best practices and support to facilitate the development (design, implementation and evaluation) of result-based schemes for carbon farming and the reduction of emissions from agricultural soils and livestock.
- Underpin the expansion of data collection networks (such as carbon flux measurements stations, ground sampling campaigns, etc.), continuing to promote the practice of data sharing and standardisation, retrieval and aggregation of information.
- Identify gaps and opportunities at the landscape level in ecosystem monitoring and soil carbon flux mitigation practices, leveraging EU level geographically-explicit monitoring systems and solutions.
- Support and establish pathways to improve national GHG inventories with the data received from projects (e.g. carbon farming).
- Propose and adopt strategies to ensure that the above-mentioned activities are self-sustainable at the end of the project.
Proposals should cover carbon removals and GHG emission reductions (e.g. due to fertilisers) in all relevant LULUCF categories, including at least croplands and grasslands under various farming systems management / approaches (e.g. agroforestry, agroecology, organic farming), and forest land categories, regardless of their accountability in either the Agriculture or LULUCF sectors of the GHG inventories. Activities must contribute to supporting the knowledge base for addressing emissions from livestock through inter alia improved farm management and stocking densities. A systemic approach considering both removals and emission reductions by implementing whole-farm management approaches, including livestock, would be desirable. Proposals should aim to cover emissions reductions in the different nutrient and mass-flow chains (e.g. crop, feed, stable, biogas plant, fertilisers, root and crop residues, biogas, root uptake of nutrients, humus reproduction, etc.) as well as value creation chains (including processes, business options, carbon storage and multifunctional ecologic aspects).
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
Expected EU contribution per project: €3.00 million.
Thematic Categories
- Environment and Climate Change
- Regional Development
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
Eligibility for Participation
- Associations
- Central Government
- Educational Institutions
- Legal Entities
- NGOs
- Other Beneficiaries
- Producer Associations
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
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
Address: 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:
Mr. Christakis Theocharous
Scientific Officer A’
Email: ctheocharous@research.org.cy
Mr. George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy