Programme Category
Programme Name
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The primary aim of this call is to support additional measurements providing long-term data on forest functioning and forest disturbance impacts to better understand the impact of climate change on various time scales and to be able to link ground-based information to remotely sensed data. To achieve this aim, supported projects must address the following points:
- provide temporally resolved ecosystem-level information on the effects of climatic drivers on forest structure and function in near real-time.
- better link the ground-based monitoring information to satellite imagery for European forest monitoring
Detailed Call Description
FORWARDS is a Horizon Europe project that will prototype the ForestWard Observatory, a pan-European monitoring and evaluation tool that will help in demonstrating the impact of climate change on forests, and guiding decision-making for practical forest management. As part of its activities, FORWARDS will establish a network of pilot monitoring plots/sites to assess the long-term impact of climate change on forest ecosystems. These pilot plots/sites need to be linked to existing forest monitoring networks and provide spatial representativeness.
The aim of the call follows the concept of ” linking methods” where a handful of standardized methods for meteorological as well as soil- and tree-related parameters provide a data framework along which site-specific measurements can be scaled.
The projects supported by these grants are encouraged to follow methods to provide information with novel and improved measurements and sensors on the following focus topics:
- High temporally resolved information on forest disturbances and status related to climate change based on complementary ground-based sensors for Stress nowcasting (soil moisture status and tree ecophysiological responses)
- Validation and scaling of forest functional variables from the leaf to the tree-, plot- and landscapelevel to link plot-level information and remote sensing products (Link ground based to remote sensing information)
- Increased information on the carbon sequestration potential of forests (Carbon storage and stand structural information).
Either all three focus topics might be covered in one project or more focused approaches can be conducted: It is possible to only cover focus topic 1 in a proposal but topics 2 and 3 (as they provide the full suite of functional and structural forest information that is needed to link ground-based information with remote sensing) need to be combined in a proposal. Combinations of focus topics are possible.
Data and results from the supported projects and activities must be made available open access either in a close-to-real time frame for stress nowcasting (Focus Topic 1; and the way how this will be possible is described below) or for other activities (Focus Topics 2 and 3) latest upon completion of the project, and feed into the ForestWard Observatory that is being developed by the FORWARDS project.
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
The maximum grant value is €145 000.
It is expected that around 5 projects will be funded under this call.
Thematic Categories
- Agriculture - Farming - Forestry
- Environment and Climate Change
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
Eligibility for Participation
- International Organisations
- Legal Entities
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
Applications can be submitted by one legal entity or a consortium of legal entities. Applicants must, meet the following criteria in order to be eligible for the grant:
- Applicant is a legal entity (legal person). If the application is submitted by a consortium (grouping of legal persons represented by a coordinator), this criterion applies to all the participants. This call is not open for applications from natural persons.
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Applicant eligible for funding under the European Union Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme. If the application is submitted by a consortium, this criterion applies to all the participants.
Applications must indicate the European and biogeographic region(s) that is targeted by the project. European regions (North Europe, Central-West Europe, Central-East Europe, South-West Europe and SouthEast Europe) follow country groups as defined by Forest Europe in its State of Europe’s Forests reports.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
EU Contact Point
All applicants may contact to ask questions and clarify any points on general or technical procedures and call content by sending an email message to forwards@efi.int.