Regional nitrogen and phosphorus load reduction approach within safe ecological boundaries

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Programme Category

EU Competitive Programmes

Programme Name

Horizon Europe (2021-2027)

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.

Programme Details

Identifier Code

HORIZON-CL6-2021-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-01

Call

Regional nitrogen and phosphorus load reduction approach within safe ecological boundaries

Summary

The scope of the topic is to develop a regional/river basin approach. The topic is targeted to stakeholders from regions/river basins or clusters of regions/river basins: local agencies of environmental protection, local administrators, scientists and experts in environmental impacts models. A cluster may be formed by two or more regions/river basins, in the EU and Associated Countries, with very similar characteristics in terms of territorial conditions or being neighbouring regions/river basins.

Detailed Call Description

Proposals will:

  1. Develop a robust and transparent methodology to identify safe ecological limit values (e.g. concentration in media) of N/P applicable at regional scale to ensure good status for ecosystems in air/water/soil, inside and outside the local scale and apply the methodology to regions/river basins of the consortium. The local territorial specificity will be taken into account, in terms of territorial extension, land use, orography, distribution of basins and fresh water bodies, coastline, lagoons, etc.  Indicators of N/P limit values should align to the monitoring capacity of N/P patterns in the environment.
  2. Review scientific knowledge of the contribution of N/P flows to climate change, including their impacts on carbon sink capacity of soils, of any other impact of N/P life cycle in the environment, of short-term and long-term dynamics of P in the soil matrix and its regional variation across the EU;
  3. Develop and/or improve an existing methodology to assess N/P emissions (flows) from all economic activities that may exist in the region/river basin (i.e. agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, industrial sectors, including food/drink sector, water supply, water/waste management, bioenergy, fossil-based energy production, mining activities, transport, etc.) including unintentional losses and their impacts on air/water/soil environmental quality. Data from existing initiatives, consolidated reporting from national authorities, elaboration from EEA, Eionet, ESTAT, etc. and existing modelling capacity, either locally available or based on a twinning process across regions/clusters shall be considered in order to facilitate harmonisation of the approaches;
  4. Develop and/or improve an existing methodology to identify the N/P load reduction targets for all regions/river basins of the consortium to stay within local N/P limit values;
  5. Apply existing/develop new methodologies to model pathways to reduce N/P emissions to meet load reduction targets and at the same time prevent pollution in air, water and soil, contribute to climate change mitigation, protect biodiversity and avoid pollution swapping. Pathways may include but are not limited to: i) integrated land/marine and bioeconomy; ii) limiting livestock stocking density; iii) integrated agricultural practices, including agro-ecology, aiming at limiting N/P flows and any other environmental impacts; iv) nature-based solutions; v) integrated industrial innovation towards circularity, industrial symbiosis and innovative resources use to improve efficiency and reduce N/P emissions from industrial sectors and any other environmental impact;
  6. Identify inter-sectorial governance models and design policy implementation tools at regional level.

Call Total Budget

€ 6,00 million

Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan

100%

EU contribution per project: €2,00 million

Thematic Categories

  • Environment and Climate Change
  • Fisheries/ Aquaculture and Maritime Policy
  • Industry
  • Research, Technological Development and Innovation
  • Rural development

Eligibility for Participation

  • Central Government
  • Local Authorities
  • Other Beneficiaries
  • Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions

Eligibility For Participation Notes

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.

Call Opening Date

22/06/2021

Call Closing Date

06/10/2021

National Contact Point(s)

Research and Innovation Foundation
29a Andrea Michalakopoulou Street, 1075 Nicosia
T.Th. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
+357 22205000
Email: support@research.org.cy

George Christou
Contact Phone: 22 205 030
E-mail: gchristou@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/

Charalambos Papatryfonos
Contact Phone: 22 205 016
E-mail: cpapatryfonos@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/

(Publish Date: 17/09/2021-for internal use only)

EU Contact Point

European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/research-and-innovation_en#contact