Towards more effective, fair and coherent policies for climate change mitigation and adaptation in agriculture and forestry

Opened

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-CL6-2026-02-CLIMATE-01

Call

Towards more effective, fair and coherent policies for climate change mitigation and adaptation in agriculture and forestry

Summary

Agriculture and forestry are among the sectors most directly impacted by climate change, while also playing important roles in its mitigation, through greenhouse gas emissions, their reduction and carbon removals from the atmosphere. These roles are addressed in horizontal EU climate policies such as the Regulations on Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF)  and on Effort-sharing or the forthcoming Climate Adaptation Plan, as well as in sectoral policies, most notably the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with a host of relevant rules and voluntary measures.

The climate performance in agriculture and forestry is indirectly also affected by many other policies and measures, be they sectoral (e.g., on market organisation or on income support) or horizontal (e.g., on competitiveness). Depending on their design and application, climate policies in turn also have impacts beyond their immediate objectives, e.g. on competitiveness, income distribution, and biodiversity and nature protection. Apart from policies applicable in the EU and its Member States and in Associated Countries, the outcomes in each of these jurisdictions are also impacted by rules and standards applied in other parts of the world, through international markets and other transboundary effects.

Detailed Call Description

While efforts are made in some contexts to expand the scope of regular policy evaluations, so that they also include “external factors” and unintended consequences, this poses significant challenges methodologically and in terms of data and thus often remains an afterthought in analyses focused on individual policies or sectors. There is a need for more aggregate consideration of the full spectrum of levers impacting on climate outcomes, in a comparative and systemic perspective, with a view to improving the overall effectiveness, fairness and coherence of public policies.

Proposals should:

  • making use inter alia of advanced technological potentials for accelerated evidence synthesis, take stock of existing analyses and evidence on the performance of sectoral and horizontal instruments affecting climate-change mitigation and adaptation in the agricultural and forestry sectors, also in terms of the distribution of costs and benefits within and across sectors and societies;
  • design and carry out research to fill gaps in the understanding of the above questions, covering a broad range of policy instruments across relevant outcomes and include compound effects on other policy objectives as well as spill-overs from climate-relevant policies with a different (primary) objective, including biodiversity and nature protection;
  • for the agricultural and forestry sectors address adaptation as well as mitigation-related policies and outcomes and assess how (and with how much success) their interconnections have been reflected in relevant policies and institutions, identifying relevant enabling conditions;
  • develop frameworks for assessing overall policy outcomes across potentially conflicting objectives and identify specific leverage points for realistically improving aggregate outcomes, taking into account any existing review processes or mechanisms.

This topic should involve the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines. Proposals are encouraged to consider, where relevant, the data, expertise and services offered by European research infrastructures in the environmental, biological and food domains.

Call Total Budget

€6.000.000

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
  • Agriculture - Food
  • Environment and Climate Change
  • Research, Technological Development and Innovation
  • Rural development
  • Social Affairs & Human Rights

Eligibility for Participation

  • Associations
  • Businesses
  • Central Government
  • Consumer Organisations
  • Educational Institutions
  • Farmers, Agriculturalists
  • Local Authorities
  • Natual person / Citizen / Individual
  • NGOs
  • Non Profit Organisations
  • Other Beneficiaries
  • Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
  • Services Providers
  • 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

14/01/2026

Call Closing Date

14/04/2026

National Contact Point(s)

Research and Innovation Foundation

29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia,
P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Emailsupport@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/

Contact Person:
Marcia Trillidou
Scientific Officer A’
Email: trillidou@research.org.cy