Harnessing the multifunctional potential of soil biodiversity for healthy cropping systems

Closed

Code: 34057 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-06 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Below ground biodiversity plays a major role in soil structure, nutrient supply, water cycling, nutrient uptake by plants, and in the biocontrol of plant pests and diseases. The interactions between communities of soil organisms, crops and their environment (holobiont) profoundly influence crop, soil and agroecosystem health and productivity. Notably, the interplay between soil fauna, soil microbial community, soil chemistry, and plant immune responses can be enhanced to harness the potential of soil ecosystem to defend against pathogens, pests and other detrimental organisms and to promote plant health and productivity. By managing soil ecosystems to enhance soil health through farming practices (e.g., crop rotation, use of microbiome solutions, etc.), it is possible to support plant defences, suppress diseases, improve nutrient availability and enhance plant resilience to various stressors. In addition, agricultural sustainability will be increased and contribute to climate change mitigation.

There is a need to develop, test and deploy management practices that, by enhancing soil health, will facilitate, for instance, the management of soil-borne plant pests and diseases (e.g., bacteria, fungi, nematodes, root-feeding insects), and support ground nesting pollinators.

Soil health, pollinators and key ecosystem functions

Closed

Code: 34053 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-05 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Pollination is a key ecosystem service for crops and food production. Therefore, a specific focus on pollinating insects is required. Many solitary wasps and 70% of wild bees nest below ground and require protection during this crucial period of their lifecycle.

Projects results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Improved knowledge and understanding of the biology and ecology of insect species spending part of their life cycle on or in the soil, with specific focus on ground-nesting pollinators.
• Better understanding of the major causes of the decline of these insects and the synergistic effects of various threats, including the quantitative and qualitative aspects related to the magnitude of their decline.
• More effective measures to tackle the loss of soil-dependent insects.

Systems to quantify nitrogen fluxes and uncertainties in European landscapes

Closed

Code: 34050 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-04 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Soil-derived gaseous nitrogen emissions from agriculture are often overlooked due to challenges in monitoring. A comprehensive assessment of both gaseous and non-gaseous nitrogen losses, including their geographical distribution and varying temporal resolution, is essential to inform effective greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategies and encourage the adoption of higher Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tiers at the national level.

Nitrogen losses are highly episodic, and the current temporal and spatial resolution of information regarding nitrogen dynamics across Europe is insufficient for a comprehensive estimation of the full nitrogen budget at a continental scale. The most commonly used methodology for measuring N-flux involves discontinuous flux measurements accompanied by standard gap-filling methods, which lead to large uncertainties and biased emission factors. Additionally, most existing observations focus on temperate zones and single flux exit pathways, neglecting the full spectrum of nitrogen forms, including both gaseous and non-gaseous forms across different climatic conditions. Data and observations are particularly lacking in the Mediterranean basin and some nitrogen transformation pathways are not well investigated. To address these gaps, accurate information must be acquired, which will facilitate the development of effective management strategies that effectively minimise total nitrogen losses from soil. Additionally, this information will improve the parameterization and validation of models and increase the confidence of model predictions when scaled to the continental level. This will ultimately lead to a more refined and accurate estimation of nitrogen surplus, enrich existing dashboard estimates, and further support the evaluation of the effectiveness of management strategies, and guide future research and policy decisions related to mitigation efforts.

Towards a dynamic monitoring system to assess status and spatiotemporal changes of soil erosion at European scale

Closed

Code: 34048 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-03 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Current EU/European estimates on soil loss by water and wind erosion are long-term averages performed with empirical models, which, in agricultural areas, are subject to huge uncertainties. Improved estimates would contribute to developing a process-based model, which can incorporate management practices and their potential for reducing soil loss by water, and wind erosion in agricultural fields and facilitate the adoption of the best practices. Other processes such as tillage erosion or gullies can also be considered.
Existing partially explicit parcel data (e.g., LPIS-GSA), data from the EU Land use and land cover survey (LUCAS) and the latest updates from the COPERNICUS platform could/should be used to improve current pan-European modelling frameworks.

Living Labs in urban areas for healthy soils

Closed

Code: 34046 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Urbanization is a challenge for soil health, due to construction and infrastructure development that entails, among other, land take, soil sealing, contamination or compaction. Against this background and by working together on common challenges, actors in living labs in urban areas will be able to replicate actions and solutions, compare results, exchange good practices, validate methodologies, benefit from cross-fertilisation, and connect with their local/regional ecosystem.

Co-creating solutions for soil health in Living Labs

Closed

Code: 34044 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

The Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ proposes a novel approach to research and innovation in the area of soil health, including the implementation of living labs.

For the purpose of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, soil health living labs are defined as “user-centred, place-based and transdisciplinary research and innovation ecosystems, which involve land managers, scientists and other relevant partners in systemic research and co-design, testing, monitoring and evaluation of solutions, in real-life settings, to improve their effectiveness for soil health and accelerate adoption”.

Living labs are thus collaborations between multiple actors that operate and undertake experiments on several sites at regional or sub-regional level. Individual sites could be, e.g., farms, forest stands, urban green or industrial areas, enterprises and other locations, where the work is carried out and monitored under real-life conditions.

Lighthouses, in contrast, are defined as “places for demonstration of solutions, training and communication that are exemplary in their performance in terms of soil health improvement”. They are individual, local sites (one farm, one forest exploitation, one industrial site, one urban city green area, etc.) that either can be part of a living lab or be situated outside a living lab.

According to the Mission Implementation Plan, living labs involve actors from different backgrounds, disciplines and/or sectors and are composed of 10 to 20 experimental sites. However, depending on the specific context (e.g., the land use(s), the soil health challenge(s) addressed), applicants can propose living labs with fewer experimental sites.

Size & weight reduction of cell and packaging of batteries system, integrating lightweight and functional materials, innovative thermal management and safe and sustainable by design approach (Batt4EU Partnership)

Closed

Code: 34042 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-CL5-2024-D2-02-03 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Climate, Energy and Mobility (Cluster 5)(2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 07/05/2024 | End submission calls: 05/09/2024

This topic focuses on delivering a safe and sustainable by design approach for batteries reduced in size and weight which will deliver the performance necessary for mobile applications. The objective is to ruggedise energy storage packs by enlarging the environmental and operational conditions in which they can operate, while maintaining a high level of performance and achieving a reduction in the size and weight of the battery pack.

Post-Li-ion technologies and relevant manufacturing techniques for mobility applications (Generation 5) (Batt4EU Partnership)

Closed

Code: 34039 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-CL5-2024-D2-02-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Climate, Energy and Mobility (Cluster 5)(2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 07/05/2024 | End submission calls: 05/09/2024

This topic aims at developing:

• Generation 5 technologies for mobility applications.
• Relevant manufacturing techniques which are affecting performance, safety and costs.
• Cell designs which will allow for full and easy recyclability at the end of their life.

This topic also aims at evaluating the possible manufacturing compatibility with existing lithium-ion production infrastructure.
Proposals should address improvements in sustainable materials designs to reach the manufacturability and high safety of the selected Generation 5 technology for mobility applications.

Sustainable high-throughput production processes for stable lithium metal anodes for next generation batteries (Batt4EU Partnership)

Closed

Code: 34037 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-CL5-2024-D2-02-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Climate, Energy and Mobility (Cluster 5)(2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 07/05/2024 | End submission calls: 05/09/2024

As Li metal anodes will be needed for the Gen 4b, Gen 4c and Gen 5 batteries, It is important to create a European production chain for their manufacturing, in order to guarantee secure supply chains for the next generation battery producers with a focus on high performance and recyclability for Gen 4b, Gen4c or Gen5 cells.
Therefore this topic is focused on sustainable high-throughput production processes for stable lithium metal anodes for next generation batteries.

EU Member States/Associated countries research policy cooperation network to accelerate zero-emission road mobility (2ZERO Partnership)

Closed

Code: 34034 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-CL5-2024-D6-01-13 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Climate, Energy and Mobility (Cluster 5)(2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 07/05/2024 | End submission calls: 05/09/2024

This topic focuses on the EU Member States/Associated countries research policy cooperation network, to accelerate zero-emission road mobility.

A framework for cooperation will enhance the efforts to achieve this pan-European challenge by joining forces, sharing knowledge, bundling financial resources and coordinating activities, creating complementarities, coherence and building synergies across the EU (e.g. 2ZERO partnership) and EU Member States (MS) and Associated Countries (AC)´s R&I funding programmes, national plans, efforts, approaches and in collaboration with the Associated Countries.

A new framework to improve traffic safety culture in the EU

Closed

Code: 34031 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-CL5-2024-D6-01-12 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Climate, Energy and Mobility (Cluster 5)(2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 07/05/2024 | End submission calls: 05/09/2024

A Safe System entails the understanding and managing of all elements of the transport system, including the behaviour and interplay of its actors. Comparative analysis shows persistent differences in road safety performances between EU Member States/Associated countries. These differences may be attributable to differences in culture, which are hard to explain with classical risk models. Efforts should therefore be made to complement road safety initiatives by a safety culture perspective, i.e., the values, beliefs, priorities and viewpoints shared among groups of road users and stakeholders that influence their decisions to behave or act in ways that affect safety, while also considering energy consumption.

Assessing road safety cultures in different national, regional or local systems, groups and organisations is believed to help understanding and explaining different patterns of risk perception and risk taking across communities and countries – and can likewise inform tailored interventions for these (sub-)cultures, which all come with their specific norms, values, beliefs and behaviours (including gender-related behavioural patterns). These interventions should address all relevant actors in the system for road transport of people and goods, and consider future developments, such as potential impacts by increasing automation levels or by the introduction of new means of road transport such as e-scooters and hoverboards.

Effects of disruptive changes in transport: towards resilient, safe and energy efficient mobility

Closed

Code: 34029 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-CL5-2024-D6-01-11 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: Climate, Energy and Mobility (Cluster 5)(2021-2027) | Start submission calls: 07/05/2024 | End submission calls: 05/09/2024

The importance of a robust transport systems becomes highly evident in times of rapid, changes that are neither planned, scheduled nor predicted. The COVID-19 pandemic has pointed at several issues (e.g. delivery of essential goods, ensuring uninterrupted and safe public transport operations for essential workers etc.) that need to be addressed to secure future resilience of the transport system and to ensure that the level of transport safety is not only maintained, but also meeting more demanding targets. For instance, the decreased use of public transport during the pandemic has to some extent led to increases in both biking and walking, but also an increased use of cars in some parts of the world. At the same time, decreased traveling has meant fewer vehicles on the roads in certain areas, whereas others have seen an increase of delivery vehicles, as home deliveries have surged. Likewise, the current energy market realities have made even more pressing the need of an energy efficient mobility system that could absorb disruptions in the fuel supply chain.

Digital tools/services and new transport means (e.g. urban air mobility and micro mobility), new ways how to use the infrastructure (e.g. even more shared spaces with different types of vehicles, both highly automated and manually controlled) in a more energy efficient manner and new behaviour should be included in the research.