Open topic on citizen and regional and/or local authorities' engagement in enhanced disaster risk awareness, including education, and preparedness
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-DRS-01
- Programme
- Civil Security for Society
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- June 12, 2025
- Deadline
- November 12, 2025
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €6,000,000
- Min Grant Amount
- €6,000,000
- Max Grant Amount
- €6,000,000
- Expected Number of Grants
- 1
- Keywords
- HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-DRS-01HORIZON-CL3-2025-01Disaster resilience and crisis managementFirst respondersIncident ResponsePolicy and SupportSecurity
Description
Project results are expected to contribute to one or both of the following expected outcomes:
- Improved disaster preparedness, learning from past disasters or crises, and better sharing of knowledge on lessons learned and risk awareness to citizens and regional and/or local authorities, understanding what countermeasures were taken in previous incidents and exploring currently available products to improve future outcomes;
- Reinforced dialogue and cooperation among scientific and technical communities, stakeholders, policy-makers and regional and/or local communities in disaster risk reduction for an enhanced uptake of research outputs.
Societal resilience and preparedness to disasters are shaped by the way authorities and citizens exchange, access, understand, and react to information about hazards. As a result, anyone may become more vulnerable if barriers to these processes occur. Strengthening societal resilience to disasters, therefore, requires investment by authorities at operational, strategic, and policy levels to improve engagement with citizens and integrate inclusive communication processes. In order to achieve this, it is important to take into account the diversity of citizens, be it relating to age, gender, educational levels, disability, and other social characteristics.
The European Commission is developing and implementing an EU Preparedness Union Strategy following whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches. The EU’s disaster resilience goal No. 2 is “Prepare – Increasing risk awareness and preparedness of the population[1]. The proposals’ outcomes should especially work towards supporting these two policies and follow the recommendations of the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) to ensure a successful uptake to the end users. Proposals are invited to utilise the Special Eurobarometer on “Disaster risk awareness and preparedness of the EU population[2]" as evidence of needs.
Under the open topic, proposals are welcome to address new, upcoming or unforeseen challenges and/or creative or disruptive solutions and technology, including the use of AI, for improving disaster preparedness, risk awareness by citizens and regional and/or local authorities, and for reinforcing the cooperation among scientific / technical communities and policy-makers / regional and/or local authorities for an enhanced sharing of knowledge and uptake of research outputs. If they relate to some of the topics covered by Horizon Europe Calls Disaster-Resilient Society 2021-2022 or 2023-2024, the proposals should convincingly explain how they will build on and not duplicate them.
Proposals are expected to address one of the following options:
Option a: Tools and solutions to improve disaster preparedness and risk awareness by citizens and regional and/or local authorities;
Option b: Mechanism to enhance dialogue among research/academic communities, practitioners and regional and/or local authorities for sharing knowledge and effectively uptake research results.
Adapted to the nature, scope and type of proposed projects, proposals should convincingly explain how they will plan and/or carry out demonstration, testing or validation of developed tools and solutions. Furthermore, proposals should outline the plans to develop possible future uptake and upscaling at national and EU level for possible next steps once the project is finalised. Proposals should also consider, build on if appropriate and not duplicate previous research, including but not limited to research by other Framework Programmes’ projects. Coordination among the successful proposals from this topic should be envisaged in order to avoid duplication and to exploit complementarities as well as opportunities for increased impact.
Proposals funded under this topic are expected to engage with citizen organisations, regional and/or local authorities and practitioners (first and second responders/civil protection agencies/disaster management authorities), private sector operators during the lifetime of the project, including validating the outcomes, with the aim of facilitating future uptake of innovations for the Disaster Risk Reduction community.
This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of related research and innovation activities.
[1] (2023/C 56/01); COM (2023) 61 final.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
2. Eligible Countries
Described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
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. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
3. Other Eligible Conditions
The following exceptions apply: subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.
The following additional eligibility conditions apply:
This topic requires the active involvement, as beneficiaries, of at least 2 Regional and/or Local Authorities, at least 2 organisations representing citizens or regional and/or local communities[[A Citizen Organisation can be a Non-Governmental Organisation representing citizens interests in the area of civil protection and/or associations of volunteers.]] and 2 First responders or disaster management authorities[[As an example, contacts of national UCPM authorities are available here: https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/what/civil-protection/national-disaster-management-system_en]] from at least 3 different EU Member States or Associated Countries. For these participants, applicants must fill in the table “Information about security practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, following the template provided in the submission IT tool.
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 (other data and services may additionally be used).
Described in the Work Programme 2025 – 6. Civil Security for Society.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
Described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds
To ensure a balanced portfolio, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to one project that is the highest ranked within each of the two options given in the scope (Option a and Option b), provided that the applications attain all thresholds.
Described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.
5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes
Described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.
5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement
Described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].
Described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Specific conditions
described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]
Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA):
Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
Guidance
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Call-specific instructions
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 6. Civil Security for Society
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 14. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Support & Resources
Online Manual is your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant.
Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe.
Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management.
Research Enquiry Service – ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular.
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CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk – the European Standards Organisations advise you how to tackle standardisation in your project proposal.
The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment – consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers.
Partner Search help you find a partner organisation for your proposal.
Latest Updates
Guidance for applicants - Clarifications on the topic related additional eligibility conditions
General information:
With reference to the topic related additional eligibility conditions, please note that it is full responsibility of the applicants to explain and justify how each project beneficiary fulfil the additional eligibility conditions. We invite you to fill in the Annex “Information about security practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, by using the template provided in the submission IT tool.
Clarifications on the type of practitioners:
Regional and/or Local Authority: In the context of the Work Programme, a local or regional authority is typically an administrative body in charge of a small geographic area, such as a county, region, town, city or other similar community. It should be noted that a national authority can also be considered eligible as a local/regional authority if the proposal includes a local or regional department and this information is clearly indicated in the administrative section of the proposal (Part A) and in the annex describing the role of the practitioners and their involvement in the project (i.e. Annex - Information on security practitioners).
Organisations representing citizens or regional and/or local communities: In the context of the Work Programme, organisations representing citizens and local/regional communities are typically civil society organisations covering all forms of social actions typically carried out by individuals or groups who are neither connected to nor managed by state authorities. This type of organisation usually has a structure whereby members serve the general interest through a democratic process. The organisation often plays the role of mediator between public authorities and citizens.
Examples of such organisations include inter alia:
- social partners (end-users related trades unions and employers’ groups);
- non-governmental organisations (e.g. for health or environmental protection);
- grassroots organisations (e.g. youth and family groupings).
The organisation's area of focus must be relevant to the topic description and specific objectives.
First responders: In the context of the Work Programme, first responder organisations/agencies are entities specifically tasked with direct engagement in field operations (e.g. paramedics, emergency medical technicians, police officers, firefighters providing assistance at the scene of an emergency). Other entities such as professional associations, training centres, and foundations implementing activities to support and/or represent the needs of the first and second responders (e.g. organisation of training programmes for improving their skills and the wellbeing) are excluded.
Disaster management authority: In the context of the Work Programme, a disaster management authority is typically a competent authority designated by the EU Member States (or Associated Countries) in accordance with their national law that is responsible for the management of all kinds of natural and human-induced disasters to protect people, environment and property. Disaster management refers here to authorities responsible for preventing, preparing for and responding to natural and human-made disasters in the spirit of Decision No 1313/2013/EU.