Restoration of natural wetlands, peatlands and floodplains as a strategy for fast mitigation benefits; pathways, trade-offs and co-benefits
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-08
- Programme
- Climate sciences and responses
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- June 23, 2021
- Deadline
- September 13, 2021
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €18,000,000
- Keywords
- Climatic research
Description
Project results are expected to contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:
- Support the EU Nature Restoration Plan of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.
- Improved assessment of the added value of wetland, peatland and floodplain restoration approaches under different scenarios and monitor their benefits and trade-offs in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, a wide range of ecosystem services and biodiversity.
- Improve the knowledge base on the status of European wetlands beyond the current state of the art on extent, location, condition, spatio-temporal trends, type of management and pressures (including climate change), as well as restoration potential to understand their capacity as carbon sinks or GHG sources to support climate mitigation and adaptation plans/solutions.
- Introduction of the quantified greenhouse gas abatement potential of wetland restoration in models and scenarios, for climate and biodiversity.
- Analyse the degree to which these approaches related to wetlands are affected by different scenarios of climate change (i.e. effectivity under global warming of 2°C and higher).
- Support the implementation of the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation with respect to the inclusion of wetland restoration activities by developing robust and transparent methodologies, data provision and analysis.
- Contribute to the evidence on ecosystem services provided by restored wetlands and their long-term management as an investment with significant net societal benefits.
- Contribute to scientific assessments such as the IPCC, IPBES and International Resource Panel reports.
Projects are expected to assess the current extent and state of European wetlands, their current and potential GHG profile (with or without protection/restoration measures) and their medium to long-term mitigation capacity through restoration or other measures. As a minimum, the assessment should take into account key greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4 and N2O), the carbon value of services (such as production) in the baseline (e.g., food production) and restoration scenarios (e.g., paludiculture or non-productive uses, like agritourism) and estimate the abatement cost for different policy-relevant time periods. Assessments should therefore look at assessing any trade-offs of restoring wetlands primarily for climate and biodiversity benefits with the delivery of their wide range of other services, and on methods to avoid, and if not possible, to mitigate them.
Projects are expected to develop or identify workable tools and approaches for the sound estimation of GHG performance as well as impacts on biodiversity and a wide range of ecosystem services. The GHG emission during restoration (e.g. due to disturbance of soils, dredging of sediments, methane from rewetting) should be considered, including trade-offs and benefits of passive restoration and following succession of water bodies. The evidence collected may contribute to the related policies, like LULUCF, and the implementation of the Biodiversity Strategy commitments.
Projects are expected to go beyond the state-of-the-art of the different restoration and management techniques and knowledge and provide guides and recommendations about the scaling up of the solutions. In particular, the projects should capitalise on the evidence provided by LIFE, Horizon 2020 and ERDF projects addressing wetland, floodplains and peatland restoration and protection.
Actions should envisage clustering activities with other relevant selected for cross-projects co-operation, consultations and joint activities on cross-cutting issues and share of results as well as participating in joint meetings and communication events. To this end, proposals should provide for a dedicated work package and/or task, and earmark the appropriate resources accordingly.
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 the related research activities.
Destination & Scope
Europe has been at the forefront of climate science and should retain its leadership position to support EU policies as well as international efforts for a global uptake of climate action in line with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including biodiversity objectives. Advancing climate science and further broadening and deepening the knowledge base is essential to inform the societal transition towards a climate neutral and climate resilient society by 2050, as well as towards a more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target by 2030. It will involve research that furthers our understanding of past, present and expected future changes in climate and its implications on ecosystems and society, closing knowledge gaps, and develops the tools that support policy coherence and the implementation of effective mitigation and adaptation solutions. Due to the inherent international character of this subject, international collaboration is encouraged for topics under this destination.
The activities implemented under this section will enable the transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society and economy through improving the knowledge of the Earth system and the ability to predict and project its changes under different natural and socio-economic drivers, including a better understanding of society’s response and behavioural changes, and allowing a better estimation of the impacts of climate change and the design and evaluation of solutions and pathways for climate change mitigation and adaptation and related social transformation.
This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientation C ”Making Europe the first digitally enabled circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy through the transformation of its mobility, energy, construction and production systems” and the impact area “Climate change mitigation and adaptation”.
In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the “Transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society and economy enabled through advanced climate science, pathways and responses to climate change (mitigation and adaptation) and behavioural transformations”, notably through:
- Advancing knowledge and providing solutions in the any of following areas: Earth system science; pathways to climate neutrality; climate change adaptation including climate services; social science for climate action; and better understanding of climate-ecosystems interactions.
- Contributing substantially to key international assessments such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the European Environment Agency (e.g. European environment state and outlook reports, SOER).
- Strengthening the European Research Area on climate change.
- Increasing the transparency, robustness, trustworthiness and practical usability of the knowledge base on climate change for use by policy makers, practitioners, other stakeholders and citizens.
Coordination and synergies between activities supported under Destination 1, as well as in other Destinations and Clusters, and in particular complementarities with Cluster 4 and Cluster 6 should be taken into account by planning for adequate resources for co-ordination and clustering activities. Following a systemic approach, Destination 1 concentrates on activities related to climate science and modelling, whereas Cluster 6 supports R&I in the areas covered by Cluster 6, notably on the implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
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.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes
- Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes
- Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
- 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: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes
Specific conditions
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is also available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
MGA - Model Grant Agreement
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 8. Climate, Energy and Mobility
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
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Latest Updates
The Call HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01 has closed on the 14 September 2021, 17:00:00 Brussels time.
67 proposals have been submitted.
The breakdown per topic is:
- HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-01: 6 proposals
- HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-02: 8 proposals
- HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-03: 6 proposals
- HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-04: 3 proposals
- HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-05: 16 proposals
- HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-06: 1 proposal
- HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-07: 11 proposals
- HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-08: 8 proposals
- HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-09: 8 proposals
Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in January 2022.