Development of high-resolution Earth system models for global and regional climate change projections
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-CL5-2022-D1-02-02
- Programme
- Climate sciences and responses
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- October 12, 2021
- Deadline
- February 10, 2022
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €15,000,000
- Keywords
- Climatic researchAfricaForesightInternational CooperationArtificial IntelligenceDigital AgendaEOSC and FAIR dataOcean sustainability and blue economy
Description
Proposals should improve European high-resolution, fully coupled atmosphere-ocean-land Earth System Models, able to robustly simulate key climate processes, their variability and future trends for this and well into the next century in order to enhance the quality, robustness and versatility of climate projections on a range of temporal and spatial scales (global and regional) to (1) support policies implementing the goals of the Paris Agreement and (2) address the societal need to assess and respond to the adverse impacts of climate change.
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Improved climate projections with sound uncertainty estimates under different scenarios on different temporal and spatial scales.
- Improved understanding and modelling of tipping points in the climatic systems, such as the ice shields at both poles and ocean circulation.
- Advances in attribution of climate change and its phenomena to anthropogenic forcers.
- Support to the evaluation of mitigation, adaptation and disaster risk reduction policies through improved linkages with Integrated Assessment Models.
- Pave the way for the next cycle of the IPCC Assessment reports by a leading role in the WCRP Coupled Model Intercomparison Programme (CMIP).
- Sustain and enhance European cooperation and leadership in climate sciences.
Projects should foster a fully coupled atmosphere-ocean-land-ice Earth-system model approach that contributes to a better understanding and representation of the processes, including for that drive and influence climate change on global and regional scale. Arctic and Antarctic regions should be considered as key elements in global climate changes.
Projects should make efficient use of available and high quality observational data (e.g. space-based and not space based, including in-situ and paleoclimatic data) for the development of robust model validation, verification, and improve uncertainty estimation methodologies.
Where relevant, high-resolution model development and evaluation should be properly connected with major programmes in the domain of Earth Observation such as the Copernicus Programme, the ESA science satellite missions in Europe, as well as the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) at global level.
They should also strive to reduce uncertainty of key parameters of climate and hydrological systems. Projects should advance methods for assessing and attributing model outputs and climate change impact on regional scales with the support of advanced digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence methodologies.
The advanced climate modelling activities should support the attribution of observed and projected climatic hazards to climate change or climate variability.
The activities should build on the experiences from and results of other European projects contributing to the development of a new generation of climate models[1].
Beneficiaries are encouraged to take advantage of the emerging ICT infrastructures (e.g. EuroHPC and other high performance computing, cloud-based facilities) that will be made available through the Destination Earth initiative under the Digital Europe Programme[2].
If adding value to the project outcomes, coordination with the Destination Earth initiative can be proposed to ensure the timely development of “climate replicas” building on the new state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, including access to European high performance computing resources and an operational platform to upload and integrate the models and data developed in the course of the projects. Connection to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) should be considered where relevant.
When dealing with models, actions should promote the highest standards of transparency and openness, as much as possible going well beyond documentation and extending to aspects such as assumptions, code and data that is managed in compliance with the FAIR principles[3]. In particular, beneficiaries are strongly encouraged to publish results data in open access databases and/or as annexes to publications. In addition, full openness of any new modules, models or tools developed from scratch or substantially improved with the use of EU funding is expected.
International cooperation is encouraged.
Projects are expected to co-operate with other projects funded under this call, as well as other relevant projects under Destination 1 and Cluster 6, Destination 5.
Cross-cutting Priorities:Ocean sustainability and blue economy
International Cooperation
EOSC and FAIR data
Foresight
Africa
[1]E.g., H2020 CRESCENDO (Coordinated Research in Earth Systems and Climate: Experiments, kNowledge, Dissemination and Outreach) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/641816 , H2020 PRIMAVERA (PRocess-based climate sIMulation: AdVances in high resolution modelling and European climate Risk Assessment) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/641727, or projects funded from the call topic H2020-LC-CLA-18-2020.
[2]https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/europe-investing-digital-digital-europe-programme
[3]FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Further information: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/; and Final Report and Action Plan from the European Commission Expert Group on FAIR Data, “TURNING FAIR INTO REALITY” (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/turning_fair_into_reality_0.pdf)
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
1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes
The page limit of the application is 60 pages.
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System
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 eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
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).
Due to the scope of this topic, legal entities established in all member states of the African Union are exceptionally eligible for Union funding.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes
5. Evaluation and award:
- 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
Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional obligations regarding open science practices:
- Open access to any new modules, models or tools, which are developed from scratch or substantially improved with the use of EU funding under the action must be ensured through documentation, availability of model code and input data developed under the action.
Specific conditions
7. Specific conditions: if any, they are included in the description of the specific topic of the Work Programme
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
The standard application form can be found in the link below, but be cautious that for this Call topic, the limit of 60 pages applies
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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