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Closing Knowledge Gaps On Earth System Science In Support Of Global And Regional Assessments And Climate Policy

HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

Basic Information

Identifier
HORIZON-CL5-2026-08-Two-Stage-D1-06
Programme
CLIMATE
Programme Period
2021 - 2027
Status
Open (31094502)
Opening Date
December 18, 2025
Deadline
April 15, 2026
Deadline Model
two-stage
Budget
€45,000,000
Min Grant Amount
€5,000,000
Max Grant Amount
€9,000,000
Expected Number of Grants
7
Keywords
HORIZON-CL5-2026-08-Two-Stage-D1-06HORIZON-CL5-2026-08-Two-Stage

Description

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

  • Improved quality and reduced uncertainty of global and regional climate change projections;
  • Critical knowledge and data gaps in Earth system science as identified in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) and other authoritative sources, are addressed, ensuring that future climate assessments are grounded in the most comprehensive and up-to-date scientific evidence;
  • New climate science evidence is generated that is relevant for policy needs and for informing climate action.
Scope:

The global community’s ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change requires the continuous advancement of climate science and related disciplines. International climate policy is informed primarily by the assessments made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which provides the most comprehensive and authoritative evaluation of the state of knowledge on climate science, including the Earth’s climate system and its expected changes under different scenarios. Despite the exponential increase of available data, other evidence and knowledge accumulated on these issues, there remain significant gaps in our understanding of key issues and processes. These may include factors such as insufficient or divergent evidence, low confidence findings or high uncertainties. Some of these gaps are identified in AR6 (specifically, in Working Group I contribution), “The Next Frontier for Climate Change Science”[1] and other relevant sources. Moreover, science has progressed since the closing of the evidence base used for AR6, raising new questions and avenues for inquiry.

Proposals under this topic should seek to narrow the knowledge gaps in the realm of Earth system science (understood here as the scope of Working Group I of the IPCC), offering flexibility for applicants to define the specific research areas targeted. Proposals are expected to focus on issues clearly within the scope of Cluster 5, Destination 1, and not prominently addressed by other topics of the 2025 and 2026-2027 Work Programmes, encouraging new scientific insights and approaches, and the involvement of researchers and entities new to Horizon Europe. Successful proposals are expected to enhance the scientific foundations and inform scientific assessments in a way that ensures they are comprehensive, accurate, and relevant for decision-makers.

Proposals should clearly identify the knowledge gap(s) they seek to address, substantiate why recent and ongoing research efforts are unlikely to sufficiently address the issue, explain how the proposed action is expected to contribute to the advancement of Earth system science and identify policy relevance of the research proposed.

International cooperation in the context of IPCC, WCRP[2] and GCOS[3] is strongly encouraged where relevant.

Proposals indicating use of satellite remote sensing data and derived products are encouraged to collaborate with projects selected under ESA’s FutureEO programme and the EC-ESA Earth System Science Initiative (ESSI) to facilitate access to and uptake of satellite data products and related tools or methodologies. They should dedicate resources for collaborative actions.

[1] The next frontier for climate change science - Publications Office of the EU

[2] https://www.wcrp-climate.org/

[3] https://gcos.wmo.int/site/global-climate-observing-system-gcos

Destination & Scope

This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic OrientationsGreen transition’, ‘Digital transition’ and ‘A more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe’.

In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the “Advancing science for a transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society”.

Expected impacts:

Research should contribute to closing major knowledge gaps on the changing climate together with their associated impacts and risks, on both society and nature. It should also help develop tools to support decision-makers in designing and implementing effective mitigation and adaptation actions at various time and spatial scales while properly accounting for synergies and trade-offs with other policy objectives, such as just transition, territorial cohesion and leaving no one behind.

The main impacts to be generated by topics under this Destination are:

  1. Supporting climate action (both mitigation and adaptation) in Europe and globally, through advancing climate science and the knowledge base underpinning actionable solutions, to accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral, climate-resilient and prosperous society.
  2. Closing key knowledge gaps related to climate change, thereby contributing substantially to key European and international assessments such as IPCC, IPBES, EUCRA, and other initiatives such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) under the World Climate Research Programme.
  3. Strengthening the European Research Area on climate change by boosting scientific excellence and capacity in an inclusive manner across the participating countries.
  4. Maximising synergies between mitigation and adaptation and with other policy priorities such as biodiversity and ecosystem preservation and restoration, disaster-preparedness, digitalisation, circular economy, prosperity and competitiveness, strategic autonomy, security and resilience, just transition, and the Sustainable Development Goals by exploring co-benefits, trade-offs and potential unintended consequences of climate strategies and policy interventions.

Important components of climate science research are also addressed in other Clusters -particularly Cluster 6 – which addresses the climate-ocean-cryosphere-polar nexus and the climate-energy-land-food-water-biodiversity nexus. Efforts to foster synergies and complementarities across these research activities are strongly encouraged.

Eligibility & Conditions

General conditions

1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout

Applicants submitting a proposal for a blind evaluation (see General Annex F) must not disclose their organisation names, acronyms, logos nor names of personnel in the proposal abstract and Part B of their first-stage application (see General Annex E).

described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

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 Eligible Conditions

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 Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

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

The first-stage proposals of this topic will be evaluated blindly.

are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

are 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]

Frequently Asked Questions About Closing Knowledge Gaps On Earth System Science In Support Of Global And Regional Assessments And Climate Policy

CLIMATE (2021 - 2027).
Per-award range: €5,000,000–€9,000,000. Total programme budget: €45,000,000. Expected awards: 7.
Deadline: April 15, 2026. Deadline model: two-stage.
Eligible organisation types (inferred): SMEs, Research organisations.
Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout Applicants submitting a proposal for a blind evaluation (see General Annex F) must not disclose their organisation names, acronyms, logos nor names of personnel in the proposal abstract and Part B of their first-stage application (see General Annex E). described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
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 ]].
You can contact the organisers at [email protected].

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.

National Contact Points (NCPs) – get guidance, practical information and assistance on participation in Horizon Europe. There are also NCPs in many non-EU and non-associated countries (‘third-countries’).

Enterprise Europe Network – contact your EEN national contact for advice to businesses with special focus on SMEs. The support includes guidance on the EU research funding.

IT Helpdesk – contact the Funding & Tenders Portal IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc.

European IPR Helpdesk assists you on intellectual property issues.

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

Last Changed: December 18, 2025

14/.01/2026

Dear applicants,

For your information, since 13/01 we updated the template of Part B in the application submission environment of call HORIZON-CL5-2026-08-Two-Stage-D1-06, which during first stage will be subject to blind evaluations. The updated template of Part B, is the most suitable for 2-stage calls (RIA) evaluated blindly at 1st stage and includes the 'guidance for blind evaluations'. We kindly ask you to use this updated version of the Part B rtf template, and in case you started your application before 13/01 please replace the previous one with the one available now. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused to you.

Last Changed: December 17, 2025

the call opens on 18/12/2025

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