Consumer-focused labelling options for bio-based products
HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-04
- Programme
- Innovative governance, environmental observations and digital solutions in support of the Green Deal
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- October 28, 2021
- Deadline
- March 10, 2022
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €23,000,000
- Keywords
- Marketing managementPublic participationSocial InnovationIndustrial biotechnologyCertification, Verification, Validation, TechnicalCommunication & MarketingPublic engagementCertification & StandardsConsumer productsSocial sciences and humanitiesEnvironmental certificationConsumer products and servicesPublic administrationDigital AgendaBio-based products (products that are manufacturedbusiness-to-consumerNGOfootprintinclusiveresponsibleB2C
Description
The successful proposal will support the deployment of business-to-consumers communication by producers and traders of bio-based products to enable responsible production and consumption in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal, the EU bioeconomy strategy and the European Climate Pact. Project outcomes will contribute to improve the sustainability performance and competitiveness in the bio-based systems and to the establishment of the innovative governance models notably to achieve better-informed decision-making processes, social engagement and innovation. Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Transparency of bio-based products and information to consumers and public authorities are provided through effective and robust business-to-consumers labelling on product traceability, quality, carbon footprint, biodiversity impacts and other environmental footprints.
- Consumers, industry and public bodies are enabled to switch towards socially and environmentally responsible behaviour within their choices in a transparent and inclusive way.
- Improved understanding of metrics on value generated per unit of biological resources.
The project is expected to advance the role and impact of bio-based innovation to accelerate the transition from a linear fossil-based economy, which leads to overuse and depletion of natural resources, into resource-efficient and circular bio-based systems operating within safe planetary boundaries. Improved and informed governance and social innovation contribute to reducing resource consumption and result in an increased innovation capacity of all actors. Informed consumers may pursue the objectives of circular economy, asking for efficiency and inclusiveness of services provided through less resources and goods, changing consumption patterns (e.g. reducing meat consumption), preventing food waste and separating bio-waste from other waste streams so that it can be (partly) converted to bio-based materials.
Proposals will focus on consumer-oriented labelling options for industrial bio-based products with low environmental footprint, in terms of resources, processes and materials used. Industrial bio-based products do not include food/feed, biofuels, bioenergy and cultural/recreation sectors. However, relevant initiatives in the field of consumer-focussed labelling of sustainability of bio-based products, arising from EU policies in the bioeconomy sectors, should be taken into account.
Proposals should:
- Select a range of bio-based systems where value chains can be monitored in their environmental and social impacts (benefits and trade-offs) from the primary materials trade to the final products.
- Develop pre- and co-normative research to design or update standards and labels for business-to-consumers communication of climate-neutrality and environmental impacts/benefits/trade-offs and performances of materials and products. Environmental impacts should include carbon footprint, climate neutrality, biodiversity impacts and any other environmental footprint relevant for the specific bio-based value chain and final products. Metrics on value generated, in the final product, per unit of biological feedstock used, including bio-waste, will be assessed.
- Develop guidelines on the design of labels for bio- based products that include the perspectives of public authorities (national, regional, local) and consumers.
- Assess existing/develop new monitoring system and indicators of effectiveness and robustness of existing business-to-consumers labels and certification schemes.
- Demonstrate/test effectiveness of existing (voluntary) business-to-consumers labels and certification schemes and monitor robustness. This action includes the identification of labels and certification schemes and testing of the monitoring system and indicators assessed/developed.
- Assess costs and benefits from the adoption of business-to-consumers labels and certification schemes in selected bio-based systems.
- Assess and develop smart options for the consumers in the digital age (e.g. mobile applications) aiming at sound understanding and practical use in support of and complying with the current relevant legal framework.
- Analyse social measures to enable consumers to switch towards socially and environmentally responsible behaviour within their choices (e.g. regulatory measures, corporate responsibility initiatives, education), ensuring inclusiveness of all actors (NGOs, civil society etc) and taking into account differences between gender, age and socio-economic background.
The proposals should seek complementarities with related actions on bio-based innovation and market measures[1], e.g. synergies with the food systems if appropriate[2] or any other sector, and ensure inclusiveness and engagement of all actors along bio-based value chains.
This topic should involve the effective contribution of SSH disciplines.
Cross-cutting Priorities:Digital Agenda
Social Innovation
Social sciences and humanities
[1] E.g. topic “HORIZON-CL6-2021-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-07: International and European sustainability certification schemes for bio-based systems”
[2]E. g. topic “HORIZON-CL6-2021-FARM2FORK-01-17: Increasing the transparency of EU food systems to boost health, sustainability and safety of products, processes and diets”
Destination & Scope
Transformative changes such as the ones required within the Green Deal are dynamic processes that require appropriate governance. At the same time, to ensure coordination and for collaborative decision-making, governance requires multiple channels and networks that provide readily available data and information coming from different sources.
R&I activities under this destination aim at both: experimenting with new ways to govern the transition process and modernising the governance, in particular by making information and knowledge available and accessible. R&I for governance to support the Green Deal shall provide insights into institutional barriers such as lock-ins, path dependency, political and cultural inertia power imbalances and regulatory inconsistencies or weaknesses.
Innovative governance supporting the Green Deal objectives needs to recognise, cope with and promote resilience in the face of on-going shocks and disruptions both globally and across Europe, whether these be climatic, ecological, economic, social, geo-political or related to health. Critical risk assessment and reduction strategies need to be incorporated, including the diversification of infrastructures, resources and knowledge through more self-sufficiency and autonomy.
Taking advantage of the use, uptake, deployment and exploitation of environmental observations[[The capacity to observe the environment, including space-based, in-situ-based (air, sea, land) observation, and citizen observations]] as well as digital solutions, assessed through the “do not harm” principle of the Green Deal, is key for innovative governance models and a more science-based policy design, implementation and monitoring. To maximise impacts of R&I on the ground and spark behavioural and socio-economic change, the knowledge and innovation produced throughout the whole cluster should be widely disseminated to key stakeholders of the relevant sectors of the cluster. In particular, the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) needs to be reinforced to accelerate the required transformative changes.
Data and information obtained through Environmental Observation is of great value when assessing the state of the planet and is delivering crucial information to support the Green Deal and the climate and ecological transition. Integration of this information from different sources (space-based, airborne including drones, in-situ and citizens observations) with other relevant data and knowledge while ensuring (better) accessible, interoperable or deployable information, delivers information necessary for shaping the direction of the development of policies in the broad context of Cluster 6 of Horizon Europe. A strong link to the European Earth observations programme Copernicus (in Cluster 4) and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth observation programme, as well as support to the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), its European regional initiative (EuroGEO) and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is foreseen for topics on environmental observations under this destination. R&I activities relevant to ocean, seas and coastal waters will complement and support the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and UN Decade on Restoration, the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative, the pan-Commission Destination Earth initiative, the European Global Ocean Observing System (EOOS) and the GOOS 2030 strategy.
Digital innovation, in complementarity with Cluster 4 and Digital Europe Programmes activities, should bring benefits for citizens, businesses, researchers, the environment, society at large and policy-makers. The potential of the ongoing digital transformation, and its wider impacts, positive and negative, need to be better understood and monitored in view of future policy design and implementation, governance, and solution development
This destination will develop innovative digital and data based solutions to support communities and society at large, and economic sectors relevant for this cluster to achieve sustainability objectives. R&I activities will add value to the knowledge and cost-effectiveness of innovative technologies in and across primary production sectors, food systems, bioeconomy, ocean and biodiversity.
Knowledge and advice to all actors relevant to this cluster are key to improve sustainability. For instance, primary producers have a particular need for impartial and tailored advice on sustainable management choices. Knowledge and Innovation Systems are key drivers to enhance co-creation and thus speed up innovation and the take-up of results needed to achieve the Green Deal objectives and targets. This will include promoting interactive innovation and co-ownership of results by users, as well as strengthening synergies with other EU Funds in particular the CAP, reinforcing the multi-actor approach and setting up structural networking within national/regional/local AKISs. AKIS goes beyond agriculture, farming and rural activities and covers environment, climate, biodiversity, landscape, bio-based economy, consumers and citizens, i.e., all food and bio-based systems including transformation and distribution chains up until the consumer.
Expected impact
Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to innovative governance and sound decision making in policy for the green transition, and more specifically to one or several of the following impacts:
- Innovative governance models enabling sustainability and resilience notably to achieve better informed decision-making processes, societal engagement and innovation;
- Green Deal related domains benefit from further deployment and exploitation of Environmental Observation data and products ;
- A strengthened Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)[[The European Commission is a member and co-chair of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), as such the European Commission adopted the GEO Canberra Declaration (https://earthobservations.org/canberra_declaration.php and Commission Decision C(2019)7337/F1) and committed to contribute to the GEO objectives, including to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).]];
- Sustainability performance and competitiveness in the domains covered by Cluster 6 are enhanced through further deployment of digital and data technologies as key enablers;
- More informed and engaged stakeholders and end users including primary producers and consumers thanks to effective platforms such as Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS)
- Strengthened EU and international science-policy interfaces to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
When considering their impact, proposals also need to assess their compliance with the “Do No Significant Harm” principle[[as per Article 17 of Regulation (EU) No 2020/852 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment (EU Taxonomy Regulation)]] according to which the research and innovation activities of the project should not be supporting or carrying out activities that make a significant harm to any of the six environmental objectives of the EU Taxonomy Regulation.
Topics under this destination will have impacts in the following areas: “Climate change mitigation and adaptation”; “Clean and healthy air, water and soil”; “Enhancing ecosystems and biodiversity on land and in water”; “Sustainable food systems from farm to fork on land and sea”; “High quality digital services for all”; and “A Competitive and secure data-economy”.
Social innovation is recommended when the solution is at the socio-technical interface and requires social change, new social practices, social ownership or market uptake.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility conditions: 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 eligibility conditions: 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
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
Specific conditions
7. Specific conditions: described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE CSA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE CSA)
MGA
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 1. General Introduction
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
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.
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 Services help you find a partner organisation for your proposal.
Latest Updates
No updates available.