Environmental observations solutions contributing to meeting “One Health” challenges
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-09
- 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
- Early warning systemsPublic and environmental healthHealth and Ecosystem ServicesDigital AgendaArtificial IntelligenceGlobal Satellite Navigation System (GNSS) / ServicEmergent diseasesEarth Observation / Services and applicationsEOSC and FAIR dataRemote Sensing Instruments / SensorsIn-Situ Instruments / sensorsEnvironmental healthPublic health and epidemiologyAnimal healthHealthCopernicusGEOSSGEOEuroGEOOne Healthecosystem barriersenvironmental observation
Description
A successful proposal will contribute to the deployment of and adding value to environmental observations[1], focussing on how the use of environmental observation can contribute to the ‘One Health’ domain, in line with the European Green Deal objectives.
Proposals are expected to contribute to at least three of the following outcomes:
- Better insights in how to foster the use of environmental observation in the large domain of One Health[2] and the areas within this domain that could benefit the most from environmental and Earth observation;
- An increase of the capacity to trace environmental parameter changes on how they impact on the emergence of diseases;
- Monitoring of the evolution of ecosystem barriers and reinforcement of their sustainability, specifically in densely populated or intensively used areas;
- Contributing to understanding the emergence and tackling the spread of new infectious diseases affecting human, animal or plant health, and the interlinkages that may exist between them and building up of more resilient ecosystems;
- Better insights into the concept of alert and early warning systems, including, where possible, the next steps taken (e.g. exploitation/scaling up) in working with the outcomes of the EIC Horizon Prize on Early Warning for Epidemics[3].
The general scope of this topic is to explore areas of the One Health policy that would benefit from the use of environmental observation and how environmental observations can be used for further shaping policies in the context of e.g. human health, animal health (including zoonoses) and plant health.
The proposal should build on the holistic integrative concept of ‘One Health’ that includes not only the health of humans, but also of animals, soil and plants including ecosystems and environmental health. Information deriving from environmental observation combined with health data over the broad range of the One Health concept should be delivered through an integrated approach aggregating all the components of the One Health with the intention to support related policies within the health area in a comprehensive way.
A specific focus of the proposal should be on the monitoring of the evolution of ecosystem barriers in densely populated, industrialised or agricultural areas. The proposal should also investigate how environmental observations could provide information that can contribute to improving the effectiveness, sustainability and resilience of these ecosystem barriers in facing emerging diseases. The proposal should include the reanalysis of long time series of environmental observations and their correlation with the emergence or spread of diseases.
It should also work on the concept of alert or early warning systems based on observation that would contribute informing governments and authorities, and finally operators, on the health risks related to the destruction of ecosystems and biodiversity with a One Health approach, including a consideration of disease hazards, human (or animal) exposure and vulnerability. Research on the risk for human health and ecosystems of new contaminants could help early detection and reduce negative effects within the One Health domain. A particular area of interest in this context is the follow up to the EIC Horizon Prize on Early Warning for Epidemics[4] and how the insights gained from the outcomes of the prize could be further developed.
Links to the European Earth observation programme Copernicus, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), and the EU satellite navigation programme (EGNSS) are relevant and expected.
Cross-cutting Priorities:Artificial Intelligence
Digital Agenda
EOSC and FAIR data
[1] The capacity to observe the environment, including space-based, in-situ-based (air, sea, land) observation, and citizen observations
[2] https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/one-health
[3] Reference to prize winner when available (expected in Sept/Oct 2021)
[4]https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2018-2020/main/h2020-wp1820-eic_en.pdf
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 RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
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
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