Improving preparation of multi-actor projects to enable the relevant actors to work in a co-creative way
HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-14
- 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
- Agriculture, Rural Development, FisheriesDigital AgendaISSAKISMAAEIP
Description
In support of the Green Deal, Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and farm to fork objectives and targets, the successful proposal will focus on improving the preparation of multi-actor projects to enable the relevant actors to work in a more co-creative way. The expected outcome of this topic are approaches for developing sound, coherent and well-prepared multi-actor projects, enabling project coordinators to use the complementary knowledge of partners to prepare actions to find ready-to-use solutions. Member States’ authorities and AKIS actors need insights and tools to improve the interaction, connections and drafting skills in particular in the stage before putting down the multi-actor project proposals for selection. This will lead to better informed and engaged stakeholders and users of innovative project results leading to more effective Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) and related platforms.
Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
1. Improve the drafting of multi-actor project proposals[1] and in particular the involvement of relevant actors with complementary knowledge in a balanced way in the preparatory stage.
2. The policy objectives linked to Cluster 6, such as for instance agroecology, climate, pesticide reduction, reduction of water use etc, as well as the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the CAP, the Biodiversity Strategy and the wider bioeconomy research and policies,.
3. The CAP cross-cutting objective of modernising the sector by fostering and sharing knowledge, innovation and digitalisation in agriculture and rural areas, and encouraging their uptake[2] . It will provide overall knowledge to the CAP supported projects related to knowledge creation, organisation and sharing.
4. The outcomes will be connecting actors, policies, projects and instruments to speed up innovation, in particular:
(a) create added value by better linking research, education, advisors and farming practice and encourage the wider use of available knowledge and innovation;
(b) connect innovation actors and projects at all levels; resulting in faster and wider co-creation and transposition of innovative solutions into practice and communicate to the scientific community the research needs of practice.
Scope:Proposals should:
- Develop ways to improve in particular the preparation of Horizon Europe multi-actor projects to better include at an early stage the needed variety of relevant practice actors in a balanced way and to be able to find useful information for the topic, with the view of strengthening co-creation between all actors even before the start and selection of the project. Make use of potential capacities of national/regional AKIS and AKIS coordination bodies to this effect.
- In particular, test out the effect of providing seed funding to fund the preparation phase as happens successfully in European innovation partnership "Agricultural productivity and sustainability" (EIP-AGRI) Operational Groups[3] to improve the overall multi-actor quality of project proposals.
- Find ways to improve the connection and interaction between Horizon Europe Multi-actor projects and EIP-AGRI Operational Group innovation projects on specific topics before the very start of the multi-actor project, thus improving the interaction between the local/regional/ national level and the EU level and the quality of project proposals. Explore what are multi-actor consortia experiences and questions related to the preparation phase, to better understand which hurdles should be solved to ultimately result in more integration of EIP-AGRI Operational Groups in Horizon Europe Multi-actor projects and a better uptake of the results of EU multi-actor projects at national/regional/local level and vice versa. This should help sharing knowledge across the EU at all levels and between the projects from different funding sources and ultimately result in better prepared project proposals.
- Resulting from experience gained during the project, develop guidelines and pathways, maybe at institutional level, to improve the overall quality of the preparation phase of multi-actor projects. As soon as possible, find effective and efficient ways to profit from the initiatives of the EU-wide interactive knowledge reservoir (HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-24), boosting women-led innovation in farming and rural areas (HORIZON-CL6-2022-COMMUNITIES-01-01) and the project interlinking national AKISs (HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-23). Make use of Member States’ knowledge and innovation experts in the SCAR-AKIS Strategic Working Group to discuss the project strategy and progress in the various stages of the project.
- Cover all 27 EU Member States in the project. Make use in all those countries of experts who understand and are able to make an accurate interpretation of the national/regional contexts of practitioners and its impact on improving preparation of multi-actor projects.
- Provide all outcomes and materials to the EIP-AGRI, including in the common 'practice abstract' format for EU wide dissemination, as well as to national/regional/local AKIS channels and to the EU-wide interactive knowledge reservoir (HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-24) in the requested formats.
The project should run for 5 years and result in guidance on how to improve preparation of multi-actor projects to enable the relevant actors to work in a more co-creative way. The project must implement the multi-actor approach, including partners of multi-actor consortia, of EIP-AGRI Operational Groups, policy makers and AKIS coordination bodies and AKIS actors in Member States. Outcomes should be presented to policy makers at all levels, with a view to adapt policies and governance to improve multi-actor project proposals. The results of the projects should also be disseminated to all those who may start up multi-actor projects or EIP-AGRI Operational Groups.
Cross-cutting Priorities:Digital Agenda
[1]See definition of the 'multi-actor approach' in the introduction to this work programme part
[2]Art 5 CAP post 2020 proposal
[3]Art 114 and 71 (1)(a) of the CAP post 2020 proposal
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
The following additional eligibility criteria apply:
The proposals must use the multi-actor approach. See definition of the multi-actor approach in the introduction to this work programme part.
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
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