Embracing Innovation In Agriculture By Peer-to-peer Learning Via On Farm-demonstrations And Cost-benefit Analysis
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-CL6-2026-03-GOVERNANCE-10
- Programme
- Call 03 - single stage (2026)
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Open (31094502)
- Opening Date
- January 14, 2026
- Deadline
- April 15, 2026
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €7,000,000
- Min Grant Amount
- €7,000,000
- Max Grant Amount
- €7,000,000
- Expected Number of Grants
- 1
- Keywords
- HORIZON-CL6-2026-03-GOVERNANCE-10HORIZON-CL6-2026-03Agriculture / Forestry / Rural DevelopmentCost-benefit analysisCrop and livestock productionDissemination of resultsExploitation of resultsKnowledge co-creation networksKnowledge support networks
Description
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- enhanced peer-to-peer learning leads to widespread sharing and uptake of the innovative solutions by farmers across the EU, thereby improving competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the agricultural sector;
- the costs and benefits of applying innovative solutions in real context are better understood by farmers, advisors and other AKIS actors across the EU.
On-farm demonstrations can be crucial for enabling innovation uptake in agriculture, as they provide a platform for showcasing and evaluating new practices, but also serve as an effective avenue for peer-to-peer (or farmer to farmer) learning, leading to skill empowerment, higher adoption rates and increased practice change compared to the traditional top-down approaches. By engaging in on-farm demonstrations, farmers are better positioned to assess the applicability of innovative practices or tools. Complementing on-farm demonstrations with comprehensive cost-benefit analyses further empowers farmers, allowing them to quantitively evaluate the costs and benefits associated with the adoption of new solutions/practices. This approach should not only promote informed decision-making but also accelerate the uptake and integration of innovative practices across the agricultural sector. Proposals should either address Area A: Crop production systems, or Area B: Livestock and mixed production systems. The area (A or B) should be clearly indicated in the proposal.
Proposals should:
- develop objective benchmarking criteria to select agricultural innovations, considering factors such as their impact, ease of implementation, scalability and applicability across different agricultural systems;
- develop and apply a standardised methodology to assess the economic, environmental (including biodiversity effects), and social impacts of adopting these innovations, with focus on the analysis of the costs and benefits for the practitioners;
- screen and select promising practice-oriented innovative solutions developed by research and innovation projects in the area of agriculture to be tested on-farm and by farmers, on the basis of the objective benchmarking criteria;
- test, validate and showcase the innovative solutions in real conditions directly on- farms across different geographic realities in real conditions, and thoroughly analyse their costs and benefits for the practitioners. It is essential that proposals ensure complementarity and cooperation with existing and future peer-to-peer and on-farm demo activities in their planning and avoid overlaps and repetitions, ensuring geographical coverage of the EU;
- develop and widely share learning materials and courses, and incentivise peer-to-peer learning by organising, e.g., cross-border field visits and farmer-centred webinars presenting the most effective innovative solutions to farmers and advisors.
Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, with a consortium based on a balanced mix of relevant actors with complementary knowledge clearly activating advisors, farmers and/or foresters and/or rural actors. To effectively support the transition of innovations into the market, the participation of startups and SMEs is strongly encouraged.
Proposals may provide financial support to third parties (FSTP) to, for instance, develop, test and demonstrate innovative measures. A maximum of 30% of the EU funding should be allocated to this purpose. Particular efforts[1] in outreach and communication should be made by the project to help publicise these calls to the stakeholder targeted as beneficiaries of the support.
This topic should involve the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines.
The projects under this topic are relevant to the EU policies related to the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food and the cross-cutting objective of the common agricultural policy (CAP) to enhance knowledge flows and the adoption of innovation among AKIS[2] actors, in particular advisory services and end-users[3].
[1] activities that go beyond the minimum requirements set out in General Annex B.
[2] AKIS is defined in Article 3(9) of the Regulation (EU) 2021/2115.
[3] An “(end-)user” of R&I result(s) is a person who is him/herself putting the results into practice (i.e. practitioner); depending on the area selected, end-users could be farmers and/or other rural actors, or both of them.
Destination & Scope
This destination will support the EU Commission priorities ‘Sustaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature’ and ‘A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness’, which require innovative and agile governance models and tools to support transformative change within planetary boundaries.
R&I supporting decision-making is a key enabler for the Vision for Agriculture and Food that aims to secure the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of the EU's farming and food systems within the boundaries of our planet, as well as to meet the objectives set out in the Common Agricultural Policy.
Besides, the R&I supporting the bioeconomy, with a focus on bio-based solutions and the role of biotechnology, needs to be further strengthened, in line with the new EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the Communication on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing and the Life Sciences Strategy.
There is also a need to unlock the potential of applied digital and data technologies to support sectors covered by this cluster in becoming more competitive, sustainable, resilient and inclusive in line with the evolving EU policies on cyber, data and data technologies and digital services, notably the European Data Strategy, the Europe’s Digital Decade Policy Programme, the AI Continent Action Plan and the upcoming EU digital strategy for agriculture. This destination will contribute to the development, support and take up of digital and data-based solutions to implement the European Green Deal, while fostering innovation and supporting start-ups, thereby supporting the EU Competitiveness Compass.
The destination supports the European Ocean Pact, aiming at bringing coherence across all EU policy areas linked to the ocean, supporting a resilient and healthy ocean and coastal areas and promoting the sustainable blue economy. In particular, land-sea connection areas are crucial for addressing the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, coastal erosion, extreme events, and hydrological crises. When relevant, actions are encouraged to align with the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’, leveraging its digital infrastructures (such as the Digital Twin Ocean), stakeholder networks, and knowledge systems to enhance governance, environmental observation, and policy-support tools across terrestrial and aquatic systems.
This destination implements research actions to address water challenges in the EU and support the European Water Resilience Strategy by advancing the capacity for proper management of water sources.
In line with the global approach on R&I, this destination will foster and support regional and international initiatives, encourage international cooperation, contribute substantially to the implementation of key international treaties and to the work of various international bodies, assessments and other initiatives, and help achieve international commitments, notably under the Paris Agreement, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement.
Knowledge and advice are key to improving competitiveness, sustainability and resilience. R&I actions under this destination will support effective Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) that are at the heart of the 2023-2027 CAP’s cross-cutting objective as a key mean to bridge the gap between science and practice. Synergies with the EU-CAP Network, and particularly the EIP-AGRI Operational Groups supported by the CAP, will be further exploited.
The European Research Area is further integrated, and the global efforts are well-coordinated for impact-oriented science on food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture-forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, and environment.
The Destination supports unlocking the unique assets for research and innovation of the EU outermost regions, in line with the EU strategy for outermost regions[1].
Expected Impact: Proposals for topics under this destination should set out credible pathways to "developing innovative governance models and tools enabling sustainability and resilience", and more specifically to one or several of the following expected impacts:
- improved evidence-based knowledge, tools and science-society-policy interfaces support effective policy mixes and multi-level governance that are capable of anticipating a changing world, enabling a just sustainable transition for all, engaging society at large and balancing economic, social and environmental goals;
- competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the economy are supported by more accessible and interoperable environmental observations and improved Earth Intelligence;
- productivity is boosted and transformative changes required by the European Green Deal are facilitated, leaving no one behind, thanks to enhanced digital and data technologies, flows of existing and new knowledge, solutions and skills among actors and communities, as well as maximised synergies between initiatives.
[1] COM(2022) Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
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
The following additional eligibility criteria apply: The proposals must apply the multi-actor approach. See definition of the multi-actor approach in this work programme part.
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
To ensure a balanced portfolio, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least to one application highest ranked within each area, A and B, provided that the applications attain all thresholds. Proposals shall clearly indicate the area they are applying to.
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
Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 60 000.
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
Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA):
Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
Guidance
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Call-specific instructions
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Frequently Asked Questions About Embracing Innovation In Agriculture By Peer-to-peer Learning Via On Farm-demonstrations And Cost-benefit Analysis
Support & Resources
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