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Grants for Projects focusing on Nature-based Solutions in Europe

Deadline: 15-Feb-22

The European Commission (EC) is offering grants for Assessing the socio-politics of nature-based solutions (NBS) for more inclusive and resilient communities.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are already being delivered with increasing evidence on their effectiveness, but implementation issues persist, hindering NBS uptake and upscale. There is a need to move beyond seeing the implementation challenge as primarily a technical issue, to develop the understanding of the economic, social, political, moral and cultural dimensions of designing and implementing NBS.

The successful proposals should:

  • Gain a wider understanding of the role of actors involved in NBS, considering:
    • particular groups of actors that have been under-researched (e.g. land holders such as churches, charitable organizations, educational establishments, utilities, etc.);
    • sectors of the economy (e.g. agriculture, forestry, tourism, finance, etc.) and
    • landscapes (e.g. coastal areas, river catchments, wetlands, etc.);
  • Investigate how different NBS designs and governance can contribute to environmental justice, prevent environmental racism and gentrification, insure the inclusion and active participation of women, youth, minority groups, immigrant communities, etc.;
  • Develop innovative governance models:
    • exploring different forms of engagement, inclusion and stewardship;
    • enabling the breaking of silos in public administration and between different administrative domains; and
    • tackling other legal, management and administrative issues;
  • Propose ways in which NBS governance and design can contribute to transformative change and to a just transition in support of the Sustainable Development Goals;
  • Understand and propose solutions to functional conflicts in land-use for better and more integration between NBS, land-use planning and other (possibly conflicting) sectors, their policies and planning processes;
  • Explore governance techniques (e.g. standards, certification, incentives, subsidies, etc.) that develop private and voluntary governance alongside formal regulatory and planning powers, with a view to mainstreaming NBS in the public and private sectors.
  • Identify the possibilities for, and limits to, the full co-creation approach in NBS (including co-design, co-implementation, co-maintenance and co-monitoring), their underlying governance arrangements and instruments;
  • Provide approaches based on citizen science, big data or artificial intelligence tools to better communicate the science of NBS and promote citizen engagement in the co-creation, co-implementation and co-monitoring of NBS;
  • Understand how the meanings and values attached to nature in urban, rural, coastal, periurban or post-industrial areas affect the long-term success of NBS. To this end, investigate what counts as nature, what is valued and why this varies amongst individuals and communities as well as how this can be taken into account in the development of NBS.
  • Investigate the impact of citizens’ perceptions and expectations towards NBS on management decisions and delivery of ecosystem services, while considering also the role of NBSs in generating new kinds of connections and values for nature and with what consequences.
Funding Information

The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:

  • public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
  • cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).
Expected Outcomes

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

  • Enhanced contribution of nature-based solutions (NBS) to social and economic targets, especially in vulnerable communities and notably regarding the transformative change needed to address the biodiversity and climate crises.
  • New NBS governance models and co-creation approaches and tools, as well as NBS design and technologies that enhance social benefits while providing ecological and economic benefits.
  • NBS are better suited to respond to different socio-political contexts and have higher replicability in the diverse environmental, economic and social conditions across Europe.
Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:

  • the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
  • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
  • eligible non-EU countries:
    • countries associated to Horizon Europe
    • low- and middle-income countries.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3kqMBRC