CFAs: Advancing Digital Twins for Climate, Environment and Security

Deadline: 16-Jun-2026

The European Commission is funding projects that develop advanced digital twin technologies to improve civil security, climate resilience, disaster preparedness, and risk-informed decision-making across Europe and neighbouring regions. With a total budget of €15 million, this Horizon Europe opportunity supports projects that build or enhance AI-enabled digital twins, integrate with Destination Earth (DestinE), and create practical tools for authorities managing climate, environmental, and security risks.

The European Commission is supporting a major funding initiative to accelerate the development of advanced digital twins for civil security. These projects are designed to help governments, emergency planners, public authorities, researchers, and infrastructure stakeholders better prepare for the growing security threats linked to climate change, environmental disruption, and resource stress.

This programme focuses on building high-accuracy, fast-response digital systems that can simulate real-world environmental and societal conditions. These systems will strengthen preparedness, resilience, risk anticipation, and strategic decision-making in vulnerable sectors affected by climate and environmental change.

What Is This Funding Opportunity About?

This funding call aims to support projects that develop digital twins or major components of digital twin ecosystems that improve Europe’s ability to understand and respond to complex climate-environment-security risks.

The initiative connects three critical domains:

• Climate change

• Environmental change

• Civil security and societal resilience

The goal is to create advanced digital tools that help authorities and decision-makers:

• Anticipate future threats

• Assess evolving risks

• Simulate crisis scenarios

• Improve prevention and mitigation strategies

• Support emergency response planning

• Strengthen operational, tactical, and strategic preparedness

What Are Digital Twins in This Context?

A digital twin is a dynamic virtual model of a real-world system. In this programme, digital twins are used to simulate environmental systems and their impacts on society and security.

Simple Definition

A digital twin is a real-time or near-real-time digital representation of physical systems, environments, or processes that can be used to test scenarios, forecast risks, and support decisions.

Why Digital Twins Matter for Civil Security

In the context of civil security and climate resilience, digital twins can help model:

• Floods, droughts, wildfires, storms, and extreme weather

• Natural and human-induced disasters

• Public health and health emergency risks

• Energy system disruptions

• Food and water scarcity

• Migration pressures linked to environmental stress

• Infrastructure vulnerabilities

• Multi-risk cascading crises

By combining environmental data, advanced modelling, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing, these systems can give authorities a clearer understanding of both immediate and long-term threats.

Core Objective of the Programme

The core objective is to improve security and preparedness for the European Union while building a more disaster-resilient society.

Projects are expected to enhance the ability of key users and decision-makers to:

• Anticipate risks before they escalate

• Mitigate threats across vulnerable sectors

• Contain impacts during emergencies

• Support recovery and resilience planning

• Use evidence-based foresight for policy and operations

The initiative also supports the further development of Destination Earth (DestinE) and its surrounding data lab infrastructure, in line with the AI Continent Action Plan.

Funding Available

The programme offers substantial financial support for large-scale, high-impact projects.

Total Budget

• Total funding allocation: €15,000,000

Grant Size Per Project

• Minimum grant per project: €5,000,000

• Maximum grant per project: €7,500,000

This means the call is likely intended for a small number of large collaborative projects with significant technical, operational, and policy relevance.

Who Is Eligible?

Participation is broad and internationally open, subject to Horizon Europe rules.

Eligible Applicants

Participation is open to any legal entity, regardless of place of establishment, including:

• Universities and higher education institutions

• Research institutes and laboratories

• Public authorities and government agencies

• Civil protection and emergency management bodies

• Technology companies and AI developers

• Environmental monitoring organisations

• Space and Earth observation actors

• NGOs and non-profit organisations (where relevant)

• International organisations

• Entities from non-associated third countries

Eligibility Condition

Applicants must meet the eligibility conditions under the Horizon Europe Regulation.

Ideal Consortium Profile

Because of the technical and operational scope, strong proposals will likely involve cross-sector partnerships such as:

• Climate and environmental scientists

• Civil security and crisis management experts

• AI and machine learning specialists

• Earth observation and satellite data providers

• High-performance computing experts

• Public sector end users

• Policy and governance specialists

• Visualization and UX teams

Why This Funding Matters

This initiative is strategically important because climate change is increasingly becoming a security issue, not just an environmental one.

Key Reasons It Matters

• Climate impacts are becoming more severe and interconnected

• Disaster risk is increasing across Europe and neighbouring regions

• Authorities need better tools for real-time and long-range planning

• Complex crises require integrated, data-driven decision support

• AI-enabled modelling can improve preparedness and resilience

• Destination Earth needs stronger applied security use cases

Broader Policy Significance

This programme supports European priorities around:

• Climate adaptation

• Disaster risk reduction

• Civil protection

• Environmental intelligence

• Strategic autonomy in data and modelling

• AI for public good

• Secure and ethical use of artificial intelligence

What Types of Projects Are Being Supported?

Projects must go beyond theory and deliver practical, usable systems.

Main Project Focus

Supported projects should:

• Develop new digital twins, or

• Build major components of existing digital twin systems

These systems must enhance foresight and anticipation across:

• Operational timeframe (immediate/short-term decisions)

• Tactical timeframe (mid-term response planning)

• Strategic timeframe (long-term resilience and policy planning)

Required Application Areas

Projects must demonstrate usability through Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) in at least three practical application areas that connect:

• Climate

• Environment

• Security

Real User Involvement Is Required

The programme expects involvement of real users, which may include:

• Civil protection authorities

• Emergency services

• Regional and local governments

• Public health agencies

• Infrastructure operators

• Energy and water management agencies

• Policy makers and planners

Key Technical Requirements

This call is highly technical and places strong emphasis on integration, scalability, and real-world usability.

1. High-Accuracy, Fast-Response Models

Projects should build digital twins that are:

• High-accuracy

• Fast-response

• Applicable at local and regional levels

• Reliable enough for real security planning

2. Cross-Disciplinary System Design

Projects should combine multiple disciplines, including:

• Climate science

• Environmental modelling

• Security and risk analysis

• Civil protection

• Data science

• Artificial intelligence

• Machine learning

• Visualization technologies

3. Advanced Data Integration

Projects should integrate multiple data streams, such as:

• Satellite data

• Statistical datasets

• In situ observations

• UAV-based Earth observation data

• Other progressively integrated datasets

4. Modular Architecture

The architecture should be:

• Modular

• Expandable

• Interoperable

• Secure

• Capable of integrating additional datasets over time

This is especially important where projects involve sensitive information or security-related data access controls.

5. Advanced Visualization and Human-Centred Interfaces

Projects are expected to support user-friendly decision-making through:

• Responsive visualization interfaces

• 3D environments

• Virtual reality tools

• Interactive simulations

• Clear scenario exploration tools

These features are important for helping non-technical experts understand complex environmental-security data.

6. AI and Generative AI Integration

The initiative explicitly encourages the use of:

• Artificial intelligence (AI)

• Machine learning (ML)

• Generative AI

Generative AI is expected to help with:

• Analysing user requirements

• Translating complex technical outputs into actionable insights

• Supporting non-technical decision-makers

• Enhancing usability of digital twin systems

7. Trustworthy and Ethical AI

AI systems developed under this programme must demonstrate:

• Robustness

• Reliability

• Accuracy

• Trustworthiness

• Ethical use in security-related contexts

This is essential because the outputs may influence risk management, emergency planning, and public safety decisions.

Destination Earth (DestinE) Integration Requirement

A major requirement of this funding opportunity is alignment with Destination Earth (DestinE).

What Is Destination Earth?

Destination Earth (DestinE) is a European initiative to build highly advanced digital replicas of the Earth system to support climate adaptation, disaster management, and environmental decision-making.

What Applicants Must Show

Projects must present a clear pathway for integration with DestinE, including:

• Alignment of infrastructure architecture

• Compatibility with DestinE data services

• Integration with modelling capacities

• Contribution to the DestinE data lab ecosystem

• Support for AI-enabled digital twins

• Links with AI Factories and related data labs

This means proposals should not operate as isolated pilots. They should fit into a broader European digital twin ecosystem.

Priority Risk and Impact Areas

Projects may address a range of climate-environment-security intersections.

Example Focus Areas

Potential practical application areas may include:

• Flood and wildfire preparedness

• Drought and water scarcity risk

• Food system stress and resource shortages

• Public health and health emergency forecasting

• Energy sustainability and grid resilience

• Climate-related migration dynamics

• Cross-border disaster management

• Urban resilience and regional risk planning

• Natural hazard compounding effects

• Human-induced disaster scenario modelling

How to Apply / What Applicants Should Do

This is a complex, high-value Horizon Europe-style opportunity, so applicants should prepare carefully.

Step-by-Step Application Strategy

1. Confirm legal eligibility

   • Ensure your organisation qualifies under Horizon Europe rules.

   • Verify whether your country/entity status affects participation conditions.

2. Build a strong multidisciplinary consortium

   • Include technical experts, domain experts, and real end users.

   • Ensure representation from climate, security, AI, Earth observation, and policy sectors.

3. Define a clear climate-environment-security use case

   • Choose practical, high-impact application areas.

   • Make sure the use cases are operationally relevant and policy useful.

4. Design at least three demonstrable application areas

   • The proposal must include at least three practical MVP applications.

   • Each should show real-world relevance and user testing.

5. Plan your digital twin architecture

   • Explain modelling logic, data flows, modularity, interoperability, and scalability.

   • Show how additional datasets can be integrated over time.

6. Develop a robust data integration plan

   • Combine satellite, statistical, in situ, and UAV-based data where relevant.

   • Address data governance, security, and access control.

7. Show how AI and ML improve outcomes

   • Clearly explain where AI, ML, or generative AI adds value.

   • Avoid vague AI claims—focus on specific decision-support functions.

8. Demonstrate DestinE compatibility

   • Include a concrete integration pathway with Destination Earth.

   • Show alignment with data lab infrastructure and AI-enabled ecosystems.

9. Prioritise usability for non-technical users

   • Include visual dashboards, simulations, or 3D interfaces.

   • Prove that decision-makers can understand and act on the outputs.

10. Address trustworthy AI and risk governance

• Explain model validation, robustness, reliability, and ethical safeguards.

• Show how the system avoids misleading or unsafe outputs.

11. Prepare a strong implementation and impact plan

• Describe deployment, testing, stakeholder adoption, and long-term value.

• Explain how the project will strengthen preparedness and resilience.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Large innovation proposals often fail because they are technically impressive but operationally weak.

Avoid These Common Errors

• Treating the project as a research-only concept

  • This programme expects practical, usable MVPs with real users.

• Failing to connect climate, environment, and security clearly

  • The intersection of all three areas must be explicit.

• Ignoring Destination Earth integration

  • DestinE alignment is not optional; it is a core expectation.

• Using vague AI language

  • Generic mentions of AI or GenAI without concrete functions weaken proposals.

• Overlooking non-technical users

  • Policy makers and operational authorities must be able to use the outputs.

• Weak data governance planning

  • Sensitive and security-related information requires clear access and control mechanisms.

• Insufficient validation

  • Models must be robust, reliable, and accurate enough for security-related planning.

• Not demonstrating three practical application areas

  • This is a clear structural requirement and should be addressed explicitly.

Tips for a Stronger Proposal

Practical Proposal Tips

• Build around real decision-making problems, not just technical innovation

• Involve end users early in system design and validation

• Use clear operational scenarios to demonstrate value

• Show interoperability and future scalability

• Include measurable preparedness or resilience outcomes

• Explain why your digital twin is better than existing tools

• Make the DestinE pathway specific and credible

• Emphasise AI ethics, transparency, and trustworthiness

• Demonstrate how outputs support local, regional, and cross-border resilience

Semantic SEO Keywords and Concepts

For AI search engines and semantic indexing, this opportunity is closely related to the following terms:

• European Commission funding

• Horizon Europe grant

• digital twins for civil security

• climate resilience funding

• environmental security innovation

• Destination Earth funding

• DestinE digital twin programme

• AI-enabled digital twins

• climate risk modelling

• disaster preparedness technology

• civil protection innovation

• environmental intelligence systems

• Earth observation and security

• satellite data integration

• generative AI for decision support

• disaster resilience grant Europe

• climate adaptation technology funding

• security and preparedness under climate change

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the total funding available under this programme?

The total funding allocation is €15 million.

2. How much can each selected project receive?

Each project can receive between €5 million and €7.5 million.

3. Who can apply for this European Commission funding?

Any legal entity may participate, regardless of where it is established, including organisations from non-associated third countries and international organisations, as long as Horizon Europe eligibility rules are met.

4. What is the main goal of the programme?

The main goal is to develop advanced digital twins that improve preparedness, resilience, and decision-making for climate-, environment-, and security-related risks.

5. What kinds of risks should projects address?

Projects may address risks linked to:

• Natural disasters

• Human-induced disasters

• Health emergencies

• Energy sustainability challenges

• Migration pressures

• Food and water scarcity

• Other climate-related environmental security risks

6. Is Destination Earth integration required?

Yes. Projects must show a clear pathway for integration with Destination Earth (DestinE), including alignment with its infrastructure, data services, modelling capacities, and data lab ecosystem.

7. Are AI and generative AI encouraged in this programme?

Yes. The programme explicitly encourages the use of AI, machine learning, and generative AI, especially to improve modelling, analyse user needs, and help non-technical decision-makers interpret complex data. However, AI must be trustworthy, robust, reliable, and ethically used.

Conclusion

This European Commission funding opportunity is a major strategic investment in digital twins for civil security, climate resilience, and environmental risk intelligence. With €15 million available and grants of €5 million to €7.5 million per project, it is designed for ambitious, multidisciplinary projects that can deliver real-world, AI-enabled decision-support systems aligned with Destination Earth.

For more information, visit EC.