CFPs: Addressing Chemical, Biological and Radiological Threats in Agriculture and Food Supply

Deadline: 20-Nov-24

The European Commission (EC) is offering grants to support prevention, detection, response, and mitigation of chemical, biological and radiological threats in agricultural production, feed, food processing, distribution, and consumption.

Scope

• Plant and animal health is of global importance for sustainable agriculture and competitive agriculture and forestry, as well as for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems. Globally, between 10 and 28 percent of crop production is lost to pests and contamination of food and feed by mycotoxins can severely threaten the health of humans and livestock. The International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) 2020, established by the United Nations, raised public and political awareness of the importance of plant health and a recent study (IPPC, 2021) calls the attention of policy makers to the main effects of climate change on plant health, helping governments and the international community addressing plant health challenges. Also, the food chain, from harvest of agricultural products, throughout processing, distribution and until consumption can be challenged by several (hybrid) threats, which are increasingly taking non-conventional forms and possibly targeting the agriculture and food chain with severe consequences.
• The Word Health Organisation identified intentional agriculture attack with biological weapons and food contamination as one of the main global public health threats of the 21st century. The potential for terrorist attacks or other criminal actions against agri-food targets is increasingly recognised as a threat to international security. The population’s health could be jeopardised by the manipulation of communicable diseases or the contamination of food, soil, air and drinking water by CBR agents. These risks have been studied and documented by a Network of excellence (Plant and Food Biosecurity) funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (PLANTFOODSEC).
• In 2017, the ENVI Committee (Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety of the EU Parliament) has defined food defence as “the protection of food from intentional contamination or adulteration by biological, chemical, physical or radiological agents. It includes measures regarding prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery form intentional acts of food contamination”. The potential impact on human health of deliberate sabotage of agricultural crops, seed or food can be estimated by extrapolation from the many documented examples of unintentional outbreaks of foodborne disease.
• Current EU capabilities to detect and respond to agro-terrorism and bio-criminal acts are dispersed across different national practitioners, normally handled by regional or national bodies and are very limited in terms of coordination. Different countries have different governmental authorities for agricultural and feed and food domains, different collaborative networks, different border controls, different inspection bodies and different regulatory references and reporting mechanisms as well as different investigative bodies in the case of suspected feed/food crime. The EU institutions have to start to consider the agri-food chain as a critical infrastructure which can suffer from attacks and which need to be protected. The most effective way to accomplish this goal is through international cooperation by a multi-sectorial approach combing different expertise, such as from law enforcement, the feed and food sector and health emergency services.
• The main challenge is to increase the resilience of European agricultural production, feed and food processing and distribution chain in case of sudden shocks. Agriculture and food chains will be included as an important dimension to be analysed in the context of protection of European critical entities in case of emergencies. It is also crucial to address the interrelations between the food chain shocks and different types of critical entities with the objective of developing tools and methods to minimize cascading effects and allow rapid recovery of service performance levels after incidents. In the new context also the interaction with climate change, global trade and internet trade (spreading often plant material not controlled at all and of low quality) need to be taken into consideration. Artificial intelligence provides new tools for better coping with many of the most important challenges.
• In this context, research should address agri-food systems shocks, taking account of the increasing effects of climate change and global trade (and their interaction) on pest outbreaks and spread, feed/food commodity shocks, due to external challenges, feed/food supply chains interruption and organised agri-food terrorism attacks.
• This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.
• In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is also encouraged.
• Coordination among the successful proposals from this topic as well as with the successful proposal(s) under topic HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-02: Soil pollution processes – modelling and inclusion in advanced digital decision-support tools should be envisaged to avoid duplication, and to exploit complementarities as well as opportunities for increased impact.

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 (low-value grant).

Expected Outcomes

• Projects’ results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:
  • Increasing EU capabilities to assess risks, detect, alert, mitigate and respond to feed and food intentional and accidental contamination from chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) agents, through the entire food chains (soils and agro-production, feed and food industry, transporting, retail and hospitality industry, public catering);
  • Increasing the understanding on food terrorism threats and on food chain vulnerabilities to intentional and accidental contaminations;
  • Raising awareness among feed and food companies and authorities to CBR threats arising from malicious use of hazardous agents that pose danger to animal and public health. This should be done under the premises of feed and food as a critical infrastructure and risks pertaining therein;
  • In addition to raising awareness, proposals should develop possible preparedness, mitigation and response plans for national authorities and the private sector.

Eligible Activities

• Projects must focus exclusively on civil applications and must not:
  • aim at human cloning for reproductive purposes;
  • intend to modify the genetic heritage of human beings which could make such changes heritable (except for research relating to cancer treatment of the gonads, which may be financed);
  • intend to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research, or for the purpose of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer.
• Projects must, moreover, comply with EU policy interests and priorities (environment, social, security, industrial policy, etc.).
• The following activities are generally eligible for grants under Horizon Europe:
  • Research and innovation actions (RIA) — Activities that aim primarily to establish new knowledge or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. This may include basic and applied research, technology development and integration, testing, demonstration and validation of a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulated environment.
  • Innovation actions (IA) — Activities that aim directly to produce plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. These activities may include prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication.
  • Coordination and support actions (CSA) — Activities that contribute to the objectives of Horizon Europe. This excludes research and innovation (R&I) activities, except those carried out under the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’ component of the programme (part of ‘Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area’). Also eligible are bottom-up coordination actions which promote cooperation between legal entities from Member States and Associated Countries to strengthen the European Research Area, and which receive no EU co-funding for research activities.
  • Programme co-fund actions (CoFund) — A programme of activities established or implemented by legal entities managing or funding R&I programmes, other than EU funding bodies. Such a programme of activities may support: networking and coordination; research; innovation; pilot actions; innovation and market deployment; training and mobility; awareness raising and communication; and dissemination and exploitation. It may also provide any relevant financial support, such as grants, prizes and procurement, as well as Horizon Europe blended finance or a combination thereof. The actions may be implemented by the beneficiaries directly or by providing financial support to third parties.
  • Innovation and market deployment actions (IMDA) — Activities that embed an innovation action and other activities necessary to deploy an innovation on the market. This includes the scaling-up of companies and Horizon Europe blended finance.
  • Training and mobility actions (TMA) — Activities that aim to improve the skills, knowledge and career prospects of researchers, based on mobility between countries and, if relevant, between sectors or disciplines.
  • Pre-commercial procurement actions (PCP) — Activities that aim to help a transnational buyers’ group to strengthen the public procurement of research, development, validation and, possibly, the first deployment of new solutions that can significantly improve quality and efficiency in areas of public interest, while opening market opportunities for industry and researchers active in Europe. Eligible activities include the preparation, management and follow-up, under the coordination of a lead procurer, of one joint PCP and additional activities to embed the PCP into a wider set of demand-side activities.
  • Public procurement of innovative solutions actions (PPI) — Activities that aim to strengthen the ability of a transnational buyers’ group to deploy innovative solutions early by overcoming the fragmentation of demand for such solutions and sharing the risks and costs of acting as early adopters, while opening market opportunities for industry. Eligible activities include preparing and implementing, under the coordination of a lead procurer, one joint or several coordinated PPI by the buyers’ group and additional activities to embed the PPI into a wider set of demand-side activities.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
  • the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
  • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States: Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
  • countries associated to Horizon Europe: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
• Specific cases: 
  • Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities are eligible for funding if they are established in one of the countries listed above, or in a country identified in the specific call/topic conditions.
  • Associated partners — Entities not eligible for funding (and therefore not able to participate as beneficiaries) may participate as associated partners, unless specified otherwise in the specific call/topic conditions.
  • Coordination and Support Actions – To be eligible to participate as beneficiaries (or affiliated entities) in ‘Coordination and support’ actions, legal entities must be established in a Member State or Associated Country, unless the specific call/topic conditions provide otherwise (in which case the general rules for eligibility for funding apply). Legal entities established in a non-associated third country may, however, participate in ‘Coordination and support’ actions as associated partners, unless this is explicitly excluded by the specific call/topic conditions.
  • EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law may also be eligible to receive funding, unless their basic act states otherwise.
  • International organisations — International European research organisations are eligible to receive funding. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country are eligible to receive funding for ‘Training and mobility’ actions or when provided for in the specific call/topic conditions. Other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding, unless provided for in the specific call/topic conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority.

For more information, visit EC.