CFPs: Impact of the Learning Environment and the Use of Digital Tools Programme

Deadline: 16-Sep-25

The European Commission (EC) is seeking proposals for the Impact of the Learning Environment and the Use of Digital Tools Programme.

Scope

• Digital devices and tools are an integral part in the lives of children and teenagers as they grow. There is discussion about the impact of the use of digital tools in everyday life on children’s wellbeing (cognitive, emotional, social) and development, but the evidence is often piecemeal. Proposals should investigate the impact that the expansion and normalisation of children’s use of digital technologies (including generative AI) in everyday life has on their learning, at a time in their lives when literacy and numeracy skills are developing, and during adolescence.
• Proposals may select different target groups to investigate how intersecting factors influence children’s experiences with digital tools, paying a particular attention to age, gender, disabilities, digital exclusion of marginalised groups, and socio-economic status. In this context, proposals should investigate how the school learning environment can support learning and identify effective interventions to support children’s social emotional and academic needs. Proposals should focus on primary and/ or secondary general compulsory education, and they could choose to address one or several age groups.
• While educational institutions cannot act in isolation, students spend thousands of hours within buildings, and the same holds for teachers and school leaders. Sustainable Development Goal emphasises the importance of physical learning environment in education facilities. Proposals could investigate the impact of learning environments on education outcomes and how its design responds to changes in teaching and learning.
• Proposals should propose methods that address the complex nature of the topic under study, the existing data and the rapid changes in the technological landscape. Proposals are encouraged to use mixed methods approaches, and deepen inter- and transdisciplinary research in education (including from SSH disciplines), involving multiple perspectives, with the aim to improve learning and educational settings. Proposals can choose on which aspect of student well-being (cognitive, emotional, social) and skill development they focus. Proposals should include the voice of children and young people through active and meaningful participation and other relevant stakeholders as part of the data collection.

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).

Eligible Activities

• 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.
  • 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.

Expected Outcomes

• Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
  • Provide analyses of the impact of digital tools in everyday life on wellbeing and how children learn.
  • Provide analyses and evidence-based recommendations on how to provide opportunities for high quality education that uses digital technologies in ways that support the wellbeing of the school community (students, teachers and school leaders).

Eligibility Criteria

• Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from no associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call/topic.
• A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
• Specific cases: 
  • Affiliated entities – Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
  • Associated partners – (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any specific call/topic conditions.
  • Entities without legal personality – Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
  • EU bodies – Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
• 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, Canada, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

For more information, visit EC.