Deadline: 06-Oct-21
The European Commission (EC) has launched the Uncovering lock-ins and levers to encourage farmers to move to and stay in sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly farming systems: from experiments to systemic mechanisms.
Proposals should investigate farmers’ decision-making (behaviour) and the broader food systems in which they have to operate (and/or create collective action), so as to uncover what locks them into unsustainable practices and what incentivises them to move to and stay in sustainable production systems.
Attention should be paid to the full range of decision-making factors (e.g., behavioural, economic/regulatory, knowledge, biophysical, gender, cultural, etc.) and food systems’ structures, mechanisms and dynamics (e.g., feedback loops, trade-offs and synergies, etc.).
Proposals should take a comprehensive behavioural approach and investigate proximal and distal factors to understand farmers’ behaviour (decision-making) better, in order to inform the design and implementation of policies (in particular the CAP) and the European Green Deal initiatives (in particular farm to fork and biodiversity strategies).
Extensive experimental research should cover, for instance (but not limited to) ‘nudges’, voluntary schemes or mandatory regulation, to ?ll gaps in policy-oriented research and support effective, evidence-based policy design and implementation.
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:
- improved understanding of challenges and opportunities for the development of sustainable, climate-neutral, biodiversity-friendly farming systems at the farm and landscape levels;
- improved understanding of farmers’ individual (behavioural/decision-making) and systemic ‘lock-ins’ and ‘levers’ for moving to and staying in sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly farming systems;
- improved understanding of consumers’ behaviour (decision-making) and market segmentation with regard to buying food from sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity -friendly farming systems;
- improved understanding of behaviour (decision-making) of upstream and downstream operators in agri-food value chains and other relevant actors across food systems with regard to hindering/facilitating transition to sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly production and consumption systems;
- better design and implementation of relevant policies, in particular the CAP, the farm to fork and biodiversity strategies, that effectively incentivise large-scale and long-term behavioural shifts by farmers to sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly farming systems;
- improved farm advice, business strategies and relationships building on common interests among relevant food systems operators and actors across sectors, helping farmers to produce in a more sustainable manner, contributing to climate neutrality and reversing biodiversity decline; and
- improved capacities of researchers in behavioural and experimental research, and systems thinking.
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/3dL6lMp