Deadline: 06-Oct-21
The European Commission is seeking applications to Assess and Predict the Integrated Impacts of Cumulative Direct and Indirect Stressors on coastal and marine biodiversity, ecosystems, and their services.
Scope
- The European Environment – State and Outlook 2020 (EEA, SOER) underscore the fact that the current trajectories of social and economic development are destroying the ecosystems that ultimately sustain humankind.
- The Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services: An EU Ecosystem assessment (Maes et al., 2020) points out the knowledge gaps in marine data and highlights that the data coverage in space and time is still insufficient to provide an exhaustive assessment of the condition of marine ecosystems and their services in Europe (incl. the outermost regions and overseas territories).
- The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Implementation Report (2020) underlines the lagging targets and actions to reach the Good Environmental Status in European seas.
- Consistently with the knowledge review in the latest IPCC SROCC and IPBES GA reports, shifting onto sustainable pathways requires urgent rapid and large-scale reductions in human and environmental pressures, going far beyond the current reductions.
- Europe is not making enough progress in addressing environmental challenges, that natural capital is not yet being protected, conserved and enhanced in accordance with the ambitions of the Seventh Environment Action Programme (7th EAP).
Funding Information
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
In support of the implementation of the Green Deal and the biodiversity strategy, successful proposals will contribute to all following expected outcomes notably to better understand biodiversity decline, its main direct drivers and their interrelations:
- Policy makers and implementing authorities at national and regional level can assess and predict impacts (incl. tipping points) of multiple stressors on coastal and marine biodiversity (cf. sensitive species and habitats), ecosystems functioning and all its services (including climate change adaptation, resilience and human health)
- Better management and impact assessment of invasive species, harmful algal and jellyfish blooms
- Implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive by determining pressure levels that clearly equate to acceptable levels of environmental impact on the Good Environmental Status.
- Ecosystem based management approaches and policy measures for activities both at sea and on land to reduce pressures to ensure Good Environmental Status and will enable the sustainability of coastal and marine ecosystems to deliver services and be resilient to rapid climate and environmental changes.
Eligibility Criteria
- Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-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.
- 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/3jMDjjq