Deadline: 24-Mar-22
The European Commission is inviting proposals for Linking soil health to nutritional and safe food.
Scope
Soils are essential for the global food system and regulate water, carbon and nitrogen cycles but are put under pressure from population growth and climate change. Maintaining healthy soils helps ensure nutritious, tasty and safe foods, which are essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and in particular SDG 2, Zero Hunger.
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 the soil health and food nexus to promote the development of a coherent portfolio of food systems R&I activities in line with the FOOD 2030 initiative.
- Further understanding of the interlinkages between farming practices, soil health and four food quality-related characteristics of agri-food products: nutritional composition, tastiness (palatability), their technological properties (i.e. soil health impact on plant characteristics such as protein quality that may affect technological properties and subsequently the final food products) and safety (the level of residues of pesticides, metals or mycotoxins).
- Support R&I to facilitate the transition towards healthy and sustainable dietary behaviour. It will contribute to the transformation of food systems to deliver co-benefits for climate (mitigation and adaptation), biodiversity, environmental sustainability and circularity, dietary shift, sustainable healthy nutrition and safe food.
- Improved knowledge on how soil health influences food quality (including nutritional composition, tastiness, technological properties and safety) and which methods and tools exist to determine this.
- Best practices linking soil health to food quality and how they can be deployed along the food system.
- Engaged stakeholders throughout the food system, increased public awareness and business interest on the connection of soil health and food quality, via interactive learning/experimentation through living labs throughout Europe.
- Improved links and knowledge transfer with the EJP Soil and other soil-relevant Horizon Europe instruments and initiatives (IBF Microbiome Working Group) at EU and international level.
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/3eoHRIF
