Deadline: 14 February 2017
European Commission is seeking applications from eligible entities for a program entitled “Permanent grassland – farming systems and policies”.
The continuity and permanence of grasslands is a key to ensuring the conservation of biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services. There is an urgent need to recognize and add value to the multiple ecological functions of grasslands. In turn, this requires the generation of a wide range of data to characterize and benchmark sustainable farming systems based on permanent grassland, taking into consideration the various socio-economic and pedo-climatic conditions in Europe.
Funding Information
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 10 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.
Expected Outcomes
- benchmarking of grassland outputs based on local and regional site conditions across Europe;
- provision of farm-level tools for the management of permanent grasslands taking into account environmental, economic and social dimensions;
- enhanced cooperation and knowledge exchange;
- improved policy instruments for the conservation of biodiversity and delivery of identified ecosystem services and climate action provided by permanent grasslands and appropriate incentives to reduce conflict between productivity objectives in primary production, biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and the delivery of such services;
- integrated scientific support for relevant EU policies (e.g. CAP, WFD, CC objectives);
Eligibility Criteria
- Research & innovation actions (RIA): At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other.
- Innovation actions (IA): At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other.
- Coordination & support actions (CSA): At least one legal entity established in an EU Member State orHorizon 2020 associated country.
- SME instrument actions: At least one SME. Only applications from for-profit SMEs established in EU Member States or Horizon 2020 associated No concurrent submission or implementation with another SME instrument phase 1 or phase 2 project.
- ERA-NET Cofund actions: At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other. Participants in ERA-NET Cofund actions must be ‘research funders’, i.e. legal entities owning or managing public research and innovation programmes.
- Precommercial procurement (PCP) & Public procurement of Innovative solutions (PPI) actions: At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other. Furthermore, there must be a minimum of two legal entities which are ‘public procurers’ from two different EU Member States or Horizon 2020 associated countries. Both legal entities must be independent of each other.
- European Joint Programme (EJP) Cofund actions: At least five legal entities. Each of the five must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All five legal entities must be independent of each other.14 Participants in EJP Cofund actions must be legal entities owning or mandated to manage national research and innovation
How to Apply
Interested applicants can download the application forms via given website.
Eligible Country: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK
For more information, please visit European Commission Permanent Grassland.