Deadline: 15-Feb-22
European Commission is calling for proposals for Marginal lands and climate-resilient and biodiversity-friendly crops for sustainable industrial feedstocks and related value chains.
Scope
- Sustainable biomass provision by primary land sectors (agriculture and forestry), supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation. This will require finding a balance between productivity and ecosystem services, notably biodiversity and social sustainability goals.
- The topic explores two main aspects. First, enhancing ecosystem services to prepare for increased water stress and water scarcity due to climate change (including the increasing desertification of large parts of the EU, especially of the Mediterranean and Central European Member States). Secondly, serving multi-purpose and optimized biomass production, with a specific focus on improving biodiversity-related benefits, with opportunities for European rural development and improved industrial competitiveness.
- The scope includes identifying and developing environmentally and economically viable sources of pollinator-supporting industrial crops (e.g. by exploring the traits supporting the pollinators such as nectar provision, or resistance to pests and diseases, as well as the optimisation of a related agronomic practice). It also includes identifying and optimising crops (e.g. non-edible oil and fibre crops, dryland shrubs and woody crops) that could be adapted through modern biotechnology tools to require low-water/low-input use, and upscaling them in related value chains, e.g. in industrial sectors such as biochemicals, composites or elastomers, with the aim of replacing their fossil-based counterparts.
- The topic aims to engage all relevant actors, especially the farming community, but also bio-based industry and academia, and civil society, calling for working together and co-creation, to develop solutions involving end users and taking into account a comprehensive business case at farm/production level.
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
Projects results should contribute to all following expected outcomes:
- Identification of the co-benefits potential risks and upscaling potential of sustainable biomass production with a low potential for Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) with focus on marginal lands. This should include non-edible (industrial) biomass use (such as in biorefineries of various scale and types for climate-neutral circular materials and products); introducing new industrial cropping systems (such as perennial crops).
- An improved understanding of the actual available land in the EU Member States and associated countries that could be used for biomass production that can be certified as ‘low ILUC’ for use in bio-based sectors; taking into account increasing resilience to environmental climate change effects such as soil erosion and water stress of the identified crops.
- An increased understanding of the biodiversity challenges and potentials, and the ecosystem services, with due attention to protection measures, coupled with end-user adoption and implementation of environmentally sound practices by all operators (farmers, researchers, and bio-based industry active in rural areas). This should include the replication of such practices across Europe.
- Improved functional performance of the specific value chains and products, and improved resource efficiency thanks to a better application of the cascading use of biomass.
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/3bkX6kG