Horizon Europe Framework Programme: Radicalisation and Gender 2024

Deadline: 20-Nov-2024

The European Commission is seeking applications for the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON) under the component Radicalisation and gender.

Scope

• Terrorism resulting from radicalisation and violent extremism is a serious threat to European security. Part of the complexity of these phenomena lies in the fact that there is neither a single pathway to radicalisation nor a single terrorist profile. Support of extremists is an effect of individual clusters of psychological, personal, social, economic and political reasons. From a gender perspective, women’s radicalisation and involvement in violent extremist groups remain relatively under-researched, poorly understood and possibly characterized by misconceptions about women’s exclusion from decision-making processes, as well as their significant underrepresentation in bodies countering the phenomena. In situations of conflict and violence, women are often seen as passive, victims, subordinate and maternal, while these could be assumptions reinforcing gender stereotypes. In order to improve understandings of radicalization and gender they need to study how and why gender norms appear as an increasingly contested area of politics with strong mobilizing power. What role gender norms and equality policies play in stabilizing and destabilizing social and political order, and how ideas and norms about gender equality make people react, mobilize and engage politically, at present, in the past and in the future. The entry point for prevention and de-radicalisation efforts are local communities, which are both stakeholders and partners of the law enforcement in this process. Activities aimed at youngsters and adults have to be gender sensitive, and research has to deliver tailored advice and solutions adequately, and proportionately addressing all critical issues.
• Community policing with its multidisciplinary approach seeks the cooperation of local communities and the broad range of public authorities in its efforts of building safe environments. However, those efforts should recognise not only cultural, social and economic diversity of the milieus, but as mentioned above also be gender sensitive. The successful proposal should build on the publicly available achievements and findings of related previous national or EU-funded projects as well as seek to exploit potential synergies with the successful proposal(s) funded under HORIZON-CL3-2023-FCT-01-03: New methods and technologies in service of community policing and transferable best practices, and HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-05: Gender-roles in extremist movements and their impact on democracy.
• Moreover, the EU Counter-Terrorism Agenda adopted in 2020 outlines that Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) will identify best practices and approaches of community policing and engagement to build trust with and among communities, thus research under this topic should also build upon the work done by RAN. This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related innovation activities.

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 are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:
  • Improved understanding of motivation of women and girls for supporting extremist ideologies, such as grievance and stigmatisation;
  • Improved understanding of the role of masculinity in men and boys’ motivation for the support of extreme ideologies;
  • Better understanding of the group dynamics at play during processes of radicalisation, including factors for factionalism and potential splinters in terrorist organisations;
  • Development of strategies aimed at enhancing the use of motivation factor in detection, prevention and de-radicalisation efforts;
  • European Police Authorities, Prison Authorities, social care workers, teachers and other P/CVE practitioners benefit from modern and validated tools, skills and training curricula to identify early symptoms of radicalisation;
  • Identification and assessment of best practices that are transferable across Member States improving and developing modules and trainings, strengthening adaption of local community policing in diverse communities; and
  • Design girls and women’s empowerment approaches through legal, financial and/or cultural means aimed at tackling the root causes of radicalisation and extremism.

Eligible Activities

• Projects must focus exclusively on civil applications and must not:
  • aim at human cloning for reproductive purposes;
  • intend to modify the genetic heritage of human beings which could make such changes heritable (except for research relating to cancer treatment of the gonads, which may be financed);
  • intend to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research, or for the purpose of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer.
• Projects must, moreover, comply with EU policy interests and priorities (environment, social, security, industrial policy, etc.).
• The following activities are generally eligible for grants under Horizon Europe:
  • Research and innovation actions (RIA) — Activities that aim primarily to establish new knowledge or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. This may include basic and applied research, technology development and integration, testing, demonstration and validation of a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulated environment.
  • Innovation actions (IA) — Activities that aim directly to produce plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. These activities may include prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication.
  • Coordination and support actions (CSA) — Activities that contribute to the objectives of Horizon Europe. This excludes research and innovation (R&I) activities, except those carried out under the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’ component of the programme (part of ‘Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area’). Also eligible are bottom-up coordination actions which promote cooperation between legal entities from Member States and Associated Countries to strengthen the European Research Area, and which receive no EU co-funding for research activities.
  • Programme co-fund actions (CoFund) — A programme of activities established or implemented by legal entities managing or funding R&I programmes, other than EU funding bodies. Such a programme of activities may support: networking and coordination; research; innovation; pilot actions; innovation and market deployment; training and mobility; awareness raising and communication; and dissemination and exploitation. It may also provide any relevant financial support, such as grants, prizes and procurement, as well as Horizon Europe blended finance30 or a combination thereof. The actions may be implemented by the beneficiaries directly or by providing financial support to third parties.
  • Innovation and market deployment actions (IMDA) — Activities that embed an innovation action and other activities necessary to deploy an innovation on the market. This includes the scaling-up of companies and Horizon Europe blended finance.
  • Training and mobility actions (TMA) — Activities that aim to improve the skills, knowledge and career prospects of researchers, based on mobility between countries and, if relevant, between sectors or disciplines.
  • Pre-commercial procurement actions (PCP) — Activities that aim to help a transnational buyers’ group to strengthen the public procurement of research, development, validation and, possibly, the first deployment of new solutions that can significantly improve quality and efficiency in areas of public interest, while opening market opportunities for industry and researchers active in Europe. Eligible activities include the preparation, management and follow-up, under the coordination of a lead procurer, of one joint PCP and additional activities to embed the PCP into a wider set of demand-side activities.
  • Public procurement of innovative solutions actions (PPI) — Activities that aim to strengthen the ability of a transnational buyers’ group to deploy innovative solutions early by overcoming the fragmentation of demand for such solutions and sharing the risks and costs of acting as early adopters, while opening market opportunities for industry. Eligible activities include preparing and implementing, under the coordination of a lead procurer, one joint or several coordinated PPI by the buyers’ group and additional activities to embed the PPI into a wider set of demand-side activities.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
  • the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
  • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States: Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
  • countries associated to Horizon Europe: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
• Specific cases: 
  • Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities are eligible for funding if they are established in one of the countries listed above, or in a country identified in the specific call/topic conditions.
  • Associated partners — Entities not eligible for funding (and therefore not able to participate as beneficiaries) may participate as associated partners, unless specified otherwise in the specific call/topic conditions.
  • Coordination and Support Actions – To be eligible to participate as beneficiaries (or affiliated entities) in ‘Coordination and support’ actions, legal entities must be established in a Member State or Associated Country, unless the specific call/topic conditions provide otherwise (in which case the general rules for eligibility for funding apply). Legal entities established in a non-associated third country may, however, participate in ‘Coordination and support’ actions as associated partners, unless this is explicitly excluded by the specific call/topic conditions.
  • EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law may also be eligible to receive funding, unless their basic act states otherwise.
  • International organisations — International European research organisations are eligible to receive funding. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country are eligible to receive funding for ‘Training and mobility’ actions or when provided for in the specific call/topic conditions. Other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding, unless provided for in the specific call/topic conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority.

For more information, visit EC.