Deadline: 12-Apr-23
The European Commission (EC) is seeking proposals for Assessing Urban Farming Impacts.
Scope
Proposals are expected to:
- Assess current and future (foresight) contribution of various forms of urban farming to:
- Overall food supply, food security and resilience mainly for urban citizens but also addressing potential food security impacts on rural populations, factoring in megatrends and potential risks around key inputs or conditions enabling urban farming;
- Evolution of farm income in urban and rural areas, the distribution of value added in the supply chain and possible effects on the bargaining power of supply chain actors;
- The provision of ecosystem services in urban and rural areas against the evolution of environment and climate conditions (including water and nutrient use and cycling, biodiversity protection, energy use, soils including soil health, regulation of the urban heat island effect etc.), in relation with European Green Deal objectives;
- The provision of social benefits (e.g., access of new and/or young farmers, gender equity, place-based/community development) and improvement of social capital (e.g., values, networks, governance) and community cohesion in urban and rural areas. Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) aspects should be an integral part of the proposal;
- The demand for new skills, training and educational offer also taking into account the technological or social dimensions of different forms of urban farming.
- Compare the conditions under which various types of urban, peri-urban or rural farmers operate in order to identify the challenges that may justify targeted regulatory or policy initiatives. Conditions are to be understood in a broad sense, including e.g., initial investments, production, quality control, labelling, marketing and retail as well as the legal and enabling environment in which they operate.
- Support the discussion on rationale for policy interventions in the EU context.
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
- The successful proposals will support the European Green Deal, farm to fork strategy and impact assessment for the post-2027 common agricultural policy (CAP).
- Projects results are expected to contribute to all of following expected outcomes:
- Improved knowledge on impacts and risks of various types of urban farming from the economic, environmental and social perspective, with a particular focus on spill-over effects into rural and peri-urban areas;
- Improved awareness of policy makers helping them adjust policy and legal frameworks to foster benefits and mitigate risks associated to the development of various forms of urban farming and related technologies.
Eligibility Criteria
- To become a beneficiary, legal entities must be eligible for funding.
- 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,
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States,
- countries associated to Horizon Europe;
- the following low- and middle-income countries.
For more information, visit European Commission.