Deadline: 28-Mar-23
The European Commission (EC) is offering grants through its Biodiversity Loss and Enhancing Ecosystem Services in Urban and Peri-Urban Areas.
Scope
Cities with their peri-urban areas have a vital role in protecting and enhancing nature and nature contribution to people in urban areas across EU, such as health, well-being, and climate resilience. They are also key in delivering global and EU biodiversity objectives and policies, as recognised both in the ‘post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) Draft 1′ and in the ‘EU biodiversity strategy for 2030‘[3], as well as in the proposal for a nature restoration law which sets targets for urban and peri-urban ecosystems.
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
- In line with the European Green Deal, in particular with the objectives of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the EU proposal for a nature restoration law[1], projects will contribute to the following impact: “to mainstream biodiversity, ecosystem services and natural capital in the society and economy”.
- They should address all of the following outcomes:
- Better implementation and delivery of the EU proposal for a nature restoration law and the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, particularly through new resources and knowledge to support the deployment across EU of urban (and peri-urban) greening plans;
- Increased capacity and skills in cities to work ‘at the right scale’ of the challenge and across policies, measures, strategies, including spatial planning capacity, so as to help deliver and assess the urban greening plans, green infrastructure strategies and more widely transformative change towards more sustainable and resilient cities to implement the EU climate adaptation strategy;
- Better understanding on how and under which conditions spatial planning can help optimise the ecosystem services of the solutions, strategies and actions, such as ecosystem restoration/creation and connectivity, Nature-based Solutions (NBS), blue and green infrastructure while addressing social equity and spatial justice aspects; operating this new knowledge into new pathways and methodologies;
- New tools and solutions for better integration of nature-based objectives in investments in infrastructure and other urban systems as well as better investment cases for renaturing the urban and peri-urban areas and maintain NBS in the long-term thanks to new and innovative governance and finance models;
- Better understanding on how to manage the tension between biodiversity protection, urban development pressure and fair access to nature for the urban citizen, identifying the relevant scale and timeframe while considering the long-term impact of spatial planning strategies;
- New approaches, tools and good practices for decision-making processes supporting municipal planning structures in co-creation of policies and plans for NBS through the lens of social equity and environmental fairness.
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.