Deadline: 31-Oct-22
The first Water4All Joint Call for transnational collaborative water RDI Projects is open to address at least one of the following main topics:
- Resilience, adaptation and mitigation to hydroclimatic extreme events
- Tools for water management – in the context of hydroclimatic extreme events
- Improved water governance in the context of hydroclimatic extreme events and international contexts
The proposals can focus on the development of new knowledge through basic research and/or the implementation of solutions and tools. In all cases, knowledge transfer and impact of the deliverables must be clearly demonstrated. Delivered new knowledge should have the potential to be used in new and improved options and tools for governance, management and evidence-based policy making. Problems related to hydroclimatic extreme events to be tackled can be both related to water quality and quantity. Both surface and groundwater can be included.
Goals
The 2022 Joint Transnational Call “Management of water resources: resilience, adaptation and mitigation to hydroclimatic extreme events and management tools” within the Water4All Partnership is aimed at research and innovation to improve water security in the long term. In line with the strategic objectives of Water4All, the results should contribute to the implementation of evidence-based, global, EU and national water management policies and strategies, within the frameworks of the Green Deal, WFD, Just Transition and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Objectives
- The increase in the number of hydrological extreme events in the last few decades has motivated the research community to investigate their spatial variability and underlying processes. Evidence suggests that for properly supporting water management and tackling future and emerging challenges, it is necessary to make progress in understanding the spatiotemporal complex systems that drive hydrological events. Approaches for the characterisation of relationships between such complex systems and economic, organisational, policy, social and regulatory conditions need to be developed to bring systemic change.
- Water4All’s 2022 Joint Transnational Call will therefore seek to deliver knowledge, models, approaches, tools and methodologies to better understand hydrological processes at different scales and to respond more efficiently to emerging water issues related to extreme events. The results will support the implementation of EU water policies (Green Deal, Water Framework Directive (WFD) and its daughter Directives, etc.) and EU plans and strategies related to water management (e.g., zero pollution action plan, and strategies, EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030) for resource efficiency and protection, water use and adaptation and resilience to hydroclimatic extreme events.
Impact of the Proposals
In line with the European Commission’s (EC) aims for Horizon Europe to create significant societal and environmental impact proposals will be required to describe what impact their research is expected to achieve in the long run and how they contribute to the overall impacts defined for this call:
- Improved water availability and optimisation of water quality and quantity for all uses in Europe, while maintaining ecosystems needs.
- Improved resilience of European populations to water-related hazards, extreme events and climate change.
- Supporting the implementation of the UN SDGs and ensuring a Just Transition for all.
Themes
The call will focus on solutions for hydroclimatic extreme events, as described in the Water4All Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda Theme III “Water for the future: sustainable water management”, as well as address the cross-cutting Theme VII “Governance” and Theme V “Water Infrastructures”.
Funding Information
A total of approx. 34 million has been provisionally allocated for this Joint Transnational Call by the participating FPOs with the support of the EU. These funds will be used for RD&I activities carried out by researchers, institutions and companies according to the funding rules and legal frameworks of their respective FPOs.
Eligibility Criteria
- General
- Proposals must address at least one main topic, even though it is not compulsory to address all subtopics within a topic in the proposals.
- General Consortium composition:
- Each consortium must be composed of at least a minimum of three eligible partners that request funding from participating Funding Partner Organisations from three different countries.
- In addition to the abovementioned condition, the projects must involve at least two independent legal entities from two different EU Member States or Horizon Europe associated countries as recipients of the financial support.
- The upper limit of eligible project partners per consortium is 7 (including 1 selffunded partner).
- The maximum number of partners from the same country within the consortium must comply with national/regional regulations.
- For proposals involving up to 5 partners, maximum two entities that are also involved in the Water4all partnership may participate in the same proposal. Larger proposals may involve up to three entities that are also involved in the Water4all partnership.
- Consortium Coordinator:
- In each proposal, one of the entities must act as the Consortium Coordinator which has the responsibility for submitting the proposal.
- The Consortium Coordinator must be eligible for funding by a Funding Partner Organisation (FPO) of this call.
- The P.I. of the entity acting as Consortium Coordinator can only participate in one proposal (i.e. if the principal investigator is the Consortium Coordinator of a proposal, he/she cannot participate in any other proposal, neither as a Consortium Coordinator nor as Principal Investigator of a partner).
- Eligibility of international research institutions
- The following eligibility rules count for international research institutions:
- The Joint Research Centre (JRC) can participate in a proposal as a partner. Coordinating the proposal is not possible, since they do not “belong” to any FPO country. They will have to participate at their own expenses. They will not count in the “three different eligible entities” rule from three different FPO countries for eligibility purposes.
- Partners from countries not participating in the Call may join consortia only as partners (not as coordinator). Participation will be at the institutions’ own expense. Moreover, such partners will have to demonstrate that they will achieve the related tasks in the proposal.
- International institutions, e.g. UN institutions, need to investigate their respective national eligibility guidelines for national and/or global funding and make sure they would be able to fulfil the duties of funded projects (i.e. signature of consortium agreement).
- The following eligibility rules count for international research institutions:
For more information, visit http://water4all-partnership.eu/