Próximas Calls

FETHPC-02-2019 - Extreme scale computing technologies, methods and algorithms for key applications and support to the HPC ecosystem

Specific Challenge: To develop world-class extreme scale, power-efficient and highly resilient High Performance Computing and data technologies, and to provide support for a sustainable exascale HPC ecosystem in Europe, enabling collaborations among the relevant stakeholders.

Scope: A. Research and Innovation Actions

Proposals should address the development of extreme scale computing technologies, methods and algorithms through a strong co-design approach driven by ambitious extreme computing and data applications and in close cooperation with the scientific disciplines and stakeholders concerned.
The designs of the technology should respond to critical demands of performance, energy efficiency, scale, resilience, programmability, dynamic workflows etc. Proposals should describe clear metrics and targets when addressing these demands, quantify progress with respect to the state-of-the-art, and address the research challenges with a holistic view and their impact on the whole computational process including data movement and storage.
Proposals should clearly articulate how research will have a significant impact in enabling ambitious extreme-scale scientific and engineering applications.

Where relevant, proposals should also provide a path towards long-term standardisation of the technologies (e.g. system software architecture, programming models, APIs, etc).

Proposals should clearly identify and address at least one of the following areas:
a.    System software and management, addressing adaptive and dynamic scheduling; heterogeneity of system components; efficient data access, transfers and communication, novel execution models for emerging HPC and High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA) usages, etc.
b.    Programming environments, reducing programming complexity and increasing scalability through advancements throughout the programming model and system software stack, and addressing code maintainability and functional portability across existing and future architectures and systems. Interoperability throughout the programming environment should be addressed.
c.    I/O and storage environment for data-centric extreme scale computing addressing overall system performance predictability, feature-rich and flexible data access and storage system API’s, backup and retrieval of extreme volumes of data and systems operation in virtualised operating environment.
d.    Data-intensive supercomputing and emerging HPC use modes addressing efficient implementation of established Big Data software frameworks and workloads on extreme-scale HPC systems, including the integration of Big Data and HPC programming models; algorithmic research addressing Machine Learning on HPC systems; interactive use of HPC resources for real time data analysis.
e.    Mathematical methods and algorithms for extreme scalability of computing and data with impact in system energy reduction and resilience, and addressing the usability and the efficient implementation on different HPC architectures. Work should link to HPC and extreme scale data architectures and technologies as well as to relevant applications (e.g. challenges identified by the European Centres of Excellence on HPC).

The Commission considers that proposals for Research and Innovation Actions requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 5 and 10 million and a duration of 3 years would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts and duration.

Note that special Grant Conditions will apply for projects granted under this topic. Please see under Call Conditions.

B.    Coordination and Support Action

To boost a sustainable European HPC ecosystem by providing activities to structure the community, to promote collaborations and synergies among Horizon 2020 HPC projects, Centres of Excellence on HPC (CoEs), Extreme scale Demonstrators (EsD), to create links with Big Data related activities, and to follow up and cooperate with other relevant international HPC activities. A specific focus will be given to the convergence of HPC and HPDA (High Performance Data Analytics). Activities should also address the following:

• coordinate the European HPC strategy, and monitor and measure its implementation,
• produce roadmaps for HPC technology and applications, covering also the post-exascale, and evaluate them through impact monitoring
• promote the European strategy and the results of the European HPC ecosystem (including at international level), engage with HPC users and foster industry take-up
• build and maintain relations with other relevant international HPC activities
• support the generation of young talent.

This coordination and support action should be driven by the relevant actors in the HPC field. It is expected that only one proposal will be selected.

The Commission considers that proposals for Coordination and Support Actions requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: A. Research and Innovation Actions

• Contribution to the realisation of the ETP4HPC Strategic Research Agenda
• Addressing important segments of the broader and/or emerging HPC markets, especially extreme-computing, emerging use modes and extreme-data HPC systems, and addressing where relevant the path to industrialisation of results
• Strengthening competitiveness and leadership of European industry & science, in particular of European technology supply
• European excellence in mathematics and algorithms for extreme scale HPC systems and applications working with extreme scale data
• Impact on key scientific or industrial applications with relevance to societal challenges

B.    Coordination and Support Action

• strengthening the European research and industrial leadership in the supply, operation and use of HPC and HPDA systems
• contribution to the realisation of the ETP4HPC Strategic Research Agenda
• structuring the efforts of stakeholders for implementing the European HPC strategy
• reinforced cooperation in international endeavours on HPC

Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Research and Innovation action

MSCA-RISE-2019 - Research and Innovation Staff Exchange

Objective:

The RISE scheme will promote international and inter-sector collaboration through research and innovation staff exchanges, and sharing of knowledge and ideas from research to market (and vice-versa).

The scheme fosters a shared culture of research and innovation that welcomes and rewards creativity and entrepreneurship and helps to turn creative ideas into innovative products, services or processes.

Scope:

RISE involves organisations from the academic and non-academic sectors (in particular SMEs), based in Europe (EU Member States and Associated Countries) and outside Europe (third countries).

Support is provided for the development of partnerships in the form of a joint research and innovation project. This is aimed at knowledge sharing via international as well as intersectoral mobility, based on secondments of research and innovation staff (exchanges) with an in-built return mechanism.

The organisations constituting the partnership contribute directly to the implementation of a joint research and innovation project by seconding and/or hosting eligible staff members. Secondments shall always take place between legal entities independent from each other[[Independence in the meaning of Article 8 of the Horizon 2020 Rules for Participation.]].

RISE should exploit complementary competences of the participating organisations, as well as other synergies, and enable networking activities, organisation of workshops and conferences to facilitate sharing of knowledge, new skills acquisition and career development for research and innovation staff members.

RISE projects can focus either on one dimension of mobility (intersectoral / international), or include a combination of both.

Exchanges can be for both early-stage and experienced researchers' levels and can also include administrative, managerial and technical staff directly involved in the research and innovation activities of the proposal.

Support for the exchanges between institutions within Europe (EU Member States and Associated Countries) covers only intersectoral secondments.

Exchanges with institutions from and to third countries can be intersectoral as well as within the same sector.

Secondments between institutions located in third countries or within the same EU Member State or Associated Country will not be supported.

Expected Impact:

At staff member level:

• Increased set of skills, both research-related and transferable ones, leading to improved employability and career prospects both in and outside academia
• Increase in higher impact R&I output, more knowledge and ideas converted into products and services
• Greater contribution to the knowledge-based economy and society

At organisation level:

• Enhanced cooperation and transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines
• Strengthening of international and intersectoral collaborative networks
• Boosting of R&I capacity among participating organisations

At system level:

• Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Europe
• Strengthening of Europe's human capital base in R&I
• Increase in Europe's attractiveness as a leading destination for R&I
• Better quality R&I contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth

MSCA-IF-2019 - Individual Fellowships

Objective:

The goal of Individual Fellowships is to enhance the creative and innovative potential of experienced researchers, wishing to diversify their individual competence in terms of skill acquisition through advanced training, international and intersectoral mobility.

Individual Fellowships provide opportunities to acquire and transfer new knowledge and to work on research and innovation in a European context (EU Member States and Associated Countries) or outside Europe. The scheme particularly supports the return and reintegration of researchers from outside Europe who have previously worked here. It also develops or helps to restart the careers of individual researchers that show great potential, considering their experience.

Scope:

Support is foreseen for individual, trans-national fellowships awarded to the best or most promising researchers of any nationality, for employment in EU Member States or Associated Countries. It is based on an application made jointly by the researcher and the beneficiary in the academic or non-academic sectors.

Only one proposal per individual researcher will be evaluated.

Fellowships take form of European Fellowships or Global Fellowships. European Fellowships are held in EU Member States or Associated Countries and are open to researchers either coming to Europe from any country in the world or moving within Europe. The researcher must comply with the rules of mobility in the country where the European Fellowship is held.

Return and reintegration of researchers into a longer term research position in Europe, including in their country of origin, is supported via a separate multi-disciplinary reintegration panel of the European Fellowships. For the reintegration panel, there shall be mobility into Europe.

Support to individuals to resume research in Europe after a career break, e.g. after parental leave, is ensured via a separate multi-disciplinary career restart panel of the European Fellowships. To qualify for the career restart panel, researchers must not have been active in research for at least 12 months immediately prior to the deadline for submission.

Researchers seeking to work on research and innovation projects in an organisation from the non-academic sector will be supported via a separate multi-disciplinary society and enterprise panel of the European Fellowships. The objective of this panel is to facilitate career moves between the academic and non-academic sectors and to open attractive career opportunities for researchers outside academia.

Global Fellowships are based on a secondment to a third country and a mandatory 12 month return period to a European host. The researcher must comply with the rules of mobility in the country where the Global Fellowship secondment takes place, not for the country of the return phase.

Researchers receiving an Individual Fellowship may opt to include a secondment phase in Europe, notably in the non-academic sector, within the overall duration of their fellowship. For a fellowship of 18 months or less, the secondment phase may last up to three months. For a fellowship of more than 18 months, the secondment phase may last up to six months. The secondment phase can be a single period or be divided into shorter mobility periods. The secondment should significantly add to the impact of the fellowship.

A Career Development Plan should be established jointly by the supervisor(s) and the researcher. In addition to research or innovation objectives, this plan comprises the researcher's training and career needs, including training on transferable skills, planning for publications and participation in conferences.

Expected Impact:

At researcher level:

• Increased set of skills, both research-related and transferable ones, leading to improved employability and career prospects both in and outside academia
• Increase in higher impact R&I output, more knowledge and ideas converted into products and services
• Greater contribution to the knowledge-based economy and society

At organisation level:

• Enhanced cooperation and stronger networks
• Better transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines
• Boosting of R&I capacity among participating organisations

At system level:

• Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Europe
• Strengthening of Europe's human capital base in R&I with more entrepreneurial and better trained researchers
• Better communication of R&I results to society
• Increase in Europe's attractiveness as a leading destination for R&I
• Better quality research and innovation contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth

MSCA-COFUND-2019 - Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes

Objective:

The COFUND scheme aims to stimulate regional, national or international programmes to foster excellence in researchers' training, mobility and career development, spreading the best practices of Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.

This will be achieved by co-funding new or existing regional, national, and international programmes to open up to, and provide for, international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary research training, as well as transnational and cross-sectoral mobility of researchers at all stages of their career.

Scope:

Each proposal funded under the COFUND scheme shall have a sole beneficiary that will be responsible for the availability of the necessary matching funds to execute the proposal.

Applicants submit multi-annual proposals for new or existing doctoral programmes or fellowship programmes which are expected to have an impact on enhancing research- and innovation related human resources on regional, national or international level.

Researchers supported under this scheme shall comply with the mobility rules of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.

Limitations regarding the researchers' origin and destination should be avoided. Support cannot be awarded to researchers who are already permanently employed by the organisation hosting them.

Proposed programmes are encouraged to cover all research disciplines ("bottom-up"), but can also focus on specific disciplines. In this case the range of covered disciplines should allow reasonable flexibility for the researchers.

Programmes that prioritise specific research disciplines based on national or regional Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3 strategies) can also be supported. Synergies with the European Structural & Investment Funds (ESIF) are encouraged.

COFUND takes the form of:

A) Doctoral programmes

Doctoral programmes address the development and broadening of the research competencies of early-stage researchers. The training follows the EU Principles on Innovative Doctoral Training. Collaboration with a wider set of partner organisations, including from the non-academic sector, which may provide hosting or secondment opportunities or training in research or transferable skills, as well as innovative elements of the proposed programme, will be positively taken into account during the evaluations.

Each researcher must be enrolled in a doctoral programme. Attention is paid to the quality of supervision and mentoring arrangements as well as career guidance.

B) Fellowship programmes

Fellowship programmes fund individual research training and career development fellowships for experienced researchers. The programmes supported should have regular selection rounds following fixed deadlines or regular cut-off dates, allowing fair competition between the researchers applying. The selections should be based on open, widely advertised competition, with transparent international peer review and the selection of candidates on merit. Mobility types supported by fellowship programmes may be similar to the ones supported under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships. On top of transnational mobility, applicants are encouraged to include elements of cross-sectoral mobility into their programmes. Fellowship programmes should be based on individual-driven mobility, i.e., researchers should be able to freely choose a research topic and the appropriate organisation to host them, fitting their individual needs.

Given that the aim of the co-funded fellowship programmes is the support of individual fellows, research teams will not be funded.

Expected Impact:

At researcher level:

• Increased set of skills, both research-related and transferable ones, leading to improved employability and career prospects both in and outside academia (leading in the longer-term to more successful careers)
• Increase in higher impact R&I output, more knowledge and ideas converted into products and services
• Greater contribution to the knowledge-based economy and society

At organisation level:

• Development of high quality human resources
• Boosting R&I capacity among participating organisations
• Enhanced cooperation and transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines
• Strengthening of international and intersectoral collaborative networks

At system level:

• Aligning of practices and policies in the context of the EU Human Resources Strategy for Researchers, enhanced implementation of the European Charter and Code and the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training at regional, national or international level
• Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Europe
• Improvement in the working and employment conditions for researchers in Europe at all levels of their career, starting from the doctoral stage
• Strengthening of Europe's human capital base in R&I
• Increase in Europe's attractiveness as a leading destination for R&I
• Better quality R&I contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth

MSCA-NIGHT-2020 - European Researchers' Night

Objective:

The European Researchers' Night aims to bring researchers closer to the general public and to increase awareness of research and innovation activities, with a view to supporting the public recognition of researchers, creating an understanding of the impact of researchers' work on citizen’s daily life, and encouraging young people to embark on research careers.

Scope:

The European Researchers' Night takes place yearly, typically on the last Friday of the month of September, and is the occasion for a Europe-wide public and media event for the promotion of research careers, in particular towards young people and their families. Supported events can start early Friday afternoon and last until early morning the following day.

Activities focus on the general public, addressing and attracting people regardless of the level their scientific background, with a special focus on pupils and students. Activities can combine education aspects with entertainment, especially when addressing young audience. They can take various forms, e.g. hands-on experiments, science shows, simulations, debates, games, competitions, quizzes, etc.

Where appropriate, engagement with educational institutions should be sought in order to encourage formal and informal science education with the aim to improve the scientific knowledge base.

Each proposal should set up at least one European corner. Activities should be organised with researchers actively involved and directly in contact with the public. They should promote the European dimension and gender balance in research and innovation. Involvement of researchers funded by Horizon 2020, including the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, is encouraged.

Participants can be any legal entity in the EU Member States and Associated Countries, and/or if relevant, constitute a partnership at regional, national or international level. The maximum duration of support will be two years from the starting date specified in the grant agreement. Proposal should cover two editions of the Night, in successive years. One single edition of the Night may also be considered.

Applicants not retained due to lack of funding may be granted the status of associated events.

Expected Impact:

• Increased awareness among the general public of the importance of research and innovation and more favourable general attitude towards its funding
• Better understanding of the key benefits that research brings to society
• Reduction in the stereotypes about researchers and their profession
• Increase, in the long term, of people taking up research careers

MSCA-ITN-2020 - Innovative Training Networks

Objective:

The Innovative Training Networks (ITN) aim to train a new generation of creative, entrepreneurial and innovative early-stage researchers, able to face current and future challenges and to convert knowledge and ideas into products and services for economic and social benefit.

ITN will raise excellence and structure research and doctoral training, extending the traditional academic research training setting, incorporating the elements of Open Science and equipping researchers with the right combination of research-related and transferable competences. It will provide enhanced career perspectives in both the academic and non-academic sectors through international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility combined with an innovation-oriented mind-set.

Scope:

ITN supports competitively selected joint research training and/or doctoral programmes, implemented by partnerships of universities, research institutions, research infrastructures, businesses, SMEs, and other socio-economic actors from different countries across Europe and beyond.

Partnerships take the form of collaborative European Training Networks (ETN), European Industrial Doctorates (EID) or European Joint Doctorates (EJD).

Each programme should have a clearly identified supervisory board co-ordinating network-wide training and establishing active and continuous communication and exchange of best practice among the partners to maximise the benefits of the partnership.

The programme should exploit complementary competences of the participating organisations, and enable sharing of knowledge, networking activities, the organisation of workshops and conferences.

Training responds to well identified needs in defined research areas, with appropriate references to inter- and multidisciplinary fields and follows the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training. It should be primarily focused on scientific and technological knowledge through research on individual, personalised projects.

In order to increase the employability of the researchers, the research training should be complemented by the meaningful exposure of each researcher to the non-academic sector.

Secondments of the researcher to other beneficiaries and partner organisations are encouraged.

Substantial training modules, including digital ones, addressing key transferable skills common to all fields and fostering the culture of Open Science, innovation and entrepreneurship will be supported.

In order to reflect on the changing nature of research, training should prepare early-stage researchers for an increased research collaboration and information-sharing made possible by new technologies (e.g. collaborative tools, open access, raw data, etc.).

A Career Development Plan should be established jointly by the supervisor(s) and the early-stage researcher recruited by the selected network. In addition to research objectives, this plan comprises the researcher's training and career needs, including planning for publications and participation in conferences.

Attention is paid to the quality of supervision and mentoring arrangements as well as career guidance. Joint supervision of the researchers is mandatory for EJD and for EID, and encouraged in ETN. In EID, the joint supervision of the researcher must be ensured by at least one supervisor from the academic sector and one supervisor from the non-academic sector. These arrangements will be taken into account during the evaluation of the proposal.

In EID and EJD, fellowships offered to early-stage researchers should lead to a doctoral degree. EJD result in joint[[Joint degree – a single diploma issued by at least two higher education institutions offering an integrated programme and recognised officially in the countries where the degree-awarding institutions are located.]], double or multiple doctoral degrees[[Double or multiple degree - two or more national diplomas issued by two or more higher education institutions and recognised officially in the countries where the degree-awarding institutions are located.]] awarded by institutions from at least two different countries.

In EID and EJD, enrolment in a doctoral programme and the creation of a joint governance structure - with joint admission (EJD only), selection, supervision, monitoring and assessment procedures - is mandatory. These arrangements will be taken into account during the evaluation of the proposal.

Expected Impact:

At researcher level:

• Increased set of skills, both research-related and transferable ones, leading to improved employability and career prospects both in and outside academia (leading in the longer-term to more successful careers)
• Increase, in the longer-term, in higher impact R&I output, more knowledge and ideas converted into products and services
• Greater contribution, in the longer term, to the knowledge-based economy and society

At organisation level:

• Enhanced cooperation and better transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines
• Improvement in the quality of training programmes
• Creation of new networks and enhanced quality of existing ones
• Boosting R&I capacity among participating organisations
• Increased internationalisation of participating organisations

At system level:

• Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Europe
• More structured and innovative doctoral training, enhanced implementation of the European Charter and Code and the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training
• Stronger links between the European Research Area (ERA) and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), notably through supporting the knowledge triangle between research, innovation and education
• Improvement in the working and employment conditions for doctoral candidates in Europe
• Increased societal and economic relevance of European higher education
• Strengthening Europe's human capital base in R&I with a new generation of more entrepreneurial and highly-skilled early career researchers
• Increase in Europe's attractiveness as a leading research destination, accompanied by a rise in the numbers of talented researchers retained and attracted from abroad
• Better quality research and innovation contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth

MSCA-RISE-2020 - Research and Innovation Staff Exchange

Objective:

The RISE scheme will promote international and inter-sector collaboration through research and innovation staff exchanges, and sharing of knowledge and ideas from research to market (and vice-versa).

The scheme fosters a shared culture of research and innovation that welcomes and rewards creativity and entrepreneurship and helps to turn creative ideas into innovative products, services or processes.

Scope:

RISE involves organisations from the academic and non-academic sectors (in particular SMEs), based in Europe (EU Member States and Associated Countries) and outside Europe (third countries).

Support is provided for the development of partnerships in the form of a joint research and innovation project. This is aimed at knowledge sharing via international as well as intersectoral mobility, based on secondments of research and innovation staff (exchanges) with an in-built return mechanism.

The organisations constituting the partnership contribute directly to the implementation of a joint research and innovation project by seconding and/or hosting eligible staff members. Secondments shall always take place between legal entities independent from each other[[Independence in the meaning of Article 8 of the Horizon 2020 Rules for Participation.]].

RISE should exploit complementary competences of the participating organisations, as well as other synergies, and enable networking activities, organisation of workshops and conferences to facilitate sharing of knowledge, new skills acquisition and career development for research and innovation staff members.

RISE projects can focus either on one dimension of mobility (intersectoral / international), or include a combination of both.

Exchanges can be for both early-stage and experienced researchers' levels and can also include administrative, managerial and technical staff directly involved in the research and innovation activities of the proposal.

Support for the exchanges between institutions within Europe (EU Member States and Associated Countries) covers only intersectoral secondments.

Exchanges with institutions from and to third countries can be intersectoral as well as within the same sector.

Secondments between institutions located in third countries or within the same EU Member State or Associated Country will not be supported.

Expected Impact:

At staff member level:

• Increased set of skills, both research-related and transferable ones, leading to improved employability and career prospects both in and outside academia
• Increase in higher impact R&I output, more knowledge and ideas converted into products and services
• Greater contribution to the knowledge-based economy and society

At organisation level:

• Enhanced cooperation and transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines
• Strengthening of international and intersectoral collaborative networks
• Boosting of R&I capacity among participating organisations

At system level:

• Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Europe
• Strengthening of Europe's human capital base in R&I
• Increase in Europe's attractiveness as a leading destination for R&I
• Better quality R&I contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth

MSCA-IF-2020 - Individual Fellowships

Objective:

The goal of Individual Fellowships is to enhance the creative and innovative potential of experienced researchers, wishing to diversify their individual competence in terms of skill acquisition through advanced training, international and intersectoral mobility.

Individual Fellowships provide opportunities to acquire and transfer new knowledge and to work on research and innovation in a European context (EU Member States and Associated Countries) or outside Europe. The scheme particularly supports the return and reintegration of researchers from outside Europe who have previously worked here. It also develops or helps to restart the careers of individual researchers that show great potential, considering their experience.

Scope:

Support is foreseen for individual, trans-national fellowships awarded to the best or most promising researchers of any nationality, for employment in EU Member States or Associated Countries. It is based on an application made jointly by the researcher and the beneficiary in the academic or non-academic sectors.

Only one proposal per individual researcher will be evaluated.

Fellowships take form of European Fellowships or Global Fellowships. European Fellowships are held in EU Member States or Associated Countries and are open to researchers either coming to Europe from any country in the world or moving within Europe. The researcher must comply with the rules of mobility in the country where the European Fellowship is held.

Return and reintegration of researchers into a longer term research position in Europe, including in their country of origin, is supported via a separate multi-disciplinary reintegration panel of the European Fellowships. For the reintegration panel, there shall be mobility into Europe.

Support to individuals to resume research in Europe after a career break, e.g. after parental leave, is ensured via a separate multi-disciplinary career restart panel of the European Fellowships. To qualify for the career restart panel, researchers must not have been active in research for at least 12 months immediately prior to the deadline for submission.

Researchers seeking to work on research and innovation projects in an organisation from the non-academic sector will be supported via a separate multi-disciplinary society and enterprise panel of the European Fellowships. The objective of this panel is to facilitate career moves between the academic and non-academic sectors and to open attractive career opportunities for researchers outside academia.

Global Fellowships are based on a secondment to a third country and a mandatory 12 month return period to a European host. The researcher must comply with the rules of mobility in the country where the Global Fellowship secondment takes place, not for the country of the return phase.

Researchers receiving an Individual Fellowship may opt to include a secondment phase in Europe, notably in the non-academic sector, within the overall duration of their fellowship. For a fellowship of 18 months or less, the secondment phase may last up to three months. For a fellowship of more than 18 months, the secondment phase may last up to six months. The secondment phase can be a single period or be divided into shorter mobility periods. The secondment should significantly add to the impact of the fellowship.

A Career Development Plan should be established jointly by the supervisor(s) and the researcher. In addition to research or innovation objectives, this plan comprises the researcher's training and career needs, including training on transferable skills, planning for publications and participation in conferences.

Expected Impact:

At researcher level:

• Increased set of skills, both research-related and transferable ones, leading to improved employability and career prospects both in and outside academia
• Increase in higher impact R&I output, more knowledge and ideas converted into products and services
• Greater contribution to the knowledge-based economy and society

At organisation level:

• Enhanced cooperation and stronger networks
• Better transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines
• Boosting of R&I capacity among participating organisations

At system level:

• Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Europe
• Strengthening of Europe's human capital base in R&I with more entrepreneurial and better trained researchers
• Better communication of R&I results to society
• Increase in Europe's attractiveness as a leading destination for R&I
• Better quality research and innovation contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth

MSCA-COFUND-2020 - Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes

Objective:

The COFUND scheme aims to stimulate regional, national or international programmes to foster excellence in researchers' training, mobility and career development, spreading the best practices of Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.

This will be achieved by co-funding new or existing regional, national, and international programmes to open up to, and provide for, international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary research training, as well as transnational and cross-sectoral mobility of researchers at all stages of their career.

Scope:

Each proposal funded under the COFUND scheme shall have a sole beneficiary that will be responsible for the availability of the necessary matching funds to execute the proposal.

Applicants submit multi-annual proposals for new or existing doctoral programmes or fellowship programmes which are expected to have an impact on enhancing research- and innovation related human resources on regional, national or international level.

Researchers supported under this scheme shall comply with the mobility rules of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.

Limitations regarding the researchers' origin and destination should be avoided. Support cannot be awarded to researchers who are already permanently employed by the organisation hosting them.

Proposed programmes are encouraged to cover all research disciplines ("bottom-up"), but can also focus on specific disciplines. In this case the range of covered disciplines should allow reasonable flexibility for the researchers.

Programmes that prioritise specific research disciplines based on national or regional Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3 strategies) can also be supported. Synergies with the European Structural & Investment Funds (ESIF) are encouraged.

COFUND takes the form of:

A) Doctoral programmes

Doctoral programmes address the development and broadening of the research competencies of early-stage researchers. The training follows the EU Principles on Innovative Doctoral Training. Collaboration with a wider set of partner organisations, including from the non-academic sector, which may provide hosting or secondment opportunities or training in research or transferable skills, as well as innovative elements of the proposed programme, will be positively taken into account during the evaluations.

Each researcher must be enrolled in a doctoral programme. Attention is paid to the quality of supervision and mentoring arrangements as well as career guidance.

B) Fellowship programmes

Fellowship programmes fund individual research training and career development fellowships for experienced researchers. The programmes supported should have regular selection rounds following fixed deadlines or regular cut-off dates, allowing fair competition between the researchers applying. The selections should be based on open, widely advertised competition, with transparent international peer review and the selection of candidates on merit. Mobility types supported by fellowship programmes may be similar to the ones supported under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships. On top of transnational mobility, applicants are encouraged to include elements of cross-sectoral mobility into their programmes. Fellowship programmes should be based on individual-driven mobility, i.e., researchers should be able to freely choose a research topic and the appropriate organisation to host them, fitting their individual needs.

Given that the aim of the co-funded fellowship programmes is the support of individual fellows, research teams will not be funded.

Expected Impact:

At researcher level:

• Increased set of skills, both research-related and transferable ones, leading to improved employability and career prospects both in and outside academia (leading in the longer-term to more successful careers)
• Increase in higher impact R&I output, more knowledge and ideas converted into products and services
• Greater contribution to the knowledge-based economy and society

At organisation level:

• Development of high quality human resources
• Boosting R&I capacity among participating organisations
• Enhanced cooperation and transfer of knowledge between sectors and disciplines
• Strengthening of international and intersectoral collaborative networks

At system level:

• Aligning of practices and policies in the context of the EU Human Resources Strategy for Researchers, enhanced implementation of the European Charter and Code and the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training at regional, national or international level
• Increase in international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral mobility of researchers in Europe
• Improvement in the working and employment conditions for researchers in Europe at all levels of their career, starting from the doctoral stage
• Strengthening of Europe's human capital base in R&I
• Increase in Europe's attractiveness as a leading destination for R&I
• Better quality R&I contributing to Europe's competitiveness and growth

H2020-INFRADEV-03-2018-2019 - Individual support to ESFRI and other world-class research infrastructures

Specific Challenge: The implementation phase of new pan-European research infrastructures, such as those identified in the ESFRI roadmap, is the most delicate and difficult as financial sustainability must be proved and the trust and awareness of users must be earned.

Scope: This topic targets the long-term sustainability of new research infrastructures, ESFRI and other world-class research infrastructures of European Interest, with established governance and legal structure, notably on the basis of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) or any other suitable structure with international membership. Infrastructures having submitted a first step application to the Commission for establishing an ERIC may also apply to this topic. Support will be provided to activities aimed at ensuring long-term sustainability, including enlargement of the membership, European coverage, international cooperation4, limited pilots of access provision for testing and improving user services to increase reliability and create trust, definition of service level agreements and business/funding plan, outreach, and technology transfer activities. Proposals should explain any synergies and complementarities with previous or current EU grants.
Specific attention should be given to the interaction with industry and SMEs and the fostering of the innovation potential of the infrastructures. Activities may also facilitate the development of Regional Partner Facilities and their integration in the European research infrastructure landscape. The detailed list of activities that can be supported under this topic is given in part B of the section “Specific features for Research Infrastructures”.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 and 5 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:
This activity will:

• contribute to providing Europe with a comprehensive landscape of sustainable Research Infrastructures helping to respond to challenges in science, industry and society;
• strengthen the ERA position and role in the global research environment;
• reinforce the partnership between the Commission, Member States, Associated Countries and relevant stakeholders in establishing pan-European research infrastructures;
• enhance the role of the Union in international organisations and multilateral fora;
• support progress towards the development of global research infrastructures;
• enable researchers to address societal challenges with a global dimension;
• foster capacity-building and Research Infrastructure human capital development in targeted/relevant regions.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

H2020-INFRADEV-01-2019-2020 - Design Studies

Specific Challenge: New leading-edge research infrastructures in all fields of science and technology are needed by the European scientific community in order to remain at the forefront of the advancement of research, and to be able to help industry strengthen its base of knowledge and its technological know-how. The aim of this activity is to support the conceptual and technical design for new research infrastructures which are of a clear European dimension and interest. Major upgrades of existing infrastructures may also be considered if the end result is intended to be equivalent to a new infrastructure.

Scope: Design studies should tackle all the key questions concerning the technical and conceptual feasibility of new or upgraded fully fledged user facilities (proposals considering just a component for research infrastructures are not targeted by this topic). A design study proposal should demonstrate the relevance and the advancement with respect to the state-of-art of the proposed infrastructure. It should indicate the gaps in the research infrastructure landscape the new facility will cover as well as the research challenges it will make possible to address. All fields of research are considered.
The main output of a design study will be the 'conceptual design report' for a new or upgraded research infrastructure, showing the maturity of the concept and forming the basis for identifying and constructing the next generation of Europe's and the world's leading research infrastructures. Conceptual design reports will present major choices for design alternatives and associated cost ranges, both in terms of their strategic relevance for meeting today's and tomorrow's societal challenges, and (where applicable) in terms of the technical work underpinning the development of new or upgraded research infrastructures of strategic importance for Europe.
The activities to be performed in a Design Study proposal should include both:

• Scientific and technical work, i.e. (1) the drafting of concepts, architecture and engineering plans for the construction, taking into due account resource efficiency and environmental (including climate-related) impacts, as well as, when relevant, the creation of prototypes; (2) scientific and technical work to ensure that the scientific user communities exploit the new facility from the start with the highest efficiency; (3) plans to organise the efficient curation, preservation and provision of access to data collected or produced by the future infrastructure, in line with the FAIR principles.

• Conceptual work, i.e. (1) plans to coherently integrate the new infrastructure into the European landscape of related facilities in accordance, whenever appropriate, with the EU objective of a balanced territorial development; (2) the estimated budget for construction and operation, and initial ideas on how to achieve long-term sustainability; (3) plans for an international governance structure; (4) the planning of research services to be provided at international level, (5) procedure and criteria to choose the site of the infrastructure.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:
Conceptual and technical designs of new leading edge research infrastructures are crucial to keep the European scientific community at the forefront of the advancement of research and to trigger the process leading to their establishment.

• Funding bodies for research infrastructures become aware of the strategic and funding needs of the scientific community.
• Policy bodies at the national level (e.g. funding bodies, governments), at European level (e.g. ESFRI) and internationally (e.g. the Group of Senior Officials on Research Infrastructures – GSO) have a sound decision basis to establish long-range plans for new research infrastructures of pan-European or global interest.
• The technical work carried out under this topic will contribute to strengthening the technological development capacity and effectiveness as well as the scientific performance, efficiency and attractiveness of the European Research Area.
• When relevant, the improvement of the environmental (including climate-related) impact as well as the optimisation of resource and energy use are integrated in the very early phase of development of new research infrastructures.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

H2020-INFRAEOSC-06-2019-2020 - Enhancing the EOSC portal and connecting thematic clouds

Specific Challenge: The aim of this topic is to facilitate wide, user-friendly and cross-disciplinary access to the data and services of the EOSC through the development of the necessary interfaces. The EOSC aims to offer a trusted and open environment for research users of all scientific disciplines across the whole lifecycle of scientific data. This requires concrete solutions to address the current fragmentation of entry points, to avoid duplication of efforts across thematic initiatives and from different scientific disciplines (e.g. multiple portals, web-platforms, websites, etc.). The consolidation of the EOSC hub as the point of access for researchers to help and guide them in finding easily the resources they need, is also crucial for the effective delivery of the EOSC services.

Scope: (a) Support to the EOSC Portal
This sub-topic aims to provide a fully functional, sustainable and comprehensive user interface that can serve as a universal entry point to the EOSC services.
The proposals will build on the work produced by the eInfraCentral project and provide additional support for the implementation of the EOSC hub to further develop and optimise the functions and interface offered via the EOSC portal. In particular, the successful proposal should incorporate existing scientific gateways and thematic portals developed under FP7 and Horizon 2020 across all work programmes. As the scope of this activity is to provide a single user interface to the EOSC services, at most one proposal is expected to be funded in this area.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 2 million would allow this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:

• Establish the EOSC as the open-to-all, cross-border and cross-discipline access point for data driven science involving the whole European Scientific Community including the “long-tail” of science.
• Expanding the relevance of the EOSC as enabler of excellent science and multiplier of impact across disciplines to tackle current and emerging societal challenges

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

H2020-INFRAIA-2018-2019 - Integrating Activities for Advanced Communities

Specific Challenge: European researchers need effective and convenient access to the best research infrastructures in order to conduct research for the advancement of knowledge and technology. The aim of this action is to bring together, integrate on European scale, and open up key national and regional research infrastructures to all European researchers, from both academia and industry, ensuring their optimal use and joint development.

Scope: 'Advanced Communities' are scientific communities whose research infrastructures show an advanced degree of coordination and networking at present, attained, in particular, through Integrating Activities awarded under FP7 or previous Horizon 2020 calls.
An Integrating Activity will mobilise a comprehensive consortium of several key research infrastructures in a given field as well as other stakeholders (e.g. public authorities, technological partners, research institutions) from different Member States, Associated Countries and other third countries20 when appropriate, in particular when they offer complementary or more advanced services than those available in Europe.
Funding will be provided to support, in particular, the trans-national and virtual access provided to European researchers (and to researchers from Third Countries under certain conditions21), the cooperation between research infrastructures, scientific communities, industry and other stakeholders, the improvement of the services the infrastructures provide,the harmonisation, optimisation and improvement of access procedures and interfaces. Proposals should adopt the guidelines and principles of the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures.
To this extent, an Integrating Activity shall combine, in a closely co-ordinated manner:

(i) Networking activities, to foster a culture of co-operation between research infrastructures, scientific communities, industries and other stakeholders as appropriate, and to help develop a more efficient and attractive European Research Area;
(ii) Trans-national access or virtual access activities, to support scientific communities in their access to the identified key research infrastructures;
(iii) Joint research activities, to improve, in quality and/or quantity, the integrated services provided at European level by the infrastructures.

All three categories of activities are mandatory as synergistic effects are expected from these different components.
Access should be provided only to key research infrastructures of European interest, i.e., those infrastructures able to attract significant numbers of users from countries other than the country where they are located. Other national and regional infrastructures in Europe can be involved, in particular in the networking activities, for the exchange of best practices, without necessarily being beneficiaries in the proposal.
Proposals from advanced communities will have to clearly demonstrate the added value and the progress beyond current achievements in terms of integration and services, of a new grant. The strongest impact for advanced communities is expected typically to arise from focusing on innovation aspects and widening trans-national and virtual access provision, both in terms of wider and more advanced offer of scientific services, than in terms of number of users and domains served. Furthermore, in particular for communities supported in the past under three or more integrating activities, the creation of strategic roadmaps for future research infrastructure developments as well as the long-term sustainability of the integrated research infrastructure services provided at European level, need to be properly addressed. The latter requires the preparation of a sustainability plan beyond the grant lifecycle as well as, where appropriate, the involvement of funders.
In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), Integrating Activities should, whenever appropriate, pay due attention to any related international initiative (i.e. outside the EU) and foster the use and deployment of global standards.
Integrating Activities should also organise the efficient curation, preservation and provision of access to the data collected or produced under the project, defining a data management plan, even when they opt out of the extended Pilot on Open Research Data. Data management (including ethics and privacy issues), interoperability, as well as advanced data and computing services should be addressed where relevant. To this extent, proposals should build upon the state of the art in ICT and e-infrastructures for data, computing and networking, and ensure connection to the European Open Science Cloud.
Integrating Activities should in particular contribute to fostering the potential for innovation, including social innovation, of research infrastructures by reinforcing the partnership with industry, through e.g. transfer of knowledge and other dissemination activities, activities to promote the use of research infrastructures by industrial researchers, involvement of industrial associations in consortia or in advisory bodies.
Integrating Activities are expected to duly take into account all relevant ESFRI and other world-class research infrastructures to exploit synergies, to reflect on sustainability and to ensure complementarity and coherence with the existing European Infrastructures landscape.
Proposals should include clear indicators allowing the assessment of the progress towards the general and specific objectives, other than the access provision.
As the scope of an integrating activity is to ensure coordination and integration between all the key European infrastructures in a given field and to avoid duplication of effort, advanced communities are expected to submit one proposal per area.
Further conditions and requirements that applicants should fulfil when drafting a proposal are given in part D of the section “Specific features for Research Infrastructures”. Compliance with these provisions will be taken into account during evaluation.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 10 million would allow this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

On the basis of a multiannual plan drafted taking into account the assessment and the timing of previous grants as well as strategic priorities and needs, in term of research infrastructures services, emerging from other parts of Horizon 2020, this work programme invites proposals addressing the following areas listed under the different domains. A balanced coverage of the various domains, in line with the distribution of areas per domain, is expected as outcome of this topic.

(b) 2019 deadlineThe areas to be addressed under the different domains will be defined at a later stage, before the opening of the related call.

Expected Impact:

• Researchers will have wider, simplified, and more efficient access to the best research infrastructures they require to conduct their research, irrespective of location. They benefit from an increased focus on user needs.
• New or more advanced research infrastructure services, enabling leading-edge or multidisciplinary research, are made available to a wider user community.
• Operators of related infrastructures develop synergies and complementary capabilities, leading to improved and harmonised services. There is less duplication of services, leading to an improved use of resources across Europe. Economies of scale and saving of resources are also realised due to common development and the optimisation of operations.
• Innovation is fostered through a reinforced partnership of research organisations with industry.
• A new generation of researchers is educated that is ready to optimally exploit all the essential tools for their research.
• Closer interactions between larger number of researchers active in and around a number of infrastructures facilitate cross-disciplinary fertilisations and a wider sharing of information, knowledge and technologies across fields and between academia and industry.
• For communities which have received three or more grants in the past, the sustainability of the integrated research infrastructure services they provide at European level is improved.
• The integration of major scientific equipment or sets of instruments and of knowledge-based resources (collections, archives, structured scientific information, data infrastructures, etc.) leads to a better management of the continuous flow of data collected or produced by these facilities and resources.
• When applicable, the integrated and harmonised access to resources at European level can facilitate the use beyond research and contribute to evidence-based policy making.
• When applicable, the socio-economic impact of past investments in research infrastructures from the European Structural and Investment Funds is enhanced.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

H2020-INFRAINNOV-02-2019 - Network of research infrastructure Industrial Liaison and Contact Officers

Specific Challenge: The concept of industry as a full partner of Research Infrastructures (both as supplier and as user) should be proactively put in practice; this implies to promote a more extensive partnerships on joint research and development projects, addressing the development of advanced technologies, as well as specific activities fostering collaboration such as innovation, training and exchange programmes.
Industrial Liaison and Contact Officers (ILOs/ICOs) engaged with Research Infrastructures play an essential role for stimulating effective and tighter links with industry as suppliers or users. Mutual learnings among ILOs/ICOs and exchange of information on various aspects such as: awareness and communication strategies, procurements activities, industry requirements and marketing of new technologies developed for their facility, will help to raise the level of innovative actions arising from Research Infrastructures and maximise the impact of their activities.

Scope: Proposals will aim at establishing a European network of Industrial Liaison and Contact Officers (ILOs/ICOs) engaged with pan-European research infrastructures, including ESFRI landmarks and projects, as well as of other relevant world class research infrastructures of European interest. ILOs/ICOs, with different degrees of experience and representing a broad range of scientific domains should be actively involved in the action. Proposals should address:

• training sessions and exchange of best practises across various research domains;
• enhanced cross-border and cross-thematic brokerage events such as innovation exhibitions and industry-research infrastructures showcases;
• joint awareness campaigns towards industry (including SMEs) on the potential added-value of engagement with research infrastructures for their activities. This could include specific support to industrial partners in acquiring the know-how on procurement actions related to Research Infrastructures.
• the analysis of national indicators to measure the performances of ILO/ICOs’ activities.

The development and maintenance of portals providing information on research infrastructures' calls, tenders, future needs and technology transfer opportunities, could also be considered.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:
This activity will:

• Increase the awareness of industry (including SMEs) regarding opportunities offered by research infrastructures and its involvement in the development of research infrastructures technologies and services, thus raising the technological level and competitiveness of European companies;
• Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the services provided by the ILO and ICOs;
• Help research infrastructures to develop more business oriented activities, including specific support and services dedicated to industry, and the promotion of skills to manage any resulting intellectual property right;
• Provide a better insight into the return of investment in and societal impact of Research Infrastructures.

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

H2020-INFRASUPP-01-2018-2019 - Policy and international cooperation measures for research infrastructures

Specific Challenge: High-quality, accessible research infrastructures are at the heart of the knowledge triangle of research, education and innovation. They enable tens of thousands of researchers in academia and industry to develop innovative ideas, products and services that foster European competitiveness and help tackle societal challenges facing our continent. However, ensuring the availability of state-of-the-art facilities requires multi-billion Euro long-term investments across the European Research Area. In the context of implementing the ERA Roadmap, the focus of this action is to set the conditions for effective investment and optimise the use of research infrastructures of European interest.
In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation for research infrastructures is needed with a number of key partners located in third countries/regions seen as strategic both for the development, exploitation and management of world-class research infrastructures and for ensuring the necessary complementarities on the international scene required to address research challenges with a global dimension by optimising the use of the available resources.

Scope: Proposals will address one of the following sub-topics:
(c) Research and Innovation actions for the 2019 deadline
The purpose of this sub-topic is to support the further structuring of the cooperation with the Russian Federation in the Research Infrastructure domain.
Proposals will have to demonstrate the involvement of relevant entities on both European and Russian side and will cover the following 3 dimensions:
i. Building on the strategic recommendations deriving from the CREMLIN project, support the strengthening of the complementarity between Russian Mega Science initiatives and their European counterparts. Proposals will specifically address:

• Joint development and acquisition of specific instrumentation to be used by the European and Russian Infrastructures. This activity will specifically target the NICA and PIK initiatives and their European counterparts.
• Joint conceptual and technical design of Russian Infrastructures of European interest. This activity will particularly target the SSRS-4 initiative and its European counterparts.
• Joint development of future technologies required for Research Infrastructures' instrumentation;

ii. Contribute to overcoming the barriers that prevent European scientists from accessing Russian Research Infrastructures of European interest. The project will support Russian Facilities in setting-up the appropriate access conditions and cover the travel and subsistence costs that European researchers would sustain in accessing the facilities. In this context, the project will have to also take into account the list of Research Infrastructures open to International collaboration produced by the Russian Federation and the European Charter for Access to research infrastructures.
iii. The proposal will develop a staff exchange programme and thematic courses and workshops (e.g. summer schools), aimed at fostering exchanges of best practices on management practices, access procedures and scientific collaboration between infrastructure Staff and Scientists belonging to both the Russian Federation and European Union.

 

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 25 million would allow this activity to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

 

d) Coordination and support actions for the 2019 deadlineActions under this sub-topic, in line with the EU-CELAC SOM strategic approach, will concretely build on the outputs of the newly established EU-CELAC Research Infrastructure Working Group, and will:

1. support the identification of priorities for regional and bi-regional cooperation based on the respective strategic road-mapping exercises;
2. foster the exchange of best practices between the EU and CELAC on issues of common strategic relevance such as regional road-mapping processes, research infrastructure management, RI staff development.
3. support the identification of a limited number of Research Infrastructures of bi-regional interest on which the project will have to conduct pilot cooperation demonstrators comprising:

• The organisation of dedicated workshops and meetings between the EU and CELAC involved communities (research infrastructures, ministries, funding agencies). This can also be supported by bi-regional staff exchange activities, dedicated thematic training programmes (e.g. summer schools);
• The development of specific roadmaps for cooperation for each of the pilot thematic dimensions and the initial implementation of identified actions, such as supporting reciprocal access to Research Infrastructures in the two regions by covering travel and subsistence costs;
• The regular reporting to the EU-CELAC RI WG on the progress, for which an advisory board should be set up.

Under this sub-topic, legal entities established in Brazil and Mexico are eligible for funding from the Union.


The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 1.5 million would allow this activity to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts

Expected Impact:
(c) Research and Innovation actions for the 2019 deadline

• strengthen the structured cooperation between European and Russian Research Infrastructures;
• promote the harmonisation of procedures and framework conditions for access;
• develop the framework conditions to improve access of European Scientists to Russian Research Infrastructures;
• promote the participation of Russian researchers in EU projects.

(d) Coordination and Support actions for the 2019 deadline

• strengthen the development of a consistent cooperation agenda with CELAC;
• develop the international outreach of the European research infrastructures' ecosystem;
• foster a global research area vision and the development of global research infrastructures;
• contribute to capacity building and research infrastructures human capital development in targeted/relevant regions;
• enhance the role of the Union in multilateral fora;

Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Research and Innovation action

SU-ICT-02-2020 - Building blocks for resilience in evolving ICT systems

Specific Challenge: Algorithms, software and hardware systems must be designed having security, privacy, data protection and accountability in mind from their design phase in a measurable manner. Relevant challenges include: (a) to develop mechanisms that measure the performance of ICT systems with regards to cybersecurity and privacy and (b) to enhance control and trust of the consumer of digital products and services with innovative tools aiming to ensure the accountability of the security and privacy levels in the algorithms, in the software, and ultimately in the ICT systems, products and services across the supply chain.

Scope: Proposals are invited against at least one of the following three subtopics:

a) Cybersecurity/privacy audit, certification and standardisation

Innovative approaches to (i) design and develop automated security validation and testing, exploiting the knowledge of architecture, code, and development environments (e.g. white box) (ii) design and develop automated security verification at code level, focusing on scalable taint analysis, information-flow analysis, control-flow integrity, security policy, and considering the relation to secure development lifecycles, (iii) develop mechanisms, key performance indicators and measures that ease the process of certification at the level of services and (iv) develop mechanisms to better audit and analyse open source and/or open license software, and ICT systems with respect to cybersecurity and digital privacy.

b) Trusted supply chains of ICT systems

Innovative approaches to (i) develop advanced, evidence based, dynamic methods and tools for better forecasting, detecting and preventing propagated vulnerabilities, (ii) estimate both dynamically and accurately supply chain cyber security and privacy risks, (iii) design and develop security, privacy and accountability measures and mitigation strategies for all entities involved in the supply chain, (iv) design and develop techniques, methods and tools to better audit complex algorithms (e.g. search engines), interconnected ICT components/systems (v) devise methods to develop resilient systems out of potentially insecure components and (vi) devise security assurance methodologies and metrics to define security claims for composed systems and certification methods, allowing harmonisation and mutual recognition based on evidence and not only on trust.

The trusted supply chain for ICT systems/components should be considered by proposals in its entirety, in particular by addressing the IoT ecosystems/devices that are part of the supply chain.

c) Designing and developing privacy-friendly and secure software and hardware

Innovative approaches to establish methods and tools for (i) security and privacy requirements engineering (including dynamic threat modelling/ attack trees, attack ontologies, dynamic taxonomies and dynamic, evidence based risk analysis), (ii) embedded algorithmic accountability (in order to monitor the security, privacy and transparency of the algorithms/software/systems/services), (iii) system-wide consistency including connection between models, security/privacy/accountability objectives, policies, and functional implementations, (iv) metrics to assess a secure, reliable and privacy-friendly development, (v) secure, privacy-friendly and accountability-enabled programming languages (including machine languages), hardware design languages, development frameworks, as well as secure compilation and execution, (vi) novel, secure and privacy-friendly IoT architectures enabling consistent trustworthy and accountable authentication, authorization and accounting services across all IoT devices/ecosystems with enhancement of Public Key Infrastructures (PKIs) aiming to support PKI services (e.g. registration, revocation) for IoT devices.

For each of the sub-topics above, the outcome of the proposals is expected to lead to development up to Technology Readiness level (TRL) 5.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 4 and 5 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

For grants awarded under this topic for Research and Innovation Action the Commission or Agency may object to a transfer of ownership or the exclusive licensing of results to a third party established in a third country not associated to Horizon 2020. The respective option of Article 30.3 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.

Expected Impact: Short/medium term

- Improved market opportunities for the EU vendors of security components.

- Increased trust both by developers using/integrating the ICT components and by the end-users of IT systems and services.

- Protect the privacy of citizens and trustworthiness of ICT .

- Acceleration of the development and implementation of certification processes.

Long term

- Advanced cybersecurity products and services will be developed improving trust in the Digital Single Market.

- The use of more harmonized certification schemes will increase the business cases for cybersecurity services as they will become more reliable.

- Validation platforms will provide assessments with less effort compared with nowadays and assure a better compliance with relevant regulations and standards.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

SU-ICT-04-2019 - Quantum Key Distribution testbed

Specific Challenge: Europe's economic activities and Europe's single market is dependent on well-functioning underlying digital infrastructures, services and data integrity, not the least for critical infrastructures like energy, transport, health, finance, etc. Current security of the digital infrastructures and services will soon be under threat of no longer providing long-term security. Confidentiality of data and communications, authentication, as well as the long-term integrity of stored data have to be guaranteed, even in the advent of quantum computers. Introducing Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) in the underlying infrastructure has the potential to maintain end-to-end security in the long-term.

Scope: Building an experimental platform to test and validate the concept of end-to-end security, providing quantum key distribution as a service. Proposals should develop an open, robust, reliable and fully monitored metropolitan area testbed network (ring or mesh configuration). The aim is to integrate equipment, components, protocols and network technologies with QKD systems and current digital security and communication networks. Where necessary, R&D activities can be addressed. The testbed should be modular, to test different components, configurations and approaches from multiple suppliers and benchmark the different approaches against overall performance. The proposed solutions should demonstrate resistance against known hacking techniques, including quantum hacking techniques. The testbed should make use as much as possible of existing network infrastructure (fibres and/or satellites), provide a quantum key exchange rate compatible with concrete application requirements over metropolitan distances (i.e. of at least 40km). The proposed testbed should demonstrate different applications and use cases of QKD (including for authentication), optimizing end-to-end security rather than the security of individual elements.

Proposals should include an assessment of the applications and parts of the infrastructure for which the integration of QKD is economically justified, as well as an assessment of the minimal acceptable key rate for each application and its total cost of ownership.

Proposals should bring together relevant stakeholders such as telecommunication equipment manufacturers, users, network operators, QKD equipment providers, digital security professionals and scientists.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 15 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

For grants awarded under this topic the Commission may object to a transfer of ownership or the exclusive licensing of results to a third party established in a third country not associated to Horizon 2020. The respective option of Article 30.3 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.

Expected Impact:

- Demonstrating the feasibility of quantum communication networks.

- Validation of quantum network technologies, architectures, protocols, including broader cryptographic services based on QKD infrastructure.

- Interoperability of quantum and classical networks, as well as multi-vendor interoperability.

- Development of standards for QKD components, equipment and protocols.

Type of Action: Innovation action

OA-10-2016 - Horizon prize for low cost access to space

Objectives pursued: The objective of this announced inducement prize is to provide innovative yet implementable, affordable and financially sustainable solutions enabling the delivery of nano- and micro- satellites to Low Earth orbit (LEO).

The prize aims at unlocking the expected capacity crunch of access to space for these class of payloads with the demises of several existing launchers and limited opportunities aboard available launchers for secondary payload launches (orbit suitability, responsiveness, primary mission constraints) as well as the prospective mandatory application of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) guidance for debris mitigation (limiting the LEO orbit belt permitted for small satellites with no-de-orbiting systems).

The prize with a budget of EUR 4 million will reward a solution which presents one or several innovative development of a launch system dedicated to nano- and micro-satellites in order to improve cost-effectiveness and launch flexibility for this class of payloads.

Expected results: The launch system shall provide affordable, sustainable and innovative design-to-cost solutions towards complete launch systems dedicated to the delivery of nano- and micro-satellites, with a launcher performance of payloads up to 500 kg to LEO orbit35, operational as soon as possible and economically viable when considering mid-term (i.e. the year 2025) commercial nano- and micro- satellite launch market predictions.

Eligibility criteria: The contest will be open to any legal entity (including natural persons) or groups of legal entities from Member States and countries associated to Horizon 2020.Exclusion criteria foreseen in the provisions of articles 106(1), 107, 108 and 109 of the Financial Regulation (regulation 966/2012) will apply.

Essential award criteria: The prize will be awarded, after closure of the contest, to the contestants who in the opinion of the jury demonstrate a solution (which is at least a subsystem prototype demonstrated in an operational environment) that best addresses the following cumulative criteria:

• Technical achievements: demonstrated applicability of the proposed solution in relevant environment (in a scale that includes subsystem ground testing, significant systemdemonstrator testing, suborbital launch or orbital LEO launch up to 600 km Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), with higher achievements scoring higher), expected/demonstrated performances and flexibility in terms of payload mass and available target orbits.
• Economic viability: business plan for sustained operations, recurring launch costs performance (including manufacturing and operational models), capability to launch repeatedly with the lowest idle time.The specific award criteria will be detailed in the rules of the contest to be published on the participant portal.
  The contest is expected to be published in 2019.

Type of Action: Inducement prize
The common Rules of Contest for Prizes are provided in part F of the General Annexes.

Indicative timetable: 2019-2020

LC-SC3-CC-3-2019 - Support for the opening of low-carbon energy research databases in Europe

Specific Challenge: Recent advances in the collection and exploitation of large data sets open the possibility for major industrial and social innovations. The European Open Science Cloud initiative aims to maximise the incentives for sharing data and to increase the capacity to exploit them, to ensure that data can be used as widely as possible.

Increasing aspects of research in the transition to a low-carbon energy system in Europe rely on the collection, analysis and processing of large data sets. Insights, information and knowledge are increasingly extracted from data sets in individual sectors and in the combination of data from different sectors.

The challenge is to promote the opening of research databases for low-carbon energy in Europe, and to support a European-level approach to defining the development of future research data bases; this action focuses on the area of low-carbon energy. As the energy transition combines different scientific disciplines, particular attention has to be paid to agreed metadata in order to allow for the joint exploitation of data from these disciplines.

Scope: Proposals will develop together with energy research communities several of the items below:

•Development and use of data management practices that follow findable, accessible, interoperable, re-usable (FAIR) principles, and to the validation of data quality measures;

•Coordination of existing data repositories and databases, including those from SETIS and from the IEA;

•Access to tools to manage energy data with FAIR principles; promotion of open source access of such tools;

•Access to analytics to exploit energy data; promotion of open source access of such tools;

•Capacity building of data experts for the domain of low-carbon energy research;

•New research topics based on the analysis of large data sets in the energy domain;

•Trans-disciplinary research combining data from different domains and at different scales;

•Development of partnerships with industry to promote the opening of large datasets of interest to foster research into future technologies and services. 

A broad coverage of the issues mentioned above is encouraged.

Recommendations that will be produced by the ongoing study on "Opportunities and barriers for opening of research databases in low-carbon energy research" should be taken into account .

Proposals should also follow developments of the European Open Science Cloud initiative, and plan to cooperate with and complement this activity.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 0.5 and 1 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: 

•Increasing/extending/widening the use of low-carbon energy research databases, particularly those from publicly financed R&I projects.

•Development of a critical mass of open research databases in Europe, and of researchers equipped with the know-how for the deployment, maintenance and exploitation of these.

•Easy and open access to these databases and to tools for their elaboration and exploitation, leading to increased efficiency of research investments.

•Strengthening of data-intensive research on low-carbon energy in Europe;

•Strengthening the development of industrial applications of data-intensive processes. 

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

LC-SC3-JA-3-2019 - European Pre-Commercial Procurement Programme for Wave Energy Research &Development

Specific Challenge: The challenge is the design, development and validation of cost-effective Wave energy convertors that can survive in a harsh and unpredictable ocean environment as the ocean through demand-driven Pre-Commercial Procurement. The challenge is open to proposals seeking to steer wave energy research and development in an effective way at a European level establishing convergence of wave energy technologies and to bring these technologies to the market. 

Scope: In the past years, Member States and the European Commission have been working closely together to use their public resources via previous Ocean ERA-NET Cofund actions but like to reinforce their cooperation to address the challenge through a different funding instrument. In this European PCP action it is the aim to elevate experience with national public procurement approaches at a European level to bring European Wave Energy Research and Development more efficiently into the direction of commercialization.

The proposed action is to be structured along the following phases:

Preparation phase: The participating users/buyers of R&D service should agree on common performance levels and associated specifications for the wave energy systems. The action should introduce the ocean energy phase gate procedure on a European level.

They will plan the research and the design of actions covering a broad variety of issues. The PCP will consist of several building blocks addressing different sub-challenges. The funding of the participating programme owners (national and/or regional) and the European Union will be used for different stages in the wave energy technology development. The results of phase 1 should lead to calls for tenders (for the procurement of R&D services) which focus on clearly identified technologies which contribute to the development of commercial wave energy devices. The procurement should be also open for developers, researcher organisations which are not located in the participating countries/regions.

The expected outcomes at this stage: 1) completed tender documents, 2) signed joint procurement agreement confirming the collaboration modus including the financial commitment of the buyers group and 3) final confirmation of the lead procurer.

Execution stage: The action will take care for the implementation of the Pre-Commercial Procurement and of the PCP contracts. The results will be shared within the European industry to accelerate technology development and the establishment of guidelines and standards to facilitate the transferability of the knowledge creation. The research and specification work should lead to at least 3 prototypes tested in an environment close to expected performance. At the end of the action at least one of the prototypes should be ready for testing in an operational environment at commercial scale.

Proposals have to describe the jointly identified challenge, indicating how it fits into their mid-to-long term innovation plans, why solutions currently available on the market or under development are not meeting their needs. Activities have to include: (1) networking related to preparation, management and coordination and (2) joint research activities related to the validation of PCP strategy.

The consortium should have at least three legal entities established in different member states or H2020 associated countries. In the consortium the participation of minimum two 'public procurers' is required. Other entities might be considered which can have a clear added value in the preparation and/or execution of the PCP or in coordination and networking activities.

Please see part E of the General Annexes for the specific proposal requirements for PCP actions.

The Commission considers that PCP proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between 15 and 20 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission a selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: 

•Convergence of wave energy technologies, acceleration of technology development, proof-of-concept and validation of wave energy technology for the benefit of the wave energy sector and as such improved knowledge transfer. 

•Pool resources at national and EU levels dedicated to Research and Development and provide effectively a significant developmental boost of wave energy technology.

•More effective use of public resources for Research and Demonstration. 

Type of Action: Pre-Commercial Procurement

LC-SC3-JA-5-2019 - Joint Programming with EU and African partners for a R&I actions in the area of renewable energy

Specific Challenge: Providing sustainable and affordable energy to sub-Saharan Africa is critical to the development of a region that accounts for 13% of the world’s population, but only 4% of its energy demand. Sub-Saharan Africa’s energy resources are more than sufficient to meet its demands, but they are unevenly distributed and under-developed (IEA, 2014). 

Building local capacities and promoting research, including applied research, are recognized to be essential pillars in the development of sustainable energy in Africa. Africa-EU research cooperation in this area can contribute substantially to further technology take-up in the region. It can also strengthen the market position of involved European institutions through increased knowledge and competitive capacity. 

Several initiatives in the past decade have launched support projects aiming to promote research addressing African energy challenges. The participation of African researchers in related calls has however remained limited. African scientists and researchers in general are underrepresented in the international arena: there are only few scientific publications or patent applications related to renewable energy, and limited participation in international conferences. In addition to the limited exposure the international scientific community, limited research capacities both in the sense of human capital and financial resources hinder better representation of African researchers in abovementioned funding schemes.

Following the EU commitments under the Paris Agreement, Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development and Cotonou Agreement, research and innovation cooperation in the field of renewable energy generation technologies between EU and Africa needs to be strengthened and further developed. Coordination of the existing bilateral activities between European and African countries is advisable. The challenge is bringing together the national funding agencies of EU member states and African states interested in developing joint research activities between the two continents to create synergies and to push forward common research and innovation cooperation in the field of renewable energy production and use.

Scope: The proposal will implement the common strategic joint research and innovation programme on renewable energy technology developed in the preparatory phase, topic LC-SC3-JA-2-2018, to adapt renewable energy technologies to the African environmental, social and economic conditions through joint research efforts.

The range of activities can include research projects, demonstration projects, technology transfer projects, and exchange of researchers between European and African actors. The activities will also create synergies with existing development programmes.

Expected Impact: The expected impacts are firstly the creation of long lasting research and development cooperation between European and African stakeholders through common understanding and trust, secondly the development of vibrant research and industrial frameworks and thirdly the development of renewable energy.

Type of Action: COFUND (European Joint Programme)

LC-SC3-CC-1-2018-2019-2020 - Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) aspects of the Clean-Energy Transition

Specific Challenge: The clean-energy transition doesn't just pose technological and scientific challenges; it also requires a better understanding of cross-cutting issues related to socioeconomic, gender, sociocultural, and socio-political issues. Addressing these issues will help to devise more effective ways of involving citizens and to better understand energy-related views and attitudes, ultimately leading to greater social acceptability as well as more durable governance arrangements and socioeconomic benefits.

Scope: In 2018, proposals should be submitted under the theme "Social innovation in the energy sector" and in 2019 under the theme "Challenges facing carbon-intensive regions". They should address one or several of the questions listed under the respective sub-topics below. All proposals should adopt a comparative perspective, with case studies or data from at least three European Union Member States or Associated Countries. 

2018:

Social innovation  in the energy sector: The energy transition has given rise to various forms of social innovation, such as the emergence of energy cooperatives or that of energy "prosumers" consuming but also producing energy. Urban areas have emerged as major hubs for these trends, given the close proximity between citizens, businesses and institutions, facilitating linkages between sectors and the emergence of new business and service models, as well as associated governance arrangements. These issues need to be studied in more detail, with a particular focus on the following questions: 

•What characterizes successful examples of social innovation in the energy sector? 

•What enabling conditions facilitate social innovation in the energy sector and how can it be encouraged? What factors work against it? 

•In what way does social innovation contribute to the preservation of livelihoods and the development of new business and service models in the energy sector? 

•In what way does social innovation contribute to making energy more secure, sustainable and affordable? Does social innovation lead to greater competitiveness and if so, how? 

•Under what conditions does social innovation lead to greater acceptance of the transition towards a low-carbon energy system?  

2019:

Challenges facing carbon-intensive regions: The transition to a low-carbon energy system and economy poses particular challenges for regions that are still heavily dependent on fossil-fuel-based industries or the extraction of fossil fuels themselves ("coal and carbon-intensive regions"). At the same time, this transition offers major opportunities for developing new lines of business and for increasing the competitiveness of structurally weak regions. Focusing on the past 5-10 years up to the present, particular attention should be focused on the following issues: 

•What are the principal socio-economic challenges facing coal and carbon-intensive regions today and what effect have these had on livelihoods and the sustainability of local and regional economies? 

•What coping strategies have emerged in recent years? What are the principal differences between regions that are coping well and those that are not? 

•To what extent have coal and carbon-intensive regions experienced outward migration in recent years and in what way has this affected their social and demographic composition? 

•What effect, if any, have these changes had on the rise of populism and of anti-democratic attitudes in the regions concerned?  

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The proposed research will: 

•provide a better understanding of socioeconomic, gender, sociocultural, and socio-political factors and their interrelations with technological, regulatory, and investment-related aspects, in support of the goals of the Energy Union and particularly its research and innovation pillar; 

•yield practical recommendations for using the potential of social innovation to further the goals of the Energy Union, namely, to make Europe's energy system more secure, sustainable, competitive, and affordable for Europe's citizens;

•yield practical recommendations for addressing the challenges of the clean-energy transition for Europe's coal and carbon-intensive regions, including socioeconomic and political ones. 

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

LC-SC3-NZE-4-2019 - Integrated solutions for flexible operation of fossil fuel power plants through power-to-X-to-power and/or energy storage

Specific Challenge: With a growing share of energy produced from renewable resources (RES), fossil fuel power plants will have to increasingly shift their role from providing base-load power to providing fluctuating back-up power (i.e. ramping up and down) in order to control and stabilise the grid. These strong fluctuations result not only in increased wear-and-tear, but (more importantly) also in a lower efficiency and hence higher greenhouse gas emissions per unit of produced electricity. Severe ramping up and down can be limited through load-levelling i.e. storing power during periods of light loading on the system and delivering it during periods of high demand.

Scope: Validation and pilot demonstration of the integration of energy storage and/or use of excess energy (including via power-to-X-to-power in fossil fuel power plants and showing that EU emission limits for such installations can not only still be met, but that emissions of air pollutants can even be reduced. This could include the enabling of the combustion system to deal with synthetic fuels and/or hydrogen enriched fuels, as well as a better integration of combined production of heat and power into the overall system. 

Proposals are expected to bring technologies to TRL 6-7 (please see part G of the General Annexes). Technology development has to be complemented by activities to create awareness, gain feedback on societal impact and advancing society’s readiness for the proposed solutions.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 6 to 10 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Solutions will contribute to a smart, secure and more resilient power system through the integration of energy storage for the purpose of load levelling in fossil fuel power generation. Results of the project(s) should allow a smoother operation of these plants at optimal efficiency and environmental performance in order to better adapt to an energy systems that will increasingly be dominated by intermittent renewable energy.

Type of Action: Innovation action

LC-SC3-NZE-5-2019 - Low carbon industrial production using CCUS

Specific Challenge: CCUS in industrial applications faces significant challenges due to its high cost and the fierce international competition in the sectors concerned. However, these sectors currently account for 20% of global CO2 emissions, and in the 2 degree scenario, should represent half of the stored CO2 by 2050. Relevant sectors with high CO2 emissions are for example steel, iron and cement making, oil refining, gas processing, hydrogen production, biofuel production and waste incineration plants.

Scope: Projects will focus on integrating CO2 capture in industrial installations, whilst addressing the full CCUS chain. Projects will elaborate a detailed plan on how to use the results, i.e. the subsequent transport, utilisation and/or underground storage of the captured CO2. Important aspects to address are of technical (e.g. the optimised integration of capture plant with industrial processes; scalability; CO2 purity), safety (e.g. during transportation and storage), financial (e.g. cost of capture; cost of integration) and strategic nature (e.g. business models; operation and logistics of industrial clusters and networks).

Projects are expected to bring technologies to TRL 6-7 (please see part G of the General Annexes). Technology development has to be balanced by an assessment of the societal readiness towards the proposed innovations. Relevant end users and societal stakeholders will be identified in the proposal, and their concerns and needs will be analysed during the project using appropriate techniques and methods from the social sciences and humanities, in order to create awareness, gain feedback on societal impact and advancing society’s readiness for the proposed solutions. Projects should also explore the socio-economic and political barriers to acceptance and awareness with a view to regulatory or policy initiatives.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 10 to 12 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged, in particular with relevant Mission Innovation  countries such as China .

Expected Impact: Successful, safe and economic demonstration of integrated-chain CCUS from relevant industrial sources such as mentioned in the specific challenge will accelerate the learning, drive down the cost and thus help break the link between economic growth and the demand for industrial output on one hand, and increasing CO2 emissions on the other hand. The impact of projects under this call will to a large extent be determined by the extent to which the results will be exploited, i.e. the plan on how the captured CO2 will be actually utilised and/or stored, either in the project or planned as a future phase. This will be evaluated based on the maturity and quality of the proposed post-capture solutions. Projects under this call that are carried out in areas where there is both a high concentration of CO2 emitting industries and a nearby capacity for geological storage are considered prime sites for hub and cluster developments, and will generate the highest impact on full-scale deployment in the medium to longer term.

Type of Action: Innovation action

LC-SC3-RES-16-2019 - Development of solutions based on renewable sources that provide flexibility to the energy system

Specific Challenge: Supporting the balancing of the power grid and increasing the flexibility of the energy system is possible through dispatchable renewable energy sources, such as for example bioenergy and hydropower. The specific challenge is to increase the potential and performance of dispatchable technologies to provide flexibility services to the energy system by improving their technological characteristics.

Scope: Proposals will address one of the following sub-topics: 

•Bioenergy carriers: Development of intermediate bioenergy carriers for energy and transport from biogenic residues and wastes and energy crops from marginal lands not applicable to food or feed production through feedstock flexible technologies at a conversion cost reduced by at least 25% from the state-of-the-art, excluding the feedstock cost, and with increased energy density, storage and trade characteristics, where relevant, and improved GHG performance. The state-of the art for conversion costs per technology will be clearly presented in the proposal with cost figures and versatility of use where appropriate. 

•Hydropower: Development of low and ultra-low head and sea water resistant equipment (such as for example bulb-pump turbines) guaranteeing at least 70% round-trip efficiency and making low-head seawater storage and other low head applications of hydropower viable, for example at unexplored locations (e.g. like at coastal dams and islands), by minimising at the same time potential impacts on fish.

•Virtual Power Plant:  Increase the performance of an integrated portfolio of renewable energy sources (namely a combination of variable output and dispatchable renewable sources) to operate together as a Virtual Power Plant, capable of providing flexibility and ancillary services to the energy system. The solution has to be competitive compared with solutions combining variable output renewables with electrochemical storage.  

Proposals are expected to bring the technologies from TRL 3-4 to TRL 4-5 (please see part G of the General Annexes).

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 to 5 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The increased flexibility of the energy system will allow the penetration of a higher share of variable output renewables in the energy mix without affecting system stability.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

LC-SC3-RES-23-2019 - Development of next generation biofuel and alternative renewable fuel technologies for aviation and shipping

Specific Challenge: Decarbonising the aviation and shipping transport sectors, which are expanding fast and increasing the overall fossil fuel consumption, relies on biofuel and renewable fuels. The specific challenge is to increase the competitiveness of next generation biofuel and renewable fuel technologies in aviation and shipping, compared to fossil fuel alternatives.

Scope: Proposals will develop next generation non-food/feed drop-in biofuel and alternative renewable fuel technologies for aviation and shipping transport, which improve substantially beyond the state-of-the-art the performance regarding conversion efficiency, cost and feedstock supply by addressing:

•liquid jet-like biofuels and alternative renewable fuels from biogenic residues and wastes through chemical, biochemical and thermochemical pathways, or a combination of them; and 

•bunker fuel-like biofuels for shipping uses. 

Proposals are expected to bring the technology from TRL 3 to 5 (please see part G of the General Annexes). 

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 to 5 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The supported projects are expected to reduce costs and improve performance of renewable fuels for aviation and shipping regarding the efficiency, the environment and society. The proposed solution is expected to contribute to achieving European leadership in this area.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

LC-SC3-RES-7-2019 - Solar Energy in Industrial Processes

Specific Challenge: The potential of applying solar energy for industrial purposes is still largely untapped. Using solar energy to provide the heat or cooling necessary to industrial processes that need high reliability and high quality heat and cooling and continuous operation requires innovative advances in solar energy technology. Also, industrial processes might need to be adapted to the use of the solar resource. Industrial actors expect solutions with limited installation, maintenance and operation requirements and which are easy to operate. This challenge is also in line with the roadmap of the SPIRE cPPP.

Scope: Support will be given to solutions that cover by means of solar thermal energy the highest possible share of the heating and/or cooling demand of one or more industrial processes. In the case of heating, the process temperature shall be higher than 150°C. Individual industrial sites and/or industrial parks (coupled to a district heating and/or cooling network) are in the scope.

Proposals are expected to bring the technologies to TRL 4-5 (please see part G of the General Annexes).

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 to 5 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: An increased decarbonisation of the industrial sector, a reduced dependency on fossil fuels and a reduction of emission of air pollutants are expected. Furthermore, the project should create significant visibility to the potential of applying solar thermal energy in industrial processes, especially in those EU countries where such systems currently have very limited or no application. The knowledge generated by the project should contribute to the development of relevant BREFs under the Industrial Emissions Directive.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

LC-SC3-EC-1-2018-2019-2020 - The role of consumers in changing the market through informed decision and collective actions

Specific Challenge: A precondition for active demand is for consumers to be aware of their own potential to permanently or temporarily reduce energy consumption; and moreover, for them to know how to offer this potential to the market and what it would represent in terms of monetary value by bringing benefits to the energy system.

Different forms of collective action have the potential to assist consumers in forming critical mass and to facilitate increased uptake of energy efficiency & active demand solutions and services. Although collective actions on energy efficiency have emerged in recent years, a lack of awareness on the potential benefits of such actions, together with regulatory barriers, continues to hamper their full development and uptake.

Finally, important challenges involve installed appliances (such as boilers for space and/or water heating) of which a big share is inefficient and fossil-fuel based, resulting in increased fuel consumption and fuel costs for households. Informing consumers of the potential energy savings and their monetization, as well as other benefits such as increased comfort and improved air quality, can result in increased motivation for replacing inefficient appliances, thereby permanently reducing consumption.

Scope: 2018:

The proposed action should develop activities informing and motivating consumers to change old and inefficient installed appliances with the highest energy saving potential (e.g. boilers, local space heaters, air heaters) to more efficient and clean energy heating and/or cooling solutions. While financial aspects (cost savings, payback period) would be the main motivating factor and therefore should be presented in a precise and credible manner, other aspects such as increased comfort and aesthetics, safety, improved air quality, or possible participation in demand-response should be the integral part of the actions in order to unlock the full potential of multiple benefits of energy efficiency improvements.

2019:

The proposed action should set up and/or support consumer cooperatives, consumer collective purchase groups, and/or other consumer driven collective actions that form such energy communities to increase energy efficiency and/or optimise energy management within the community by for example combining collective solutions to distributed generation, distributed storage, and/or demand-response aggregation,

The proposed action should cover the following:

•Identify and address regulatory barriers and contractual conditions with utilities, suppliers, grid operators, technology providers etc. for cooperative actions, possibly linking activities with structural solutions involving public authorities;

•Demonstrate that collectively organised energy-related actions are financially viable and attractive to the consumer-members of the energy community. 

In addition, the proposed action could cover the following, as relevant:

•Identify and implement solutions to address split incentives (e.g. allowing tenants to set up/join the consumer driven collective action);

•Demonstrate collective actions of energy consumers based on the solutions and business approaches using digital tools and technologies (such as digital platforms or blockchain transactions). If the proposed action includes smart home/IoT solutions, it should link to the developments under the call DT-ICT-10-2018: Interoperable and smart homes and grids. 

Relevant for both years:

The proposed actions should address the risk of "rebound effects" and propose measures to counteract them, where relevant. All relevant stakeholders necessary for the successful implementation of the action should be involved and relevant consumer organisations, in particular, should be either directly involved or their support demonstrated in the proposal. Proposed actions should also take issues of consumer data ownership and data privacy into account, where relevant. The proposed actions are invited to build on experiences and lessons learned in other relevant projects and programmes 

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below using quantified indicators and targets, wherever possible:

•Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);

•Contribution to reducing regulatory barriers and improving contractual conditions;

•Increase domestic uptake of energy efficient products and services;

•Involvement of at least 5.000 consumers per million Euro of EU funding. 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

LC-SC3-EC-2-2018-2019-2020 - Mitigating household energy poverty

Specific Challenge: European households continue to spend an increasing share of income on energy, leading to higher rates of energy poverty and negatively affecting living conditions and health. Recent estimates suggest that more than 50 million Europeans are affected by energy poverty . Although roots of this phenomenon lie mainly in low incomes and poor thermal efficiency of buildings, energy efficiency measures at the household level and increased use of renewable energy are key tools in addressing energy poverty and can bring energy savings, leading to lower fuel costs and improved living conditions. The issue is in part exacerbated by a lack of sufficient knowledge on how to identify energy poor households.

In this context, the role of local and national authorities, related networks and initiatives , and availability of support schemes are important to ensure the sustainability and larger scale uptake of the measures.

Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes  can also be used to promote social aims, such as tackling energy poverty. The obligated parties (utilities) have potentially at their disposal the necessary data and means to identify energy poverty among their clients and effectively address it by fulfilling in this way the energy efficiency obligation. Building the capacity of the obligated parties is needed in order to spread such schemes across the EU.

Scope: Actions should contribute to actively alleviating energy poverty and developing a better understanding of the types and needs of energy poor households and how to identify them, taking into account gender differences where relevant, building on any existing initiatives such as the European Energy Poverty Observatory.

The proposed action should cover one or more of the following:

•Facilitate behaviour change and implementation of low-cost energy efficiency measures tailored for energy poor households (e.g. provision of information and advice, energy efficiency services such as draught proofing or optimisation of existing building technology systems, as well as energy efficiency devices & kits such as low-energy lighting);

•Support the set-up of financial and non-financial support schemes for energy efficiency and/or small scale renewable energy investments for energy poor households. These actions should be embedded in, and add value to, structural frameworks and activities involving local, regional, and national authorities, and/or networks such as the Covenant of Mayors;

•Develop, test and disseminate innovative schemes for energy efficiency/RES investments established by utilities or other obligated parties under Article 7. 

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

The proposed actions are invited to build on experiences and lessons learned in other relevant projects and programmes .

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below using quantified indicators and targets, wherever possible:

•Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project in(million Euro);

•Contributions to policy development and to best practice development on energy poverty;

•Support schemes established for energy efficiency and/or small-scale renewable energy investments and to be sustained beyond the period of EU-support.

•Involvement of at least 5.000 consumers per million Euro of EU funding. 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

LC-SC3-EE-1-2018-2019-2020 - Decarbonisation of the EU building stock: innovative approaches and affordable solutions changing the market for buildings renovation

Specific Challenge: The market for deep renovation of buildings needs to be transformed in terms of technologies, processes and business models. The multiple benefits of improved energy efficiency are well known, but more action is needed for Europe to achieve the higher rates of renovation that would reduce energy use and decarbonize the building stock in order to meet long-term climate and energy targets. In particular, deep renovations need to become more attractive to all relevant stakeholders, more reliable in terms of performance, less disruptive for occupants (especially in residential buildings), less time-consuming, less energy-intensive from a life cycle perspective, more environmentally friendly regarding applied materials and more cost-effective. There is a need to demonstrate and roll out holistic consumer-centred solutions that involve the whole value chain, ensuring high levels of comfort and a high quality of the indoor environment.

Scope: Proposals should demonstrate solutions addressing building fabric and/or technical systems that ensure faster and more cost-effective deep renovations that result in high energy performance. Proposals should include innovations in technology and in design and construction methods with low embodied energy and on-site works organisation, industrialization and lowering cost of energy retrofitting and they should take into account any architectural constraints. They should also include innovations in business models and the holistic integration of disciplines across the value chain. Proposals should also consider energy efficient and low carbon solutions to retrofit building-level heating and cooling systems and the integration of on-site renewable energy generation , energy storage systems which allow for optimisation and flexible consumption, and, if relevant, integration with district heating and cooling systems. Proposals could address drivers of building renovation that go beyond a desire to reduce energy consumption and related energy costs. For example, decisions to renovate may sometimes coincide with structural repairs. They could also consider further development and improvement of hybrid energy systems using fossil fuel based heating systems coupled with RES based heating systems as well as the integration of highly-efficient buildings and local energy system solutions such as District Heating and Cooling, including hybrid solutions.

Solutions should include quick and simple installation of components and systems, minimizing disruption for building occupants and the time spent on site. Proposals should include monitoring and displaying of real time energy performance and other relevant data and consider the ways in which consumers and others could access and make use of such information. Solutions should ensure high levels of occupant comfort (thermal, visual and acoustic) and indoor environmental quality (e.g. air quality, humidity) if possible based on bio-based materials, as well as low risk of moisture-related problems, summer overheating and other harmful unintended consequences, and should address the multiple benefits of energy efficiency. Proposals should demonstrate solutions that aim for large scale roll-out according to defined business models and financial schemes for owners.

Projects are expected to bring the technology to TRL level 8-9 (please see part G of the General Annexes).

This topic contributes to the roadmap of the Energy-efficient Buildings (EeB) cPPP.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate the impacts listed below using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);

•High energy performance in the renovated buildings;

•Measurable cost reduction compared with a typical renovation (i.e. a renovation that meets current minimum requirements of existing building regulations) or major energy performance improvement at comparable cost;

•Reduction of time needed on site for renovation works by 20% compared to current national standard practice;

•Demonstration of the effectiveness and replicability of the proposed solutions to lead to an increased rate of renovation for defined building typologies in several districts/cities/regions. 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project.  

Type of Action: Innovation action

LC-SC3-EE-10-2018-2019-2020 - Mainstreaming energy efficiency finance

Specific Challenge: Energy efficiency is not yet considered as an attractive investment by the financial sector which limits the possibility to use external private finance on top of equity of project owners and available public funding. The lack of statistical data on the actual energy and costs savings achieved by energy efficiency investment projects, as well as on payment default rates, results in financial institutions attributing high risk premiums to energy efficiency investments.

Energy efficiency represents high transaction costs for rather small investments, which is not financially very attractive. Technical and legal standardisation is highly needed at all steps of the investment value chain in order to simplify transactions and increase the confidence of financial institutions. The lack of standardisation of projects also prevents securitisation of energy efficiency assets (loans or equity) so that financial institutions are not able to refinance their debt on the capital markets .

Whereas energy efficiency investments are usually expected to be paid back exclusively through the reduction of the energy bill, there is increasing evidence that non-energy benefits play a key role in the decision to invest in energy efficiency. This includes for instance increased building value, lower tenant turnover or vacancy rates etc. These benefits need to be quantified through data collection and monetised in order to evolve the parameters used by financiers to assess an energy efficiency investment.

Scope: Proposals should address at least one of the following issues: 

•Development, demonstration and promotion of frameworks for the standardisation and benchmarking of sustainable energy investments. This could include for example, but not exclusively, labelling schemes, project rating methodologies and risk assessment tools, standardised legal and financial structures of assets (loans, guarantees, energy performance contracts etc.) in order to develop securitisation for energy efficiency based financial products. Proposals integrated in a broader approach such as socially responsible investment should focus on the energy component; 

•Capacity building for banks and investors at the national and local level, in particular on underwriting sustainable energy investments; 

•Gathering, processing and disclosing large-scale data on actual financial performance of energy efficiency investments, in order to create a track record for energy efficiency in different sectors (buildings, industry, transport, etc.) Proposals should build upon or complement the work of the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (EEFIG) e.g. the De-risking Energy Efficiency Platform ; 

•Further integration of non-energy benefits in project valuation, in particular in the building sector, leading to evolution of existing financial products or creation of new targeted products; 

•Targeting institutional investors (e.g. public pension schemes) in order to increase the share of their funds invested in energy efficiency, or to develop specific funds or investment products. Supporting the integration of energy efficiency in portfolio management strategies for institutional investors and/or fund managers, including through re-definition of fiduciary duties; 

•Exploring the impact of revised risk ratings and requirements for energy efficiency on financial regulations (Basel III, Solvency II).  

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 million and EUR 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Number of financial institutions and other stakeholders reached as well as their potential volume of investment concerned;

•Frameworks, standardisation, benchmarking, standardised descriptions and data evidence of financial returns of energy efficiency investments agreed and accepted by the market;

•Higher allocation of institutional investments to energy efficiency; standardisation of assets enabling securitisation; development of a secondary market for energy efficiency assets (in million Euro of investment within 5 years after the end of the project);

•Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (million Euro). 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

LC-SC3-EE-11-2018-2019-2020 - Aggregation - Project Development Assistance

Specific Challenge: Investors and lenders need to gain more confidence on investment projects related to energy efficiency which are still seen as risky and fragmented. EU added value can be realised in particular where projects introduce innovation to the market regarding project aggregation and financing solutions minimising transaction costs and engaging the private finance community. EU added value could also be realised where projects demonstrably remove legal, administrative and other market barriers for mainstreaming large scale sustainable energy investment schemes.

Scope: Project Development Assistance (PDA) will be provided to public and private project promoters such as public authorities or their groupings, public/private infrastructure operators and bodies, energy service companies, retail chains, large property owners and services/industry. The action will support building technical, economic and legal expertise needed for project development and leading to the launch of concrete investments, which are the final aim and deliverable of the project.

Proposals should focus on one or more of the following sectors:

•existing public and private buildings including social housing, with the aim to significantly decrease energy consumption in heating/cooling and electricity;

•energy efficiency of industry and service;

•energy efficiency in all modes of urban transport (such as highly efficient transport fleets, efficient freight logistics in urban areas, e-mobility and modal change and shift); and

•energy efficiency in existing infrastructures such as street lighting, district heating/cooling and water/wastewater services. 

The proposed investments will have to be launched before the end of the action which means that projects should result in signed contracts for sustainable energy investments to that effect, e.g. construction works, energy performance contracts, turnkey contracts.

Whilst proposals may address investments into distributed, small-scale renewable energy sources in combination with energy efficiency, the main focus should lie on capturing untapped high energy efficiency potentials.

Proposals should include the following features:

•an exemplary/showcase dimension in their ambition to reduce energy consumption and/or in the size of the expected investments;

•deliver organisational innovation in the financial engineering (e.g. on-bill financing schemes, guarantee funds, or factoring funds) and/or in the mobilisation of the investment programme (e.g. bundling, pooling or stakeholder engagement);

•demonstrate a high degree of replicability and include a clear action plan to communicate experiences and results towards potential replicators across the EU;

•build on the experiences from previous PDA projects . 

This PDA facility focuses on small and medium-sized energy investments of at least EUR 7.5 million to EUR 50 million. Large scale investments are covered by the ELENA facility.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 0.5 and 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate, the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Primary Energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year); 

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro); 

•Delivery of a series of sustainable energy investment projects and innovative financing solutions and/or schemes;

•Every million Euro of Horizon 2020 support should trigger investments worth at least EUR 15 million;

•Primary energy savings, renewable energy production and investments in sustainable energy triggered in the territory of participating parties by the project (respectively in GWh/year and in million Euro of investments);

•Demonstration of innovative and replicable investment financing solutions, documenting feedback/uptake from potential replicators. 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible:

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

LC-SC3-EE-13-2018-2019-2020 - Enabling next-generation of smart energy services valorising energy efficiency and flexibility at demand-side as energy resource

Specific Challenge: Energy Efficiency services (e.g. Energy Performance Contracting (EPC)) are available on the market already for quite some time. However, there is a big untapped potential in sectors and with actors not yet engaged in services triggering energy, CO2 and cost savings. At the same time, new technologies have emerged opening the door for new types of services which use ICT to better control and steer energy consumption according to market and system needs and to the availability of renewable energy; others are able to integrate energy services with non-energy benefits such as comfort. By bundling various services and benefits, additional target groups, sectors and financial resources can be accessed. Actions are also needed to structure and label the quality of demand side service providers (like ESCOs aggregators and energy cooperatives) and improve their accessibility for end energy users.

Finally, ICT-tools and big data generated by smart meters, smart devices and sensors will help monitor and verify energy savings and flexibility and thus provide for appropriate remuneration of optimised consumption. A particular challenge for energy services of this kind is that while they aim to involve different services (e.g. system services) and benefits (e.g. comfort) towards increasing their viability, they should nevertheless result in real, measurable energy savings and performance improvements of the overall energy system.

Scope: 2018 (Coordination and support action):

Actions should allow different market actors to get together and focus on developing integrated concepts and models which

•enhance and refine successful energy performance contracting models and/or;

•include pay-for-performance schemes and/or;

•include customer individualized energy services as a result of better understanding of customer behaviour and needs derived of new data analytics tools;

•engage new sectors and actors and/or;

•integrate energy efficiency services with other energy services like distributed generation and demand response and including storage/hybrid energy systems and/or non-energy related services; these should be endorsed by relevant stakeholders and validated (for example tested around existing projects or projects under development);

•factor in potential legal and contractual aspects (e.g. in relation to existing contracts or warranty, safety and data security issues linked to existing and newly deployed equipment). 

Proposed actions should cover at least two (but not necessarily all) of the relevant areas and aspects identified below:

•Energy service models (like EPC) and services that target new sectors and new actors;

•Business models which work equally for energy efficiency and other services, building on contractual arrangements across different actors (ESCOs, aggregators, DSOs, energy cooperatives, obliged parties under the Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes implementing art 7 EED and eventually the consumers) which traditionally cover different use cases business interests and different revenue;

•"Pay for performance"-schemes which focus on permanently reducing power consumption in particular at peak times, thus attracting new sources of financing;

•The use of 'big data' generated by smart meters, equipment, sensors and tools for standardised processes enabling a more accurate and dynamic measurement and verification of energy savings and flexible consumption, also in order to ex-ante identify and develop business opportunities;

•Additional non-energy features that support the up-take of innovative energy efficiency services and technologies;

•Improving the accessibility and quality of demand side service providers while enhancing their access to the market. 

Proposals are expected to include clear business model development and a clear path to finance and deployment. Key partners should have the capability and interest in making the developed solution a core part of their business/service model to their clients.

The Commission considers that proposals for Coordination and Support Actions requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 million and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

2019 (Innovation action): 

Projects should focus on demonstrating and testing innovative energy services in a real environment, across several market segments and across different actors in the value chain. To be economically viable, these services need to be able to rely on sound measurement and verification methodologies. They should cover several but not necessarily all of the relevant areas and aspects identified above, blending in innovative manner different revenue streams coming from different market segments and they should in all cases include innovative verification and monitoring measures. Moreover, they should demonstrate how potential legal and contractual aspects (e.g. in relation to existing contracts or linked to the use of equipment) have been accounted for.

Proposals should demonstrate that the tested business models and services are self-sustainable after the end of the project. The upfront investments in energy efficiency measures (e.g. upgrading of building energy performance) and in smart building systems should be paid back at least in part by revenues coming from energy savings and remunerated flexibility.

The Commission considers that proposals for Innovation Actions requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Where available and appropriate, the actions should build on the results of the DT-ICT-10-2018: Interoperable and smart homes and grids, DT-ICT-11-2019: Big data solutions for energy and LC-SC3-ES-6-2018-2020: TSO-DSO-consumers: Large-scale demonstrations of cross-border markets for innovative grid services. All innovative energy service concepts and in particular IoT based energy service concepts developed in the frame of the pilot DT-10-2018 should be tested under real market conditions, gathering relevant market actors and exploring user acceptance.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Primary Energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);

•Improved viability of innovative energy services. 

In addition, proposals are expected to demonstrate, the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•A growing offer and up-take of services that combine energy efficiency with other energy services, technologies and non-energy benefits;

•A growing up-take of innovative data gathering and processing methods in the monitoring and verification of energy savings and flexibility;

•The application of methods and concepts to ensure that: (i) innovative energy services are reliable and verifiable, (ii) service providers are trustworthy and accessible. 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Innovation action

LC-SC3-EE-14-2018-2019-2020 - Socio-economic research conceptualising and modelling energy efficiency and energy demand

Specific Challenge: In the Energy Union Strategy, Energy Efficiency was recognised as a resource in its own right which should be enabled to compete on equal terms with generation capacity and to have primary consideration across all policies . However, the structure of energy demand as well as the real value beyond the fuel's cost and the (energy and non-energy) impacts of energy efficiency are still not well understood with the effect that benefits of energy efficiency are not sufficiently taken into account in financial and political decision making, and planning, while prices of fossil fuels remain relatively low.

The topic addresses three different dimensions of this challenge with the aim to trigger actions which  

1.make the energy efficiency first principle more operational (2018);

2.substantiate the demand side aspects in energy modelling (2019). 

Scope: 2018:

The research projects should help to make the Energy Efficiency First principle more concrete and operational and to better understand its relevance for energy demand and supply and its broader impacts across sectors and markets. In particular, it needs to be analysed how energy efficiency programmes along the efficiency chain, i.e. end-use, operation, transmission and generation/utilisation of resources, can compete in reality with supply side investments (e.g. additional generation capacities or import capacities) including at the level of countries and having in mind limited public budgets. It would also be necessary to describe and assess how it interacts with and correlates to other policy objectives, at a policy level as well as at the level of implementation.

Actions which conceptualise and assess the impacts and model the energy efficiency first principle, in particular as regards: 

•its role and value in the energy system (e.g. for planning of generation assets and networks adequacy etc.) and the energy market (participation in capacity market, participation and impact on prices and costs on wholesale and balancing/reserve markets); 

•its role and value in financing decisions (considering as well that in some Member States retail prices do not reflect real costs); 

•its economic and social impacts; 

•its correlation and interaction with other policy objectives (e.g. renewable energy, demand response); 

•existing best practices worldwide where energy efficiency projects are given priority over additional supply side measures.  

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 million and 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

2019:

The aim of the action is to deepen the demand side-related parameters in existing models and to include new aspects and data sources (e.g. by tapping DSOs modelling for forecasting of distributed loads). In general, it is to be expected that the introduction of smart meters and smart equipment will lead to more accurate consumption data providing for a more holistic mapping of the demand side and thus for better projections inside energy policy development and a more effective regulatory framework.

The action should complement the existing demand side energy models by developing multiple-agent energy models and/or modelling segments and/or developing methodologies on how to improve and enhance the demand side aspects in modelling.

These models and/or methodologies should: 

•be compatible with the energy models most commonly used at European level; 

•model more accurately those aspects not yet sufficiently considered in the existing models; 

•make use of new data sources, including big data as for example generated by smart meters, smart buildings and smart equipment; 

•identify and refine the structure and patterns of demand and how it will develop; 

•contribute to an enhanced demand-side model to be consistently used at European level.  

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 million and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: 2018:

Actions are expected to support policies aiming to promote and implement the "energy efficiency first-principle" based on a sound assessment of the concept and its impacts. To this end, actions should lead to a better understanding of: 

•all relevant aspects linked to the "energy efficiency first-principle"; 

•its impacts (e.g. technical, economic, socio-economic, and ecological etc.) on the relevant sectors and markets; 

•its potential across the different policy areas and sectors; 

•its consideration and valorisation in modelling and assessments; and 

•its interaction with other policy objectives both at policy level (e.g. climate and renewable policies, circular economy) and at the level of concrete application (e.g. design of buildings).  

2019:

Proposals are expected to demonstrate the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible 

•More accurate and holistic mapping and modelling of the demand side and to a better assessment of energy consumption trends for different categories of economic agents. 

•More accurate follow-up of energy efficiency measures implemented at the demand side; 

•Better assessment of demand-side policy needs at European level.  

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

LC-SC3-EE-16-2018-2019-2020 - Supporting public authorities to implement the Energy Union

Specific Challenge: The delivery of the Energy Union targets requires the full engagement of the public sector at all governance levels.

Local and regional public authorities have a crucial role in setting ambitious energy efficiency strategies, for instance in the framework of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy and Smart Cities & Communities or the Clean Energy for All islands initiative. The political commitment at local level should be enhanced and the focus should turn to implementation and effective monitoring of concrete energy efficiency solutions and actions, which can contribute to modernise and decarbonise the European economy. Synergies should be sought, whenever possible, with local and regional air quality plans  and air pollution control programmes  to reduce costs since these plans rely to a large extent on similar measures and actions .

Support should continue and be reinforced in building capacity of public authorities and empowering them to take up their role of energy transition leaders at regional and local level, by permanently improving their skills as public entrepreneurs and supporters of market transformation towards more efficient energy systems.

At national level, the Energy Efficiency Directive has triggered numerous positive developments in the Member States by setting targets to incentivise and enable investment in energy efficiency programmes across all sectors. However, Member States have yet to fully implement the Directive and additional support in building capacity and know-how is needed.

Scope: a) Support to local and regional public authorities

Proposers should aim to focus their proposed action on one of the following points:

•Deliver higher quality and consistency of energy efficiency measures implemented through enhanced coordination of different administrative levels. Actions should lead to politically approved and jointly applied monitoring and verification schemes of energy efficiency measures across local and regional authorities, enhanced and better coordination of the energy efficiency measures implemented and more efficient use of public spending in energy efficiency;

•Support public authorities in the development of transition roadmaps that clearly outline the path to the European long-term 2050 targets and inform the ongoing implementation of SEAPs/SECAPs or similar plans and the development of future plans/targets for 2030 and beyond. Actions should link closely to the Covenant of Mayors and/or Smart Cities and Communities initiatives;

•Innovative ways to enable public engagement in the energy transition, developing interface capacities within public authorities to engage with civil society;

•Deliver large-scale and action-oriented peer-to-peer learning programmes targeting cities and/or regions, with a strong replication potential European-wide. Proposals should develop transparent, effective and compelling programmes, building on existing initiatives and real needs and ensure embedded conditionalities such as institutionalisation of the skill base and impact monitoring. Programmes should deliver public entrepreneurs able to drive the sustainable energy transition in their respective territories within the Covenant Mayors and beyond. 

b) Supporting the delivery of the Energy Efficiency Directive

Support will be provided to actions that are assisting Member States to fulfil their obligations under the Energy Efficiency Directive and help with its efficient implementation taking into account existing effective practices and experiences from across Europe. Actions may address, for example, the harmonisation of energy savings calculations under Article 3, implementing Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes or alternative measures and setting up effective and consistent monitoring and verification systems under Article 7 or the removal of barriers to higher efficiency of the generation, transmission, distribution systems including demand response under Article 15.

Proposals should link into existing, relevant initiatives such as ManagEnergy and target a specific sector with high energy saving potential such as buildings, transport mobility, heating and cooling, or water infrastructure operation etc., as seen relevant by applicants.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible: 

•Primary energy savings, renewable energy production and investments in sustainable energy triggered in the territory of participating parties by the project (respectively in GWh/year and in million Euro); 

•Number of public officers with improved capacity/skills; 

•Number of policies influenced through the action; 

•Number of Member States with improved implementation of Art 7. (Energy Efficiency Obligation schemes or alternative measures) / Energy savings achieved through successfully implemented Energy Efficiency Obligation schemes or alternative policy measures; 

•Number of Members States with improved and consistent monitoring and verification systems for energy savings across governance levels.  

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

LC-SC3-EE-2-2018-2019 - Integrated home renovation services

Specific Challenge: Many project promoters – public authorities, individuals or businesses – lack the skills and capacity to set up, implement and finance ambitious low-energy and clean energy building projects. In addition, many project developers still face obstacles in raising the necessary up-front costs for their projects – particularly as the small-size of investments and the lack of turnkey solutions increase implementation cost – and lack access to attractive and adequate financing products from the market.

Scope: This topic aims at creating or replicating innovative local or regional "integrated home renovation services". The developed services should cover the whole "customer journey" from technical and social diagnosis, technical offer, contracting of works, structuring and provision of finance (e.g. loans or EPCs), to the monitoring of works and quality assurance. Such integrated services should be operational at the end of the project and create more demand for holistic approaches as a result of improved offer by trustful market operators and better awareness from homeowners. They should also support the streamlining of standards and practices into consistent and transparent processes investors can rely on, and by doing so help connect the supply of finance with demand for it.

Proposals should build upon the promising experiences of integrated renovation services emerging in Europe  and aim at developing / improving economically viable business models, ultimately running without the need for public subsidies.

Projects funded under this topic will optimise the services required along the renovation process (based on a thorough analysis of the local needs and actors in place), improve trust and awareness of homeowners towards such services, reduce renovation costs and time on-site through standardised approaches (e.g. optimized business processes, standardised contractual arrangements, , branding of the proposed services, …), mainstreaming innovative technical solutions adapted to the local context, help improve their legal and regulatory environment, and overall improve financing conditions for energy renovation.

The services can be developed through dedicated operators (new public or public/private entity or mandated private operator) and/or through an improved co-ordination between existing local actors.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 0.5 and 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Implementation and upscale of economically viable business models, ultimately running without the need for public subsidies. Data evidence made available to market actors. Proof of the replication of these initiatives by other market actors;

•Availability of adequate financing offer for integrated renovation services;

•Strong and trustworthy partnerships with local actors (e.g. SMEs, ESCOs, financial institutions, energy agencies, NGOs) and quality of the proposed services recognized by market actors;

•Development of large, locally-developed investment pipelines for home renovation, connecting the supply of finance with demand for it (in million Euro of investments within the first 5 years);

•Uptake of home energy renovation at local level and corresponding primary energy savings triggered (in GWh/year). 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project.  

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

LC-SC3-EE-3-2019-2020 - Stimulating demand for sustainable energy skills in the construction sector

Specific Challenge: Based on results of the BUILD UP Skills initiative, in particular the National Qualification Platforms and Roadmaps, as well as the qualification and training schemes developed in various Member States, the challenge is now to act at market level and to support legislative changes that will stimulate the demand for energy skills.

The objective is to increase the number of skilled building professionals and/or blue collar workers across the building design, operation and maintenance value chain (designers, architects, engineers, building managers, technicians, installers, blue collar workers including apprentices, and other building professionals), with a specific focus on the engagement of SMEs. Recourse to skilled professionals/workers both for renovations and new constructions of buildings and district scale solutions should be made more attractive and easier for companies and home owners alike.

Scope: The focus of submitted proposals should be on the direct stimulation of demand for energy skills in construction. This is calling for the development, up-scaling and combination of a range of tools and initiatives, e.g.:

•Tools facilitating the mutual recognition of energy skills and qualifications in the construction sector: development of sustainable energy skills passports/registers for workers at regional/national level and support for their take up at EU level, mobile applications facilitating the comparison of workers' skills and qualifications between countries (e.g. by enabling the direct comparison of learning outcomes);

•National, regional or local initiatives raising awareness of home and building owners and tenants about the benefits of sustainable energy skills and providing financial incentives for renovations done using skilled workers/professionals;

•Support to public authorities for the development of new legislative frameworks, e.g. requirements for skilled workers in public procurement;

•Partnerships with producers and retailers of construction products (e.g. DIY stores) to raise awareness of the salesforce and of consumers about energy efficient products, skilled workers and good practice in construction/renovation;

•Initiatives reinforcing the link between skills/education and energy performance/quality of construction e.g. tools showing the reduction of the performance gap as result of an increase quality of the works. 

Proposals need to be focused and are not necessarily required to address the whole range of professions and crafts involved in the building sector. They may however consider the entire design chain (e.g. manufacturers). If the proposal addresses specifically design, material life cycles and embodied energy shall be considered. Adequate consideration should also be given to improved appreciation of the end user's needs including the quality of indoor environment (thermal and visual comfort, acoustics, air quality, etc.) as well as improved operation and maintenance.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 0.5 and 1 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Primary Energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year) Measurable energy savings and/or renewables production resulting from improved skills;

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);

•Increased number of certification schemes for energy efficiency skills;

•Improved mutual recognition of sustainable energy skills between Member States and neighbouring countries;

•Improved collaboration and understanding across different trades and professional groups;

•Increased market acceptance of sustainable energy skills;

•Legislative changes stimulating the demand for energy skilled construction workers/professionals;

•Demonstrated reduction in the gap between designed and actual energy performance through improved quality of construction. 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

LC-SC3-EE-4-2019-2020 - Upgrading smartness of existing buildings through innovations for legacy equipment

Specific Challenge: An essential part of Europe's clean energy transition is the changing role of buildings from energy consumers to actively controlling and optimising indoor environment while contributing to energy system flexibility by ensuring distributed energy generation from renewable energy sources, energy storage, facilitate smart charging of EVs, load reduction through energy efficiency and load shifting through demand response. Innovative technologies will enable smart buildings to interact with their occupants and the grid in real time and to manage themselves efficiently, so as to become an active element of the energy system. Intelligent and connected devices, sensors and controllers, supported by the development of new business models for new energy services, will create new opportunities for energy consumers.

Today in the EU, the existing building stock represents the main challenge for a more efficient energy use, in buildings as well as across the whole energy system. The smart readiness of buildings may evolve faster for devices and systems easily replaced and installed, than for other parts of the building's equipment such as HVAC and DHW systems etc. due to higher costs of replacement, longer lifecycles and difficulties related to the integration in buildings. This installed equipment remains highly relevant for buildings interactions with the energy system, making its upgrade to higher levels of smartness an essential step.

Scope: Proposals should develop and demonstrate cost-effective technological solutions to manage energy within existing buildings and interact with the grid providing energy efficiency, flexibility, generation and storage, based on user preferences and requests. These solutions should be aimed to upgrade existing buildings, either residential or tertiary, using automation and IT to offer new services and control to the building users, thereby improving their comfort and increasing their satisfaction.

Proposals should demonstrate how the smart systems, smart controls and smart appliances can be integrated seamlessly in existing buildings to interface and/or to control the major energy consuming domestic appliances that are already installed. These pilots should involve several types of domestic appliances and technical building systems with longer lifecycles (boilers, radiators, DHW preparation, motors for ventilation, windows opening and shading; lighting etc.) and with shorter lifecycles (dryers, washing machines, fridges, etc.), testing several types of control modes (ON/OFF, power modulation, etc.) possible for a given type of appliance. Recharging points for electric vehicles and other forms of energy storage should also be incorporated in the pilots. The proposed solutions should not adversely affect the original functionalities, product quality, lifetime, as well as warrantees of the appliances.

Proposals are expected to include clear business model development and a clear path to finance and deployment. Key partners should have the capability and interest in making the developed solution a core part of their business/service model to their clients.

Besides the pilot demonstrations, proposals should outline business models and strategies for the broad uptake of the proposed smart systems into specific building typologies in Europe and their integration with evolving electricity markets, e.g. dynamic pricing or other services and information offered by energy suppliers and/or aggregators. Integrations with other energy networks (e.g. DHC) can also be considered.

The solutions should focus on cost-effectiveness, interoperability and user-friendliness: easy installation and maintenance, maximising consumer comfort (e.g. self-learning) and information on own consumption (e.g. recommendations to the user in order to maximise savings) as well as on gains from its contribution to grid operation.

A realistic estimate should be provided on the total energy savings/year and on the impact of the innovations demonstrated in the project on the total power available for cost effective demand response actions. The projects should involve technology providers (e.g. manufacturers of appliances, movable envelope components, smart control/ home systems providers), energy services providers (aggregators and/or suppliers and/or ESCO's), user representatives, electricity system operators and other actors as relevant.

The activities are expected to be implemented at TRL 6-8 (please see part G of the General Annexes).

The Commission considers the proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between 3 to 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

This topic contributes to the roadmap of the Energy-efficient Buildings (EeB) cPPP.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate the impacts listed below using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Primary Energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);

•Upgrade of existing buildings to higher smartness levels, including a significantly enlarged base of existing building equipment and appliances monitored by energy management systems and activated through demand response actions;

•Reduction in energy consumption and costs, exceeding the additional consumption from IT and its cost. 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Innovation action

LC-SC3-EE-5-2018-2019-2020 - Next-generation of Energy Performance Assessment and Certification

Specific Challenge: Under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive , all EU countries have established independent energy performance certification systems supported by independent mechanisms of control and verification. However, current practices and tools of energy performance assessment and certification applied across Europe face a number of challenges.

Assessment processes and certificates have to become more reliable, user-friendly, cost-effective, have comparable good quality and be compliant with EU legislation in order to instil trust in the market and incite investments in energy efficient buildings. They have to increasingly reflect the smart dimension of buildings and at the same time, facilitate convergence of quality and reliability of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) across the EU. The building energy performance methodologies should also ensure a technology neutral approach, be transparently presented making use of International and European standards, in particular the ISO/CEN standards developed under Commission mandate M/480  aimed at enabling the presentation of national and regional choices on a comparable basis.

Next-generation energy performance assessment schemes will value buildings in a holistic and cost-effective manner across several complimentary dimensions: envelope performances, system performances and smart readiness (i.e. the ability of buildings to be smartly monitored and controlled and, to get involved in demand-side management strategies). The assessment should be based on an agreed list of parameters/indicators, such as e.g. calculated annual final energy use, share of renewable energy used, past (climate corrected) final energy consumptions and energy expenditure, comfort levels or the level of smartness. The assessment methods should increasingly take into account output measures of performance (actual measured data) making use of available and increasing number of building energy related data from sensors, smart meters, connected devices etc.. These new schemes should contribute to improving the effectiveness of certificates, by demonstrating how these could be strengthen, modernised and best linked to integrated national/regional certification schemes within a framework that aids compliance checking and effectiveness of financial support.

Scope: 2018 (Coordination and support action):

Proposals should involve relevant stakeholders (including national and regional certification bodies) to stimulate and enable the roll-out of next-generation of energy performance assessment and certification, with a view to achieve enhanced reliability, cost-effectiveness and compliance with relevant EU standards and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Proposals should develop strategies to encourage convergence of EPC practices and tools across the EU so as to ensure a comparable level of high quality, independent control and verification. The applicability of assessment and the certification schemes should be assessed through a broad set of well-targeted and realistic cases, featuring various locations, building types, climatic conditions and field practices including existing national EPC schemes. The assessment will aim at demonstrating the potential of an EU-wide uptake of the proposed assessment and certification schemes, along well-defined criteria. Embedding the EPCs and their recommendations in broader concepts such as energy audits, wider-buildings related databases (e.g. national EPC databases, national housing surveys, EU Building Stock Observatory) and one-stop-shops including administrative, financial and supply side information and linking EPCs to related concepts such as buildings renovation passports, individual buildings renovation roadmaps or building logbooks should also be considered.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

2019 (Innovation action):

Proposals should address the definition and demonstration of innovative approaches for the assessment of building energy performance, focusing at first on the reliable assessment of building intrinsic performances (e.g. using inverse modelling) but working also towards output-based assessments using available building energy related data . Proposals should involve relevant stakeholders (including national and regional certification bodies). The proposed approaches should be more reliable as well as cost-effective and compliant with relevant EU standards , in order to allow for an EU-wide deployment. Such approaches should rely on the combination of existing and proven technology components (starting from TRL 6-7, please see part G of the General Annexes) with well-structured methodologies and protocols that can lead to the definition of new certification schemes. They could also consider implications when using EPCs in building passports and renovation roadmaps.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2 and 2.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

This topic contributes to the roadmap of the Energy-efficient Buildings (EeB) cPPP.

Expected Impact: 2018 (Coordination and support action):

Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);

•Increased convergence of good quality and reliable energy performance assessment and certification and uptake and compliance with EU Directives and related standards;

•Increased rate of application and compliance of EPCs and independent control systems with the provisions of EU and national legislation, in a defined region;

•Increase of EPCs databases for compliance checking and verification, linking with financing schemes and building stock characteristics research etc. 

2019 (Innovation action):

Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Improved user-friendliness of EPCs in terms clarity and accuracy of the information provided;

•Enhanced user awareness of building energy efficiency;

•Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro). 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible:

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Innovation action

LC-SC3-EE-6-2018-2019-2020 - Business case for industrial waste heat/cold recovery

Specific Challenge: Energy and fuels represent an important part of the production costs in several Resource and Energy Intensive Industries (REII). While a lot of technical progress has already been done in REII to reduce the energy consumption of the main industrial processes, significant parts of the input-energy are still lost in the form of waste heat/cold by gas, liquid or solid streams. Wide-scale deployment of industrial waste heat/cold recovery is hindered, among others, by the lack of financial/ economic justification for the required equipment and, at times, by the limited industrial applicability (i.e. process re-integration). Often, it is forgotten that directly or after an intermediate transformation step, the sources of heat/cold losses of a given industry can be a valuable resource for other industries and buildings/ District Heating and Cooling operators and that they could be of commercial interest for the waste heat/cold producer.

Scope: 2018 (Innovation action):

Cost-benefit models for industrial waste heat/cold recovery:

Proposals should develop integrated cost-benefit simulation tools that, based on the characterization of processes, heat/cold streams and other relevant variables, can determine the best utilisation options of recovered waste heat/cold and/ or surplus renewable energy from industrial and eventual other sources (when available). Proposals should also consider the possibility to contribute to efficient use/system integration of renewable energy sources through e.g. heat/cold storage and flexible production.

The proposals are expected to put forward simulation tools that would allow industrial sites/parks to determine the most financial attractive option for using their recovered waste heat/cold and/or surplus renewable energy. This should be based on, inter-alia, waste heat/cold recovery (and storage if necessary) costs (including equipment and process adaptation), retail and/ or whole sale energy prices, (new contracts) administrative and legal costs, (external connecting) infrastructure costs, internal and external demand, waste heat/cold as source of flexibility in electricity system. Other relevant variables should also be included, inter-alia, characterisation of barriers and opportunities on the DHC side (e.g. competition with other heat/cold sources, thermal storage, regulatory conditions). The simulation tools are expected to be flexible enough to allow a large number of different types of industrial sites/ parks to use it, i.e. should allow many energy intensive process characterizations irrespective of the industrial sector and geographic location, and should also take into account supply-demand dynamics.

The simulation tools should be validated through demonstration in real operating conditions in industrial facilities.

Proposals are expected to include clear business model development and a clear path to finance and deployment. Key partners should have the capability and interest in making the developed solution a core part of their business/service model to their clients.

Proposals are expected to look at relevant business models for the collaboration outside the plant/industrial park and have strong communication and dissemination components in order to reach many industries, large private facilities and public authorities.

This topic contributes to the roadmap of the Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) cPPP.

The activities are expected to be implemented in the range of TRL 4-8 (please see part G of the General Annexes).

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

2019 (Coordination and support action):

Symbiosis in industrial parks and clusters- non-technological barriers

Proposals should improve the energy efficiency of industrial parks districts and clusters by unlocking the market potential and supporting the demand and offer of high-quality energy services by addressing at least one of the following:

•The development and testing of instruments facilitating, at customer/ business level, the actual implementation of energy cooperation such as setting up appropriate process and business organisation, operation and plant design, cooperation mechanisms, related contractual and financial arrangements, better planning, good practices. Proposals need to include capacity building activities such as skills development and engagement of senior and executive management (e.g., CEO, CFO, energy managers) of companies from industrial parks and other related stakeholders.

•The development and testing of replicable business models and service concepts, at service provider level (i.e. ESCOs or other relevant 3rd party organisations such as DHC operators), for joint energy services such as identification of horizontal energy services attractive for businesses, identification of the most relevant innovative technical solutions, setting up contractual and financial arrangements, best practices, cost-reduction models. Proposals need to include capacity building activities such as sharing skills, know-how and specific expertise of ESCOs or other 3rd party organisations that would boost the market uptake for such joint energy services contracting in industrial parks. 

This topic contributes to the roadmap of the Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) cPPP.

Proposals need to also address legal issues in order to adapt regulatory and legal frameworks at local, regional and national level. Issues related to the sustainability of the proposed symbiosis in case one or more of the involved parties are changing activity (including leaving the park) should be taken into account. Proposals are expected to ensure applicability of the solutions to other industrial parks/ business sectors while strong communication and dissemination components will be needed in order to reach many industries, industrial park managers and ESCOs.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: 2018 (Innovation action):

Proposals are expected to demonstrate the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Accurate prediction and holistic modelling of industrial waste heat/cold and/or surplus renewable energy from industrial or other sources from different geographical and market settings;

•Better impact of the various factors/ variables on the cost-benefits of industrial waste heat/cold and/or surplus renewable energy from industrial or other sources;

•Valorisation in assessments of cost-benefit of industrial waste heat/cold and/or surplus renewable energy from industrial and eventual other sources;

•Number of industrial sectors/ sites/ parks, public authorities (including energy agencies), large private facilities (e.g. sport and shopping centres, non-energy intensive industrial parks) and DHC operators aware, interested and supporting the implementation of waste heat/cold and/or surplus renewable energy from industrial and eventual other sources recovery/use for process re-integration or commercial use, depending on the outcome of the simulations;

•Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro). 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

2019 (Coordination and support action):

Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);

•Number of (operational and organisational separated) plant sites (within one industrial park) and the number of industrial parks where businesses commit to energy cooperation;

•Number of relevant stakeholders (e.g., ESCOs, industrial park managers) aware of and/or interested in/ implementing joint energy services;

•Number of policies and legal frameworks created and/ or adapted to facilitate energy cooperation among businesses. 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Innovation action, Coordination and support action

LC-SC3-EE-8-2018-2019 - Capacity building programmes to support implementation of energy audits

Specific Challenge: The Energy Efficiency Directive, in its art.8, requires Member States to develop programmes encouraging SMEs to undergo energy audits and to implement the recommended energy-saving measures. SMEs represent enormous energy saving potential. However, the lack of expertise, time and capital, including energy audit supporting scheme, often prevents SMEs from implementing energy conversation measures or from getting access to the energy services market.

The effectiveness of energy audit recommendations is influenced by people's behaviours and the improvement of enterprises' energy cultures. The availability of reliable energy consumption data is of utmost importance to monitor the impact of energy saving measures and behaviours. The actions should lead SMEs to become fully aware of the multiple benefits resulting from energy audits as well as facilitating their actual implementation. Moreover, capacity building programmes should also support implementation of the recommended energy-saving measures both for small and large enterprises.

Scope: Proposals should focus on one, or more, of the following issues: 

•Staff trainings and capacity buildings programmes, facilitating SMEs to undergo energy audits and to implement the recommended energy-saving measures, shall be developed according to SMEs specificities (size, sectors, lifetime of the company etc.) and highlighting the financial aspects. Programmes should aim at bridging the gap between demand and supply side (SMEs, auditors, finance institutions, managing authorities of supporting schemes). An active participation of both managerial and operational staff must be ensured. The proposed solution should be tailored to national/local conditions in order to ensure the effective uptake by the SMEs. 

•Capacity building to support the take-up of audits recommendations and undertake the actions necessary to reduce energy consumption (maintenance or investments in new equipment but possibly also behavioural actions) in the companies required to undergo energy audits (large enterprises). Development and implementation of corporate policy measures involving all actors (from decision makers/corporate board members to employees in each department) willing to undertake more efficient energy-related actions (motivations, behaviour change, mitigation of perceived risks and barriers). Evaluation of the total costs of building investments, in terms of financial, environmental and health impact. 

•Initiatives supporting Member States in empowering or establishing national supporting schemes for SMEs providing appropriate incentives to undergo energy audits and/or to implement the recommended energy-saving measures.  

Proposals should demonstrate how the proposed activities will be continued commercially beyond the project lifetime. Involvement of relevant multiplier organisations is also encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);

•Market stakeholders with increased skills/capability/competencies (to be measured in number of people with increased capacity) and long-lasting training schemes;

•Number of people/enterprises with enhanced energy culture documenting why and how changes are an effect of particular measures taken as consequence of energy audits, as well in terms of the sustainability of the behavioural change;

•Policies and strategies created/adapted at national level (to be measured in number of initiatives/actions taken to improve/create audit supporting schemes and/or number of SMEs supported in the implementation of energy audit). 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

LC-SC3-EE-9-2018-2019 - Innovative financing for energy efficiency investments

Specific Challenge: There is a need to set up innovative financing schemes at regional or national level in order to create the conditions for adequate supply of private finance for energy efficiency investments. Innovative financing schemes for energy efficiency aim to progressively maximise the leverage ratio of public funds to private finance. This is in line with the "Smart Finance for Smart Buildings"  initiative that aims at using public funds more effectively.

Scope: Proposals should address the development or replication and implementation of innovative financing schemes for energy efficiency investments. They can involve different types of organisations, ownership structures and financing models such as dedicated credit lines; guarantee facilities; factoring/forfaiting schemes; on-bill (e.g. utility-financed) or on-tax financing schemes; citizen financing (e.g. crowd-funding) for energy efficiency; finance models for the deep renovation of buildings, addressing both property and rental markets; finance models for different industry sectors and cross-sectorial initiatives; financing solutions integrating existing market-based instruments relevant for energy efficiency (e.g. carbon finance instruments, including those under the European Emissions Trading System; energy efficiency obligations, including white certificates; etc.); or schemes based on project aggregators or clearing houses at regional or national level, which should support project development and match demand and supply of energy efficiency finance. These schemes should address the provision of finance as well as the structuring of demand, in particular at regional/national level, and target specific areas (e.g. energy-intensive industries, buildings etc.). Proposals should justify how the proposed schemes complement already available funding and how they are tailored and innovative for the targeted regions and market segments; as well as clearly demonstrate the market potential, as well as business case and financial viability of the scheme (including investment sizes targeted, expected savings, transaction and management costs, expected returns etc.).

Proposals should address one or more of the following points:

•Establishment of new innovative, operational financing schemes;

•Replication of previously successful solutions e.g. developed and implemented under various project development assistance (PDA) facilities under the Horizon 2020 and Intelligent Energy Europe programmes (including MLEI PDA or ELENA);

•Establishment of regional/national aggregators which are able to develop large (standardized) project pipelines;

•Creation of EU or regional/national energy efficiency investment roundtables/platforms to organise dialogue with and between the relevant stakeholders and (among others) develop roadmaps, propose improvements in the legal frameworks and develop and validate template documents and contracts leading to a better understanding of the market. Proposals should include a clear action plan to communicate across Europe towards potential replicators. 

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to demonstrate, depending on the scope addressed, the impacts listed below, using quantified indicators and targets wherever possible:

•Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year);

•Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (in million Euro);

•Delivery of innovative financing schemes that are operational and ready to finance energy efficiency investments;

•Regional/national aggregators with demonstrated/traceable capacity to set up large-scale pipeline of (standardized) sustainable energy investments (in terms of number of and/or amount of investment);

•EU or regional/national energy efficiency investment roundtables/platforms providing a comprehensive range of support and/or services to facilitate access to energy efficiency finance. 

Additional positive effects can be quantified and reported when relevant and wherever possible: 

•Reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year) and/or air pollutants (in kg/year) triggered by the project. 

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

DT-ART-03-2019 - Human centred design for the new driver role in highly automated vehicles

Type of Action: RIA (Research and Innovation action)

Project size: 4-8 M€

Specific Challenge:

Significant research efforts are addressing driver performance and behaviour in automated driving conditions still requiring the driver to be prepared to assume control (SAE automation level 3 and lower). In highly automated driving conditions (SAE automation level 4) the role of the driver will change dramatically since driver intervention is not required during defined use cases. This means that during a single trip there will be a coexistence of different automated driving functions demanding various degrees of human attention. When a vehicle is in highly automated driving mode the driver may take on different behaviours. Solutions need to be developed and they have to ensure both a safe transfer between use cases with different automation levels and that drivers always have a very clear understanding about the degree of automation enabled in each situation.

Scope:

Proposals for research and innovation should focus on the design of safe human-machine interfaces for vehicles with highly automated driving functions and the safe and controlled transfer between use cases of different SAE automation levels (between level 4 to/from levels 3 or 2) for all types of drivers.

The proposed actions should include all of the following aspects:  

•Research to characterise driver roles in SAE automation level 4 situations and for the transition between use cases with different automation levels. Upgrade of comprehensive models for driver behaviour/reaction, awareness, readiness and monitoring. Driver generational effects, considering in particular variations in IT usage experience and age, but also other cultural factors should be taken into account.  

•Impact assessment methods, especially for safety aspects, based on these models. The new relationship between driver and vehicle (mutual cooperation or even handover rather than continuous control) should be reflected, also considering the variety of activities a driver may engage in while the vehicle is in charge. Use cases where an operator controls the vehicle remotely may be included.  

•Develop easily understood solutions making it clear to the driver what is the operational capability (authority) of the automated mode or modes currently enabled, as well as ensuring safe and reliable function (re-)allocation and corresponding driver/operator readiness. Driver control handover, driver/operator state and impairment are among the aspects that should be considered and the intended driver reaction should be secured.  

•Demonstration of concept functionality in real world situations with various use cases and driving environments where automated systems receive and give back control from/to the driver. 

Proposed actions should build on the knowledge and results of ongoing projects addressing human machine interactions of automated driving systems.

In line with the Union's strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation, international cooperation is encouraged. In particular, proposals should consider cooperation with projects or partners from the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and/or Australia. Proposals should foresee twinning with entities participating in projects funded by US DOT to exchange knowledge and experience and exploit synergies.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 4 to 8 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:

•  Innovative solutions, concepts and algorithms for a safe human-machine interface of highly automated driving functions and for safe and controlled transfer between use cases of different automation levels.  

•Reduction of risks for driver behaviour related incidents by ensuring that drivers/operators are adequately alerted, made aware and engaged when the highly automated vehicle encounters situations or use cases that it cannot handle and thus will turn to lower automation levels.  

•The research will help achieve the European Transport White Paper "Vision Zero" objective by preventing road accidents caused by human errors. Once on the market the developed concepts and solutions will also contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages; in particular goal 3.6. "By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents"). 

DT-ART-04-2019 - Developing and testing shared, connected and cooperative automated vehicle fleets in urban areas for the mobility of all

Type of Action: IA (Innovation action)

Project size: 15-30 M€

Specific Challenge:

Shared, connected and cooperative automated vehicles may become a game changer for urban mobility. They can provide seamless door to door mobility of people and freight delivery services, which can lead to healthier, more accessible, greener and more sustainable cities, as long as they are integrated in an effective public transport system. Since a few years the development of shared automated vehicle pilots are emerging around the world. Today, most of these pilots are small-scale and involve either on-demand ride services or low-speed shuttles operating in controlled environments. In order to accelerate the uptake of high quality and user oriented mobility services, based on shared, connected and cooperative automated vehicles, there is a need for demonstrating these services in real life conditions to test the performance, safety and viability of these systems and services and to prove that they are attractive for and accepted by users. Furthermore, the potential impacts on reducing CO2 emissions and pollutants, safety and overall transport system costs need to be assessed. 

Scope:

The proposed actions should include all the following aspects:  

•Thorough analysis of new, emerging business/operating models and related technologies for shared, connected and cooperative automated vehicle fleets that are complementing existing high-capacity public transportation systems.  

•Design innovative shared, connected, cooperative and automated vehicle concepts (road vehicles at SAE level 4 and higher) and the associated new business/operating models addressing user and customer needs, including cultural aspects, for mobility of people and/or delivery of goods. Specific user needs in different regional and operating environments and for different user groups, e.g. elderly, children and users with disabilities should be considered and attractiveness and acceptability by all users should be ensured. The potential of combining automated urban delivery and people transportation should be addressed.  

•Test robustness, reliability and safety of shared highly automated vehicle fleets that are operating in semi-open or open environments focusing on the interaction with other road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and public transport systems. The fleets should consist of electrified vehicles. Synergies with advanced energy efficient, smart and multimodal mobility concepts should be actively developed. Fleet management should include operational optimisation as well as energy management. Fleet tests should consider the entire "functional urban area" and explicitly include feeder services and other collective transport options in peri-urban and low-density urban areas.  

•Vehicles should use connectivity technologies to allow communication and cooperation between vehicles, infrastructure and with other road users and to enable automated, smart mobility services, innovative fleet management concepts and higher performance of automated vehicle functions. Proposals should make the best use of EGNOS and Galileo which significantly improve the vehicle positioning availability and reliability. The development of solutions for the next generation of cooperative services  by efficiently combining C-ITS and automation for smart, smooth, safe and efficient traffic flows (including the development and testing of "open message definitions" for all C-ITS stakeholders) would be an asset.  

•Identify and provide for the needs of vulnerable road users (including their potential re-definition to include non-connected users, out-of-position passengers in automated cars, cyclists, pedestrians, etc.) resulting from this new automated/mixed environment (use of standard & highly automated vehicles).  

•Develop architecture, functional and technical requirements for ICT technologies, for secure data collection and processing needed for the operation of connected and cooperative automated vehicles. Develop ways to enhance the optimised use of big data in (road) transport for implementing smart and safe mobility solutions, innovative traveller services and (city) traffic management.  

•Fulfil all security requirements to protect the shared automated vehicles to any threats and avoid any conscious manipulations of the information enabling automated driving.  

•Assess and demonstrate benefits of the pilot implementation on energy efficiency, traffic flow, safety, user appreciation etc, based on holistic modelling solutions. 

In line with the Union's strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation, international cooperation is encouraged. In particular, proposals should consider cooperation with projects or partners from the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and/or Australia. Proposals should foresee twinning with entities participating in projects funded by US DOT to exchange knowledge and experience and exploit synergies.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 15 and 30 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:

Proposals will test the overall mobility impact, in particular, how shared mobility solutions using connected and cooperative automated vehicles can contribute to a more sustainable, inclusive, and safe mobility system and help residents of a city/region (in particular less mobile persons, elderly and children) to increase mobility and improve urban freight transport efficiency. Proposed actions will help to reduce the total number of passenger cars and goods km in cities, overall CO2 and air pollutant emissions and energy consumption. They will improve market opportunities for SME's and new-entrants by addressing and developing innovative cross-sector business models. Actions will create strategic partnering opportunities between public agencies and the private sector for developing sustainable and scalable business models. They will also support the accelerated deployment of electrified vehicles for shared automated mobility services and integrated strategies for a smart and multi-modal mobility system and urban development, including land use and ITS and infrastructure development.

LC-GV-03-2019 - User centric charging infrastructure

Type of Action: IA (Innovation action)

Project size: 8-15 M€

Specific Challenge: The market share of full electric vehicles is still low in many European member states. Several reasons have been identified for this. Charging infrastructure is considered as one of the central reasons when the urban model does not allow for widespread garage availability, or when frequent long range travel is involved. Currently most EV owners have their own garage and live in peri-urban areas.

Innovative solutions need to be evaluated and developed to allow EV drivers to have a similar or even better mobility experience than with conventional fossil fuel vehicles in terms of availability, convenience, performance and costs of the necessary charging infrastructure. At the same time, the infrastructure should not affect the noise environment around them, in order not to create resistance to their installation in urban contexts.

In the longer term, electric roads can be considered for further streamlining the user experience and optimising vehicle design, starting from urban and peri-urban applications such as bus, taxi and LDV lanes, for later extension to extra-urban applications.

The challenge will be to support the accelerated deployment of recharging infrastructure, on one hand a slow charging one for cities with low garage availability, on the other to support occasional ultrafast charging for long range travel. The responsible stakeholders need to be incentivized to take clear steps for a wide availability of charging points and to improve the conditions for a broad market acceptance in the electrification of transport.

Scope: Proposals will have to address all following technical areas including demonstration of the final solutions and their interoperability in multiple cities and TEN-T transnational road links:  

•Analysis of subjective perception of charging options and identification of decision influences and concerns of users. The results should provide the basis for strategies or solutions to encourage or incentivize users of different social groups to overcome acceptance barriers in order to accelerate widespread usage of EVs.  

•Attractive and convenient charging infrastructure access with connected vehicle systems avoiding waiting times (through for instance, charging facility reservation and scheduling, integration with route planning of multiple vehicles). User preferences like use of renewable energy and avoidance of frequent handling of heavy cables have to be considered. Automated conductive or wireless solutions are expected with highly reliable and interoperable devices. Test methods need to be further optimized, for instance to assess interoperability. Optionally, further extension of the developed stationary wireless charging technology towards urban and periurban "electric road" applications, with the aim of creating an installed base of wireless-ready vehicles to provide the critical mass needed for the deployment of electrified roads at a later stage.  

•Transparent, flexible and interconnected payment systems for maximum availability of the charging infrastructure also for drivers who do not regularly use the same car (company/family sharing, commercial car sharing, rental cars, …) or travel across Europe.  

•User survey about parking habits, considering for instance how much time is spent at a given location; what type of services are needed or expected during charging; how should the future charging station look like.  

•Improvement of the currently deployed or planned superfast charging systems according to the previous survey to convince all car owners of the advantages of electric mobility including a sufficient convenience for long trips. All technical possibilities for optimization, both on the vehicle (like temperature preconditioning), or for energy demand rationalisation (e.g. local renewable power support for solar panels, battery storage for peak shaving and other grid services, demand control by interconnected route management systems for incoming vehicles while taking into account the electricity grid availability and voltage and frequency control constraints in real-time) need to be taken into account.  

•Scalable charging infrastructure for ramp-up of expected electric mobility needs in terms of power levels and number of charging posts at one site, adequately managing the impact on the grid.  

•Cheap low power DC-Charging for highly efficient connection to future home and office energy systems based on DC-Networks with possibility of V2G by smartening the link between vehicle, charging infrastructure and the grid.  

•Low power DC-charging for LEV’s in combination with theft-proof parking for two-wheelers.  

•Analysis of market models, regulatory and harmonization recommendations to foster the deployment of EV charging infrastructure in all member states of the EU. Demand control also for slow charging in public or private parking garages shall be enabled by standardized communication to remove barriers of electricity installations in existing apartment blocks and garages considering smart grid implications.  

•Development of planning methods to optimize the location of charging sites, taking in consideration user needs and habits (volume of EVs in the area, type of mobility needs, accessibility to charging points, traffic volume, …) as well as time and costs associated to the availability and reinforcement of the necessary electricity network with easy scalability according to the different stages of EV penetration. Analysis and cost effective solutions for specific cases like availability of infrastructure in isolated mountain or seaside locations, or for special events, where high peak demand is associated with short periods of use. Consideration for local storage benefits in the different cases studied. 

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 8 and 15 million depending on the level of involved demonstration would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: 

•  Wide user acceptance beyond early adopters, urban users and garage parkers;  

•Foster investors to invest in charging infrastructure;  

•Determine legal gaps which slow down infrastructure expansion and propose solutions;  

•Develop test methods and set up procedures to improve interoperability issues of vehicle-to-charger and charger-to-infrastructure communication;  

•Facilitate grid integration of high-power chargers;  

•Improve and standardize charging solutions and payment systems for LEVs for price reduction and higher market acceptance in urban environments. 

LC-GV-04-2019 - Low-emissions propulsion for long-distance trucks and coaches

Type of Action: IA (Innovation action)

Project size: 20-25 M€

Specific Challenge: Long-distance transport is a main consumer of energy and contributor to CO2 and air pollutant emissions in Europe, and requires specific attention due to very high demand on efficiency, dependability, reliability and cost. This topic considers heavy-duty trucks and bus-coaches in long-distance operation, and the challenge will be to reduce their energy consumption, CO2 ,regulated and non-regulated emissions (to anticipate future legislation and emerging issues such as extremely fine nanoparticles) through multi–technology vehicles operated on a mix of alternative and renewable fuels as well as recuperated heat and regenerated and externally supplied electricity.

Scope: Proposals will have to address all the following technical areas:  

•Sub-systems and component concepts including electro-hybrid drives, optimized ICEs and after-treatment systems for alternative and renewable fuels, electric motors, smart auxiliaries, energy storage and power electronics, suitable for real life operation under different mission conditions  

•Concepts for connected and digitalized fleet management, predictive maintenance and operation in relation to electrification where appropriate to maximise the emissions reduction potential.  

•Implementation of required adaptations in VECTO accordingly to facilitate early take-up of the innovations. 

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 20 and 25 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: 

•  The internal combustion engine performance shall be further enhanced to reach a peak thermal efficiency target of 50%  

•Reduction of CO2 emissions based on new ICEs optimized (where sufficiently large benefits can be demonstrated) for different combinations using alternative and renewable fuels with additional energy savings using heat recuperation or plug-in hybrid. Emissions with high global warming potential will have to be taken into account in the total CO2 equivalent emissions target and methodologies to introduce such emissions in VECTO devised accordingly.  

•A total energy saving, excluding the effect of alternative fuels and plug-in electricity, of at least 10% with respect to the best in class conventional vehicle of 2018 (according to the ongoing monitoring exercise) is targeted at calculated vehicle level VECTO results, validated by propulsion system measurements  

•30% reduction of NOx, CO and hydrocarbons in an extended range of environmental conditions  

•Reduction of unregulated components (N02, N20, NH3, CH4 for NG powertrains, PN measured with a lower threshold of 10nm  

•Reduction of noise in environmental zones in electric modes  

•Implementation of needed simulation methodologies in VECTO. 

LC-GV-05-2019 - InCo flagship on “Urban mobility and sustainable electrification in large urban areas in developing and emerging economies”

Type of Action: IA (Innovation action)

Project size: 15-18 M€

Specific Challenge: Climate change, energy security and local air pollution are some of the key questions for the 21st century. Urban areas in developing and emerging countries are major driving factors in growing global energy demand and Greenhouse Gas emissions. 

Although cities cover only 2% of the earth's surface, 50% of the world’s population lives in cities, but they are responsible for three-quarters of the global energy consumption as well as approximately 80% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. While the trend towards urbanisation and the associated increase of personal and freight transport creates massive challenges, in particular in developing and emerging economies, it also offers the unique opportunity to shape energy use especially in the transport and urban form towards a low carbon pathway. Moving towards sustainable mobility will also help addressing urban congestion, access to jobs and public services, and local air pollution.

This is why urbanisation requires integrated mobility solutions that bring together technology opportunities with local and national policy, including land use and mobility planning. Efficient transport and mobility, based on a balanced mix of public and private transport and dependent on the characteristics of each city, is and will continue to be the backbone of cities’ growth and competitiveness. 

Whereas environmental issues are very high on urban mobility agendas, the importance of transport in urban social and economic structures is often neglected in discussions. All three aspects of urban sustainability must be treated with equal importance and have to be examined in parallel. 

Scope: Actions should bring together European, Asian (e.g. China), CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) and African research partners, government agencies and urban authorities, private sector and civil society with relevant expertise and competence within the corresponding cooperation framework and foster participatory engagement in urban electrification in order to reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions. All types of vehicle are considered under this topic (powered 2 wheelers, cars, buses, trucks and LDV).

Proposals should address all of the following activities:  

•  Development of a toolbox for advanced management strategies towards a more efficient private and public electric mobility: E-mobility management strategies, focusing on smart deployment and operation of vehicles, in particular electrified vehicle, to increase mobility and energy efficiency, emission reduction and user acceptance of electrified vehicles         

o  A smart and cooperative management of the vehicle in urban operation, (intermodal route planning, ecorouting eco-driving charging and parking infrastructure availability…).    

o  Deployment and operation of infrastructure use charging infrastructure (conventional and wireless) and network, availability of parking places. Adaptation and integration of existing/ adapted vehicles of different types if necessary.    

o  Efficient integration of the operations of different electrified road public transport, from e-bike to bus rapid transit ( e- BRT) including mini-buses, taxi and mobility services on demand through smart navigation and routing, coordinated traffic management, demand-responsive service and dispatching   

•  Comparative demonstrations activities and pilots in cities in Europe, Asia, African and/or CELAC countries: Innovative concepts for electrified road public transport (passenger and freight), jointly designed through International Partnerships as a contribution to a wider sustainable mobility concept, from the perspective of a seamless mobility, taking in account the acceptance of users (travellers or freight operator). Comparative demonstrations activities and pilots (in European and Chinese’s Cities, African, CELAC countries) of such jointly designed concepts developed by local partners.   

•  Implementation concepts to scale up the demonstration activities. Evaluation of the relative outputs and accordingly the development of implementation concepts to scale up the demonstration activities and exploration of the sustainable mobility planning in the city transformation process :        

o  Sustainable planning of city and transportation infrastructure: link city planning with policy discussion and implementation solutions and city goals and with any Air Quality Plans 

o  Dedicated plans for financing solutions, including public and private operations.    

o  Regional and international replication conditions to reach out to a larger number of cities and countries   

Cooperation and synergies with ongoing activities undertaken with international initiatives such as Decarbonising Transport (International Transport Forum) and the Urban Electric Mobility Initiative (UN-Habitat) and other joint initiatives of European Member States international cooperation initiatives and the European Commission (e.g. Mobilise Your City) should be sought where appropriate.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation , international cooperation is encouraged.

Applicants are invited to read the eligibility and admissibility conditions for this topic.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 15 and 18 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Proposals are expected to contribute to:  

•  Capability to quantify the potential reduction of greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions as well as traffic congestion, by demonstrating improvements that can be achieved with new urban mobility systems and electrification, for each stakeholder in the value chain (in line with the objectives set by the COP21 and the New Urban Agenda)   

•  Reference models of the mobility system to provide a basis in order to assess the ability to replicate sustainable concepts by demonstrating the short- and long-term benefit for the stakeholders involved, and especially considering the relevant boundary conditions (i.e infrastructure, vehicle, usage needs and patterns, governance, financing schemes, urban organisation, etc) and how the result contributes to key EU policy goals ( including climate goals and competitiveness of European industry   

•  A basis for strengthening the collaboration of the European Union with Asia (e.g. China, India, etc), Latin America (CELAC) and Africa, which also offers both a common starting point for common future legislative efforts, as well a favourable setting for new business opportunities for innovative local and European entrepreneurs.  

LC-MG-1-6-2019 - Aviation operations impact on climate change

Type of Action: RIA (Research and Innovation action)

Project size: 2-3 M€

Specific Challenge:

This action is part of the Aviation International Cooperation Flagship called "Safer and Greener Aviation in a Smaller World" mentioned in the introduction to this work programme 2018-2020.

Aviation alters the composition of the atmosphere globally, thus can potentially contribute to anthropogenic climate change and ozone depletion. The last major international assessment of these impacts was made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1999. In addition to CO2, the climate impact of aviation is strongly influenced by non-CO2 emissions, such as nitrogen oxides, influencing ozone and methane, and water vapour, which can lead to the formation of persistent contrails in ice-supersaturated regions.

Beyond the perennial challenge in developing new technologies that can minimize the impact in the medium and longer term, the main objective of this action is expected to address mitigation strategies that will minimise those negative effects by aviation on climate in the short-medium term and are relevant for greener flight trajectories and operations.

Scope:

The proposals may aim at one or more of the following areas:  

A.Advance further the international state-of-the-art, through better scientific understanding of aviation emissions with high degree of uncertainty and high estimated impact to climate change, in order to enable greener flight operations.  

B.Propose and evaluate mitigation strategies towards operational improvements.  

C.Propose and evaluate mitigation strategies towards greener flight trajectories (ensuring complementarities with SESAR JU activities).  

D.Propose and evaluate mitigation strategies based on the use of alternative jet fuel pathways that have been approved under or intended to apply for the ASTM D7566 approval standard. A detailed Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach needs to be included taking into account the following key elements: proper co-product allocation methodology, system boundaries, attributional vs consequential LCA and uncertainties from the time horizon, the potential of Green House Gases (GHGs) reduction and economic implications. Regarding the feedstocks, the impact of indirect land-use change (ILUC) on GHGs emissions must also be taken into account and addressed. 

Proposals are expected to address the need to design and implement international measurement campaigns, in order to contribute to better climate metric assessments and more reliable physical and climate models.

This action does not address new aircraft technologies on structures, systems, engines nor their integration, towards minimising the impact in the medium and longer term. The projects are expected to formulate specific recommendations for stakeholders on flight planning and on the use of alternative fuels.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged. In particular bilateral international cooperation with China is encouraged for areas C and D with the aim at promoting substantial coordinated and balanced research and innovation cooperation between the EU and China. Proposals under those research areas C and D are encouraged to have an appropriate balance in terms of effort and/or number of partners between the EU and China. China-based participants have the possibility to apply for funding under the Chinese co-funding mechanism and other Chinese sources.

Although the association of TRL to better understanding aviation emissions is not uniquely defined, the implementation of the proposed topic may cover TRL spectrum from 2 to 4.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 2 and 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:

The topic aims to deliver scientifically founded and globally harmonised policy, regulations and operational improvements to support climate-friendly flight operations. Expected impacts are:   

•Better understanding the impact of aircraft emissions on climate towards better policy.   

•International measurement campaigns and international validation of physical and climate models.   

•Operational improvements in support to achieve the collective medium term global aspirational goal of keeping the global net CO2 emissions from international aviation from 2020 at the same level (so-called "carbon neutral growth from 2020").   

•Enhanced role of the Union in International Organisations and multilateral fora as well as strengthened implementation, governance, monitoring and evaluation.   

•Collaboration and sharing expertise on operational improvements and global market-based measures with EU and National aviation and environment research programmes.   

•Contribution to UN's Sustainable Development Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.  

LC-MG-1-7-2019 - Future propulsion and integration: towards a hybrid/electric aircraft

Type of Action: RIA (Research and Innovation action)

Project size: 3-5 M€

Specific Challenge:

This action is part of the Aviation International Cooperation Flagship called "Safer and Greener Aviation in a Smaller World" mentioned in the introduction to this work programme 2018-2020. 

The third challenge of Flightpath 2050 is related to environmental protection and the security of energy supply. At the Paris climate conference (COP21), countries agreed to limit climate change to well below 2°C. Without considerable contributions from the aviation sector to global mitigation efforts, this goal cannot be achieved. Carbon Neutral Growth from 2020 is possible through a combination of non-market and market measures. Regarding aircraft technologies, there is growing evidence that indicates that for airframe as well as for Propulsion and Power Systems (PPS), the projected cumulative impact of developed technologies will fall short of the year 2035 target. These projections account for the latest developments in airframe, weight gains from more-electric aircraft systems as well as advanced gas-turbines, such as expected high thermal efficiencies through intercooling and recuperation and propulsive efficiencies from Open Rotor.

Against this background it is necessary to develop future aviation propulsion and integration technologies with emphasis on hybrid-electric and full-electric propulsion. There is also a need for establishing a common roadmap and prioritize the key enabling technologies for the hybrid/electric configurations, including energy storage (batteries), for the aviation sector.

Scope:

Proposals are expected to address feasibility design studies for aircraft energy system with integrated hybrid/electric propulsion and power generation architectures as well as sub-systems enablers in the context of appropriately projected advances in the next twenty-year framework. Each proposal may aim at several of the following areas:  

•Development of tools for tightly-coupled inter-disciplinary new architectural feasibility assessment for the hybrid/electric propulsion and power systems, including detailed feasibility design studies for innovative energy distribution, use and storage solutions.  

•Explore concepts on energy harvesting technologies to identifying, capturing, storing and re-using energy in flight and/or during take-off, landing, breaking and taxiing, which have potential to offer synergies with hybrid-electric architectures.  

•Explore emerging storage technologies that have potential to comply with aerospace requirements (e.g. performances, safety, dispatch…) for hybrid/electric propulsion and power systems.  

•Advance further Electro-Magnetic Interference solutions as well as thermal management trade-offs at system level. 

Projects are expected to perform an assessment on the applicability, availability and upgrade of research infrastructures for testing and validation with focus on electrical and propulsion benches and computational tools. (incl. wind tunnels, electrical and propulsion benches and computational tools). Projects are also expected to develop updated roadmap with reference to key enabling technologies towards fully electric or hybrid-electric aircraft and explore new relevant regulatory frameworks.

The implementation of the proposed areas of this topic should cover TRLs ranging from 1 to 4.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation , multilateral international cooperation is encouraged, in particular with countries such as Japan and Canada.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 3 and 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:

Overall, the topic is expected to contribute to Flightpath 2050 goals, namely towards “environmental protection and the security of energy supply” as well as “maintaining global leadership”. Specific impact is expected in the following areas:  

•New paradigm shift towards emission-free aviation.  

•Strengthen the medium and long-term European aeronautics competitiveness.  

•Engagement of European aviation research community to a highly ambitious topic.  

•Establishment of roadmaps and prioritization key enabling technologies.  

•Foundations for next-generation European demonstrators.  

•Contribution to UN's Sustainable Development Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. 

MG-4-4-2019 - Support for dissemination events in the field of Transport Research

Type of Action: CSA (Coordination and support action)

Project size: 0.5-0.7 M€

Specific Challenge:

An integral aspect of the Transport part of Horizon 2020 is to organise event(s) of a major strategic nature. The Transport Research Arena (TRA) Conferences and Aerodays are the examples of events organised in different Member States, with a high European dimension. The proposed actions should help promoting and disseminating Transport Research activities in Europe. 

Scope:

In 2019, proposals should address the following sub-topic:

Support for the organisation of the Transport Research Arena 2022 conference 

The action will prepare and provide support to the Transport Research Arena Conference (TRA) to be organised in 2022. TRA is the European Transport Research conference which brings together representatives of transport stakeholders from all over Europe and beyond around research and innovation results and policy.

The objective of the conference is to provide a platform for discussion of political, industrial, research and policy issues on a European and global scene, which pursues a smart combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. In line with previous TRA conferences, the event should address the technological and industrial developments of the transport sector (road, rail, waterborne and aviation sectors and also cross-modal aspects) providing a high-level, future oriented perspective coming from politics, the industry and the research community, in response to Europe’s social needs and expectations.

In collaboration with the relevant actors, such as the European Commission services, the different European Technology Platforms (ERTRAC for road, ERRAC for rail, WATERBORNE TP for waterborne, ALICE for logistics and ACARE for aeronautics) and also the previous TRA conference organisers in order to maintain continuity, the action will define the overall planning of the conference, structure the technical and political sessions of the event, contribute to select the appropriate location for the venue and offer operational IT tools for the registration of participants, the handling of speakers’ contributions, contribute to the organisation of logistics, etc. Support to the organisation of demonstration activities should also be foreseen.

Proposals must demonstrate the commitment of the national authorities' support. Applicants are invited to read the eligibility and admissibility conditions for this sub-topic. A financial plan to organise the event is also necessary.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 0.5 and 0.7 million each would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:

The actions will contribute to a wide dissemination of the results of European transport research and to raise the visibility and weight of the EU policy in the field.

These actions are expected to increase the attractiveness of transport related studies and reinforce the pursuit of excellence in European transport research and innovation, by giving recognition and visibility to the best achievements.

It will allow creating links and exchanges between research and innovation stakeholders and policy makers, thus improving the development and deployment of innovative solutions for transport in Europe.

MG-4-5-2019 - An inclusive digitally interconnected transport system meeting citizens' needs

Type of Action: RIA (Research and Innovation action)

Project size: 1-3 M€

Specific Challenge:

Merging physical transport assets like infrastructure or vehicles with the digital layer, through the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data applications opens vast possibilities in terms of the development of new transport services, business/operating models and social innovations. This has been exemplified in the rapid development of services such as multimodal travel planners, transportation network companies, Mobility as a Service, public transport on demand, new airline ancillary products, various forms of tracking and tracing and many others.

Digitally based services and applications provide citizens with an increasing level of tailored real-time information and greater choice thus allowing for a travel process that is faster, more comfortable and which gives travellers greater control. These services and applications can also serve as basis for social innovations in mobility. In the longer time frame, digitisation of transport promises to lead towards fully personalised services and commercial offers. Despite this, important and often overlooked aspects are user impact and user's ability and readiness to take advantage of the new opportunities. Benefiting from digital technology requires specific skills, willingness and ability to assume a new role as an active participant of the digital travel ecosystem. The main challenge is therefore to ensure that all members of society can benefit from digitisation. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to better understand the needs and attitudes of various users, in particular vulnerable-to-exclusion citizens such as, for example, elderly, low-income, disabled or migrants, in relation to the requirements brought about by the digitised transport system as well as the skills and strategies necessary for all citizens in order to fully benefit from it.

Scope:

Proposals should address several or all of the following:  

•Identify the main characteristics of demands that digitally based mobility solutions place on the users;  

•Identify the needs and attitudes of all societal strata of transport users - in particular vulnerable to exclusion citizens - in the digitised travel ecosystem, taking into account interpersonal and intrapersonal (over time for the same person) variations(age, culture, etc);  

•Identify the obstacles to the appropriation of digital mobility by different user groups and possible nudges to facilitate it, including the potential for social innovations;  

•Investigate user requirements when transport is interrupted, e.g.: due to extreme weather, man-made or technical hazards.  

•Investigate gender related differences in the adoption of digitally based transportation products and services;  

•Identify skills and strategies needed in order to fully benefit from digitalisation in transport and thus to avoid digital exclusion or digital divide in terms of social and spatial aspects;  

•Analyse differences and particularities in relation to the adoption of new mobility solutions and social innovations across a representative sample of member states, both in terms of user uptake and service provision;  

•Provide recommendations for policy making and practical applications for designing an inclusive digital transport system and its related products and services with due regard to data protection and cybersecurity issues; 

Research should be validated in a selected number of case studies through pilot demonstration, trials and testing involving service providers and end-users. Furthermore, actions should be undertaken in view of ensuring take up of research results by key stakeholders.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 3 million each would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:

Research will help policy-makers design appropriate regulatory frameworks and social and educational strategies in order to create the best possible conditions for an inclusive, user friendly digital transport system, taking into account the needs and characteristics of all parts of society, with particular attention to vulnerable to exclusion citizens. Moreover, research will also help regional authorities and businesses in designing digital transport solutions that are better tailored to citizens' individual needs. 

MG-4-6-2019 - Supporting Joint Actions on sustainable urban accessibility and connectivity

Type of Action: ERA-NET Cofund

It is planned to include for 2019 a topic addressing specific challenges of sustainable urban accessibility and connectivity. The topic will be further defined with the update of the work programme 2019. It is planned to implement the action as ERA-NET Cofund action. Proposals should pool the necessary financial resources from the participating national (or regional) research programs with a view to implementing a joint call for proposals resulting in grants to third parties with EU co-funding in this area. Proposers will be requested to include other joint activities including additional joint calls without EU co-funding.

MG-BG-02-2019 - Ship emission control scenarios, marine environmental impact and mitigation

Type of Action: RIA (Research and Innovation action)

Project size: Up to 8 M€

Specific Challenge:

Increasingly strict emission standards apply to shipping around the coastlines of many developed countries. Presently these are mainly focussed on SOx, but in future, reflecting health concerns, increasingly strict limits are likely to address NOx and particulate matter. A variety of compliant solutions can meet present, and may be able to meet emerging and future standards. However, some of these solutions may lead to secondary impacts and new waste streams. The principal challenge is to better understand the comprehensive environmental impacts from the wide scale adoption of a range of potential emission reduction solutions together with any secondary effects on the on the marine environment. As well as building upon current state of the art modelling (e.g by IIASA and EMSA ), appropriate Earth Observation data and information provided by the Copernicus programme and its Marine Environmental Monitoring Service maybe taken into consideration.

Scope:

To address these challenges, proposals should address all of the following aspects:  

•  Assess the range of emission reduction technologies and designs which may be deployed, consider their cost benefits.   

•  Experimentally characterise waste streams from emission control technologies, identifying the substances and quantities involved.   

•  Considering several possible scenarios for the wide scale adoption of different emission control technologies depending on fuel costs, availabilities service needs etc model the disbursement of to the marine environment around the European coastline. Modelling should consider the main shipping routes, use real ship traffic, hydrological and weather data and the variety of constituents discharged. Consideration should be given to vulnerable regions such as estuaries and enclosed waters.   

•  For the scenarios modelled assess the environmental impact on the marine environment in the medium and long term including consideration of any potential bio accumulation.   

•  Considering SOx, NOx and particulate matter, assess and propose sustainable cost effective emission reduction strategies and technologies. Assessments should also include consideration of waste stream costs and their cost effective treatment.   

•  Open access to source and dispersion model data is encouraged.  

In line with the Union’s strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation, international cooperation is encouraged. The participation of civil society is also encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a budget from the EU of up to EUR 8 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:

For a variety of likely emission reduction scenarios, activities will provide comprehensive information concerning the predicted dispersion of discharges from shipping and any long term environmental impact. Identify the most effected locations. Provide a sound science basis for future policy decisions at local, national, European and international levels. Provide a valuable open data and modelling resource. Facilitate cooperation between industry and environmental scientists. Contribute to UN's Sustainable Development Goals 13 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources and the target to prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds. 

The Cryosphere

LC-CLA-07-2019 - The changing cryosphere: uncertainties, risks and opportunities

Specific Challenge: Globally, glaciers and the large ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland are particularly vulnerable to climate change, risking a significant future contribution to changes in sea levels. At present, there are significant uncertainties, e.g. relating to their stability, which prevent an accurate assessment of their vulnerability. The 'Arctic amplification' of global warming is putting pressure on the ecosystems and communities of the region and having an impact at global level as well. The Arctic's fragile natural ecosystems and societies are under serious threat, and additional human activities, linked to the new economic opportunities that are made possible by climate change, are putting additional pressure on them.

Scope: Actions should aim at developing innovative approaches to address only one of the following sub-topics:
a) Sea-level changes (Research and Innovation action): Actions should assess the processes controlling changes to global ice mass balance - including ice dynamics - such as ice shelf-ocean and sea-ice interactions, surface components, effects of crustal de-loading (Glacial Isostatic Adjustments) on relative sea-level changes and/or gravitational effects of ice mass changes on the spatial patterns of sea-level changes. Actions should assess the status of ice sheets and glaciers, report on how their changes are likely to affect future sea-levels, and increase confidence in predicting changes in the cryosphere including through better representation of poorly represented processes. Actions should also analyse low-probability high-impact scenarios including those associated with the collapse of ice sheets (sea-level fingerprints). Actions may be focused on specific issues which substantially contribute to sea-level changes and to the assessment of the associated major risks to and impacts on coastal communities, coastal ecosystems and critical infrastructure across the globe.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 8 to EUR 10 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

b) Changes in Arctic biodiversity (Research and Innovation action): Actions should identify and analyse major drivers and implications of changing biodiversity in the Arctic, such as the role of invasive species, and how vulnerable land and/or marine ecosystems are with respect to combined human and natural influences. Actions should assess the ecosystems' responses to both external and internal factors and how these responses are impacting on indigenous populations and local communities at socio-economic level. Actions should also identify adaptation strategies in relation to the changes in Arctic ecosystems.
The participation of social sciences and humanities disciplines is important for addressing the complex challenges of this topic.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 5 to EUR 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.

Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
c) Sustainable opportunities in a changing Arctic (Research and Innovation action): Actions should assess the viability of new economic activities – such as resource exploitation, shipping and tourism – and their ecological and socio-economic impacts and feedbacks at various scales, and their impact on the provision of ecosystem services. Actions should investigate key processes with high societal and economic impacts and provide appropriate, solution-oriented adaptation and mitigation responses, as well as capacity building for sustainable livelihoods while considering – in a co-design approach – the needs, priorities and perspectives of indigenous populations, local communities and economic actors operating in the region.
The participation of social sciences and humanities disciplines is essential for addressing the complex challenges of this topic.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 5 to EUR 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

d) Arctic standards (Coordination and Support action): The action should propose guidelines and protocols to develop ‘Arctic standards’, also including the legal framework, based on the translation of research outcomes into cold-climate technologies and services with commercial potential and the assessment of the sustainability of associated processes and technologies. The action should cover a wide range of technologies and services that have the potential to bring broad social and economic benefits within and beyond the Arctic region. The action should also provide requirements on how to design, build, install, and operate equipment and services to safely perform activities in the Arctic and to respond to emergencies.
The participation of standardisation organisations is encouraged.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
For all of the above sub-topics, in line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged22, in
22 Proposals should pay attention to the special call conditions for this topic.particular with countries – beyond the EU Member States and countries associated to Horizon 2020 – that took part in the first Arctic Science Ministerial of 28 September 201623.

Expected Impact: For projects addressing parts a), b) or c), the project results are expected to contribute to:

• the implementation of the new integrated EU policy for the Arctic24;
• the IPCC assessments and other major regional and global initiatives;
• enhanced engagement of and the interaction with residents from local communities and indigenous societies.

For projects addressing part d), the project results are expected to contribute to:

• enhanced stakeholder capability to operate in cold climate environments;
• better servicing of the economic sectors that operate in the Arctic (e.g. shipping, tourism);
•  promoting sustainable Arctic opportunities arising from climate change and supporting the leverage of regional (EU) funds into these opportunities;
• supporting the competitiveness of European industry, particularly SMEs, engaging in sustainable development of the Arctic.

Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Research and Innovation action

The conditions related to this topic are provided at the end of this call and in the General Annexes.

Decarbonisation

LC-CLA-02-2019 - Negative emissions and land-use based mitigation assessment

Specific Challenge: Most low-carbon pathways leading to well below 2°C (or 1.5°C) stabilisation of the global temperature – in line with the Paris Agreement goals – include negative emissions to compensate for residual emissions and/or temperature overshoot and highlight the critical role of land-use based mitigation. There is therefore a need to quantitatively assess the potential, effectiveness and impacts of negative emission technologies/practices and of land-use mitigation options, in achieving the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement, as well as linking these to what it would mean for concrete policy challenges.

Scope: Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a) Feasibility of negative emissions for climate stabilisation: Actions should assess the potential, effectiveness, efficiency, risks and costs of existing and emerging negative emission technologies and practices for climate stabilisation and their impact on: land, subsurface, water, oceans and other resources, bio-diversity, human safety, food security, ecosystems and their ability to deliver services to society, including implications for resilience, sustainability, feedbacks on climate and the global carbon cycle, and other relevant issues. Actions should also cover the issue of public acceptance and explore the international governance requirements associated with large-scale deployment of negative emission technologies and practices.

b) Land-based mitigation: Actions should provide a comprehensive analysis of various land-use based mitigation options at the global and regional level, assessing their potential and effectiveness in providing large-scale reductions of greenhouse gases, in the context of trade-offs and/or co-benefits in relation to other pressures and goals (e.g. food, energy and water security, biodiversity) and should analyse feedbacks between land-use based mitigation and climate change impacts. Actions should also improve current methodologies to estimate emissions and removals associated with land use measures, also by leveraging observations from GEOSS and in particular the Copernicus programme.
For both of the sub-topics, in line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged.

For both of the sub-topics, actions should envisage resources for clustering with other actions funded under this topic.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 5 million and EUR 7 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

• major international scientific assessments such as the IPCC reports and the IPBES, as well as to national and EU impact assessments of possible mitigation options;
• developing a comprehensive medium-to-long term vision and analytical framework on pathways to achieve climate neutrality in the perspective of reaching the PA goals;
• improved ex-post, spatially explicit monitoring of the mitigation performance of the land sector;
• enhanced international cooperation.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

The conditions related to this topic are provided at the end of this call and in the General Annexes.

LC-CLA-05-2019 - Human dynamics of climate change

Specific Challenge: As climatic changes increasingly place populations under pressure, human beings are already adapting. However, less developed countries – particularly in Africa – are often less resilient to climate change and require the deployment of appropriate support to adaptation, including in the form of bespoke climate services tailored to users' needs. There is some evidence that climate change may already be playing a role in shaping population migration patterns around the world (e.g. Africa to Europe). It is important to make use of the wealth of available socio-economic and geophysical data to better understand these patterns in order to develop appropriate policy responses.

Scope: Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a) Climate services for Africa: Actions should exploit new, relevant climate data made available by Copernicus and other relevant sources (such as GEOSS) and create dedicated climate services for Africa for at least two of the following sectors: water, energy, land use17, health and infrastructure. Actions should develop and deliver tools/applications which demonstrate clear end-user engagement, consultation and participation, and which enhance planning and implementation of climate adaptation strategies in Africa. Actions should consider activities addressed by other initiatives such as the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), Copernicus, and development cooperation activities, and provide added value. Actions should further consider the EU-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy.

b) Climate and human migration: Actions should identify and analyse drivers relating to climate change that may affect human migration and displacement patterns. Actions should – using a multidisciplinary approach – identify and describe climate parameters, develop analytical methodologies, and demonstrate how these relate to human migration patterns, including the probability of migration/forced displacement and design adaptation solutions that may help in alleviating migration pressures at the source. They should also provide guidelines and policy recommendations for the European Agenda on Migration. Actions may also harness local knowledge and information by engaging with civil society organisations and citizen groups.

For both of the sub-topics, in line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged.

The participation of social sciences and humanities disciplines is encouraged to address the complex challenges of this topic, including challenges associated with relevant gender issues.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 5 million and EUR 7 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

• better policy making for climate adaptation in partner countries and Europe;
• supporting international scientific assessments such as the IPCC Assessment Reports;
• stronger adaptive capacity and climate resilience.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

The conditions related to this topic are provided at the end of this call and in the General Annexes.

Inter-relations between climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem services

LC-CLA-06-2019 - Inter-relations between climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem services

Specific Challenge: The Paris Agreement notes the importance of taking action to ensure the integrity of all ecosystems and the protection of biodiversity in the context of combatting climate change and adapting to its impacts. An improved understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between ecological processes and climate change, together with evidence-based guidance, is crucial for the development of appropriate solution-oriented strategies and measures for biodiversity conservation and cost-effective ecosystems-based climate change adaptation and mitigation. Furthermore, there are opportunities to let biodiversity and ecosystems benefit multidimensionally from climate change adaptation and mitigation, because intelligent climate policy can simultaneously reduce other environmental stresses, such as air pollution.

Scope: Actions should investigate at all relevant spatial and temporal scales the way that ecological processes, biodiversity (including terrestrial and/or marine ecosystems as appropriate) and ecosystem services are impacted, both directly and indirectly, by climate change. Actions should consider the interactions and feedbacks between climate change and biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services. The vulnerability of biodiversity and ecosystems functions and services to climate change should be investigated and modelled across a range of European (including other European territories) climatic and ecological regions; this includes human activities with relevance to climate change. They should account for social, ecological and economic aspects and climate change relevant stressors and sources of uncertainty. These should include tipping points and safe operating spaces. The role of nature-based solutions in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies should be assessed and synergies with other pollution-reducing environmental policies be explored. Work should build, as appropriate, on existing knowledge and activities such as relevant FP7/Horizon 2020 projects, European climate adaptation platforms and Copernicus Services, in particular on climate change, land monitoring and marine environmental monitoring, and contribute to long-term monitoring initiatives.
Projects should envisage resources for clustering with projects funded under the same topic and with ongoing and future projects funded under other relevant topics within Societal Challenge 5 and other parts of Horizon 2020. In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged, in particular with CELAC21 countries.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 5 million to 7 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

• more effective, integrated and evidence-based biodiversity conservation strategies and ecosystem management in the face of climate change;
• pushing the EU to the forefront in climate-change predictive capacity through models better accounting for the interactions and feedbacks between biodiversity, ecosystems and the climate system;
• more effective ecosystem-based adaptation and mitigation, through evidence-based design and implementation of systemic nature-based solutions ;
• enhanced ecosystem integrity, functionality, resilience and delivery of services;
• increased investment in nature-based solutions, and ecosystem conservation, restoration and management, to support climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies;
•  underpinning the EU Nature Directives, EU Biodiversity Strategy, 7th Environment Action Programme, and the EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change;
•  informing major international scientific assessments such as the IPCC reports and the IPBES;
•  the protection, restoration and enhancement of natural capital in line with the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and further relevant global processes and organisations.
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Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

The conditions related to this topic are provided at the end of this call and in the General Annexes.

The Cryosphere

LC-CLA-07-2019 - The changing cryosphere: uncertainties, risks and opportunities

Specific Challenge: Globally, glaciers and the large ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland are particularly vulnerable to climate change, risking a significant future contribution to changes in sea levels. At present, there are significant uncertainties, e.g. relating to their stability, which prevent an accurate assessment of their vulnerability. The 'Arctic amplification' of global warming is putting pressure on the ecosystems and communities of the region and having an impact at global level as well. The Arctic's fragile natural ecosystems and societies are under serious threat, and additional human activities, linked to the new economic opportunities that are made possible by climate change, are putting additional pressure on them.

Scope: Actions should aim at developing innovative approaches to address only one of the following sub-topics:

a) Sea-level changes (Research and Innovation action): Actions should assess the processes controlling changes to global ice mass balance - including ice dynamics - such as ice shelf-ocean and sea-ice interactions, surface components, effects of crustal de-loading (Glacial Isostatic Adjustments) on relative sea-level changes and/or gravitational effects of ice mass changes on the spatial patterns of sea-level changes. Actions should assess the status of ice sheets and glaciers, report on how their changes are likely to affect future sea-levels, and increase confidence in predicting changes in the cryosphere including through better representation of poorly represented processes. Actions should also analyse low-probability high-impact scenarios including those associated with the collapse of ice sheets (sea-level fingerprints). Actions may be focused on specific issues which substantially contribute to sea-level changes and to the assessment of the associated major risks to and impacts on coastal communities, coastal ecosystems and critical infrastructure across the globe.The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 8 to EUR 10 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

b) Changes in Arctic biodiversity (Research and Innovation action): Actions should identify and analyse major drivers and implications of changing biodiversity in the Arctic, such as the role of invasive species, and how vulnerable land and/or marine ecosystems are with respect to combined human and natural influences. Actions should assess the ecosystems' responses to both external and internal factors and how these responses are impacting on indigenous populations and local communities at socio-economic level. Actions should also identify adaptation strategies in relation to the changes in Arctic ecosystems.
The participation of social sciences and humanities disciplines is important for addressing the complex challenges of this topic.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 5 to EUR 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

c) Sustainable opportunities in a changing Arctic (Research and Innovation action): Actions should assess the viability of new economic activities – such as resource exploitation, shipping and tourism – and their ecological and socio-economic impacts and feedbacks at various scales, and their impact on the provision of ecosystem services. Actions should investigate key processes with high societal and economic impacts and provide appropriate, solution-oriented adaptation and mitigation responses, as well as capacity building for sustainable livelihoods while considering – in a co-design approach – the needs, priorities and perspectives of indigenous populations, local communities and economic actors operating in the region.
The participation of social sciences and humanities disciplines is essential for addressing the complex challenges of this topic.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 5 to EUR 6 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

d) Arctic standards (Coordination and Support action): The action should propose guidelines and protocols to develop ‘Arctic standards’, also including the legal framework, based on the translation of research outcomes into cold-climate technologies and services with commercial potential and the assessment of the sustainability of associated processes and technologies. The action should cover a wide range of technologies and services that have the potential to bring broad social and economic benefits within and beyond the Arctic region. The action should also provide requirements on how to design, build, install, and operate equipment and services to safely perform activities in the Arctic and to respond to emergencies.
The participation of standardisation organisations is encouraged.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
For all of the above sub-topics, in line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged22, in
22 Proposals should pay attention to the special call conditions for this topic.particular with countries – beyond the EU Member States and countries associated to Horizon 2020 – that took part in the first Arctic Science Ministerial of 28 September 201623.

Expected Impact: For projects addressing parts a), b) or c), the project results are expected to contribute to:

•  the implementation of the new integrated EU policy for the Arctic24;
• the IPCC assessments and other major regional and global initiatives;
•  enhanced engagement of and the interaction with residents from local communities and indigenous societies.

For projects addressing part d), the project results are expected to contribute to:

• enhanced stakeholder capability to operate in cold climate environments;
• better servicing of the economic sectors that operate in the Arctic (e.g. shipping, tourism);
• promoting sustainable Arctic opportunities arising from climate change and supporting the leverage of regional (EU) funds into these opportunities;
• supporting the competitiveness of European industry, particularly SMEs, engaging in sustainable development of the Arctic.
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Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Research and Innovation action

The conditions related to this topic are provided at the end of this call and in the General Annexes.

Raw materials

CE-SC5-08-2018-2019-2020 - Raw materials policy support actions for the circular economy 43

Specific Challenge: In order to secure the sustainable access to primary and secondary raw materials, including metals, industrial minerals, construction raw materials, wood, and particularly Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) for the EU economy, there is a need to tackle a number of specific non-technological challenges at local, regional, national, EU and global levels.

Illegal shipments of waste, both within the EU and to non-EU countries, and poor recycling have adverse effects on human health and the environment, create unfair competition for law
abiding operators and give rise to the loss of valuable resources in the case of poor or no treatment. However, port authorities and enforcement authorities have limited resources to control the ever increasing amount of material shipped and this without blocking normal traffic. In addition, at the moment there is no distinction in customs codes between “new goods” and “second hand goods” which implies that illegal waste shipments are often disguised as “second hand goods”.

Currently, at most only one third of waste wood is recycled, the rest being landfilled or incinerated and there are great differences between Member States in wood recycling performance. Increasing production costs combined with stagnating product prices in recent years have put pressure on the profit margins of the EU woodworking industries, mostly dominated by SMEs. There is a need for higher resource efficiency and increased use of recycled wood in wood processing that can provide measurable improvements in company profitability.


Requirements for responsible sourcing in the raw materials value chain have recently been strengthened in one aspect by the new EU Conflict Minerals legislation. However, the need for the industry to engage in responsible sourcing and responsible business conduct and to perform relevant due diligence goes beyond legislative obligations – it is rooted in the growing expectations of consumers, civil society, governments and procurement managers (buyers). While it is very difficult for individual operators to meet such expectations due to the limited availability of the necessary information, downstream industries increasingly require all operators in their supply chain to address risks by performing due diligence. Responsible sourcing of raw materials is becoming a new business reality; in the short term it may offer a competitive advantage to frontrunners and in the long term, it could become a necessary "license to operate" and, given the global character of today's supply chains, it is also a way to be integrated in global supply chains.

Scope: All actions should contribute to building the EU knowledge base of primary and secondary raw materials (EC Raw Materials Information System – RMIS44).

Actions should include a task to cluster with other relevant projects in the field funded by Horizon 2020, in support of the EIP on Raw Materials.

Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics45:

a)    Voluntary scheme for certification of treatment facilities for key types of wastes (2018): Actions should develop and launch a voluntary scheme for certification – including verification – of treatment facilities for key types of waste/recyclates containing significant amounts of critical raw materials (e.g. electronic waste and/or waste batteries). The scheme should integrate measurable and verifiable minimum quality standards and a verification procedure based on traceability through the supply chain from collection to end-processing.

Participation    of    relevant    stakeholders    –    including    waste    holders,    dealers,    brokers    and
operators of treatment facilities – from the conception phase of the scheme should be ensured. Full compliance with applicable WTO rules and with the rules and principles of the Basel Convention should be ensured, and existing certification schemes for waste should be taken into account.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged.

The Commission considers that for this sub-topic, proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.


b)    Resource efficiency in wood processing, recovery and recycling (2018): Actions should identify, assess and document existing practices in a representative set of EU Member States/Associated Countries and possibly third countries, and create a network to widely disseminate and transfer good practices covering both issues: resource-efficient wood processing and wood waste recycling. Resource-efficient wood processing in the woodworking sector should improve companies' operational performance and hence the EU sector's overall competitiveness. Quality-oriented and cost-efficient wood waste collection systems, sorting and recycling, and design solutions should facilitate increased wood recycling together with increased product quality and market acceptance of recovered wood in new products. Involvement of relevant stakeholders across value chains is necessary, including wood processing industries, research & innovation institutes, woodworking products end-users, municipalities and other parties dealing with wood waste collection, sorting and recycling. Actions should also assess trade-offs between wood waste use for material and energy. This assessment should be based on life cycle analysis and all

sustainability pillars, and consider impacts on sustainable forest operations and ecosystems integrity (for all major EU forest regions) and impacts of intra-EU trade46. Proposals should include the participation of industrial SMEs, as far as possible.

The Commission considers that for this sub-topic, proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

c)    Responsible sourcing of raw materials in global value chains (2019): Actions should create a global business and stakeholder platform for exchange of information and the promotion of responsible sourcing and responsible business conduct involving a network of key international experts and stakeholders. The aim is to engage governmental and corporate partners from the EU/Associated Countries and third countries in developing a globally acceptable concept of a responsible sourcing in minerals and metals value chains.
The platform should develop ideas for creating incentives for responsible sourcing in raw materials value chains, strengthen EU outreach to third countries to promote the concept in intergovernmental forums and to establish responsible sourcing in EU business practice. Interaction with other related existing platforms, networks and initiatives is encouraged. Actions should consider the relevant aspects related to environmental sustainability.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged, particularly with partners from advanced countries using raw materials47.

The Commission considers that for this sub-topic, proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.


Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

sub-topic a)

•    achieving the objectives and the implementation of both the Raw Materials Initiative48 and the EIP on Raw Materials, in particular in terms of strengthening the enforcement of the Waste Shipment Regulation and improving access to critical raw materials (CRMs);

•    increased recovery rates in the EU as regards key types of waste/recyclates containing significant amounts of CRMs;

•    in the longer term, reduced EU dependency on imports of CRMs;

•    creating added value and new jobs in metallurgy, equipment manufacturing and/or downstream industries;

•    improving the environmental (control of emissions, residues, effluents), health and safety performance of operations throughout the whole life cycle;

sub-topic b)

•    achieving the objectives and the implementation of the EU Forest Strategy49, Circular Economy Action Plan and the EIP on Raw Materials on resource-efficient use of resources;

•    improving knowledge and conditions for efficient wood processing when compared to the state of the art, resulting in increased competitiveness of the EU woodworking industries;
•    increased wood waste recycling across the EU (including from furniture, construction and demolition, packaging, household) and increased acceptance in the use of secondary wood;

•    better informed decision-making at EU, national and local levels in the private and public sectors on wood recycling and resource efficiency; and improved knowledge of EU stakeholders about proposed solutions, including authorities involved in wood recycling;

•    in the medium and long term, creating added value and new jobs and increasing the overall competitiveness of the EU woodworking industries and related value-chains through an uptake of resource-, water- and energy-efficient solutions;


sub-topic c)

•    achieving the objectives of both the Raw Materials Initiative50 and the EIP on Raw Materials in terms of the access and responsible sourcing of raw materials;

•    improved awareness of consumers/corporates and improved perception of responsible sourcing as a source of competitive advantage through more responsible sourcing and responsible business conduct initiatives with regards to raw materials;

•    increased visibility of responsible sourcing in global political agenda-setting and emergence of a globally accepted definition of responsible sourcing.


Type of Action: Coordination and support action


43    It is expected that this topic will continue in 2020.
44    https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/scientific-tool/raw-materials-information-system
45    Proposals should pay attention to the specific call conditions for this topic
46    For example, country grouping applied by Forest Europe or other equivalent methodology
47    Proposals should pay attention to the specific call conditions for this topic
48    http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/policy-strategy/index_en.htm
49    COM(2013)659
50    http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/policy-strategy/index_en.htm

Protecting and leveraging the value of our natural and cultural assets: Earth observation

SC5-16-2019 - Development of commercial activities and services through the use of GEOSS and Copernicus data

Specific Challenge: Both GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) and its key European contributor, Copernicus, offer a tremendous innovation opportunity for the EU inthe domain of Earth Observation (EO) as these initiatives enable long term access to a broad range of EO datasets, opening new avenues for the delivery of innovative environmental products and services. These data sources provide new opportunities for business sectors in Europe to deliver information and products that are vital inputs to help decision makers, industry and citizens adapt to changes occurring at different paces and affecting the Earth systems. The challenge faced today is to move from stand-alone observation data supply activities to more downstream integrated information services addressing citizens' needs directly within the context of their day-to-day lives.

However, those opportunities for the development of a new market of EO services and products cannot be fully exploited without a stronger involvement of commercial sector actors in both the GEO and Copernicus initiatives.


Scope: Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a)    Coordination of European innovators in the domain of Earth observation (Coordination and Support Action): Actions should foster the development and implementation of a collaborative and integrated European research and innovation strategy for mass market applications based on space and non-space Earth observation. The action will support an industry-led stakeholder research and innovation forum in the domain of Earth observation in close collaboration with GEO and Copernicus, driving for innovation, knowledge transfer and European competitiveness.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 1 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

b)    Designing Earth observation services and products of the future, building on GEOSS and Copernicus assets (Innovation Action): Actions should deliver solutions addressing citizens' needs and contributing to the development of new markets of products and services through integrating Earth observation (EO) data and information, e.g. from GEOSS and Copernicus, with other data sources. These products and services should incorporate assimilation techniques and interoperability best practices, automation, systemization and integrated web-based services, and be brought – at least – into pre-operational service provision, going beyond the demonstration phase. Activities are expected to focus on Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 5 to 7.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU from between EUR 2 million and EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

•    effective engagement of the European commercial sector within GEOSS;
•    new commercial products and services using GEOSS and Copernicus data and services;

•    capacity building among current and potential developers of commercial products;

•    demonstrated capability and reliability of novel EO products and services through the whole value chain;

•    mobilising the most dynamic actors of the European commercial sector, developing new EO-derived mass markets and increasing cross-domain exploitation of EO data.


Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Innovation action

Connecting economic and environmental gains - the circular economy

CE-SC5-04-2019 - Building a water-smart economy and society

Specific Challenge: There is a growing demand for water from various economic activities and increasing stress on natural water sources. To secure water for our society, there is therefore a need to make available alternative water resources of various qualities and which are appropriate for different functions and multiple users, and to better exploit water resources and all the valuable substances that could be obtained through the wastewater treatment and reuse process. However, innovations in this domain remain fragmented and/or only experimented at small scales; testing and deployment in operational environments and at scales suitable for encouraging wider uptake is still missing.

Scope: Actions should demonstrate the feasibility of a 'water smart' economy and society in which all available water resources, including surface, groundwater, waste water, and process water, are managed in such a way as to avoid water scarcity and pollution, increase resilience to climate change, appropriately manage water-related risks, and ensure that all valuable substances that could be obtained from waste water treatment processes, or are embedded in used water streams, are recovered.

Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a)    Symbiosis between industry and water utilities: Actions should demonstrate resource-efficient solutions derived from the systemic exploitation of symbiotic inter-linkages between wastewater treatment in industry and by water utilities. These might address, for instance, the reuse of treated wastewater, the use of substances or energy derived from wastewater treatment, or might demonstrate the concept of dynamic allocation of the right quality of water for the right purpose, while ensuring health and safety. Innovative solutions do not need to be only technological, but may also encompass other types of innovation such as innovative governance and stakeholder engagement or business models in industrial environments.

b)    Large scale applications with multiple water users at various relevant scales: Actions should test and demonstrate systemic innovation in real life, large scale operational environments. Actions should address multiple water users (urban, industrial, rural and agricultural) and various relevant scales (regional/national/international) for:

•    stimulating efficient and multiple use, recycling and reuse of water; recovery of energy and materials (such as nutrients, minerals, chemicals and metals) from water;

•    managing water demand and efficient allocation;

•    exploiting alternative water sources;

•    prevention of water pollution and degradation of the aquatic environment and soil; and

•    cost-effective and smart management of the water system and infrastructure.


As far as possible, the innovative solutions should include all of the above-mentioned activities. Actions should also consider: new marketing and financing concepts and strategies to maximise the multiple values of water and increase the attractiveness of the water sector for investors; new governance approaches and decision-making instruments for water managers; water systems vulnerability approaches and other sustainability assessments (e.g. footprint, Life Cycle Assessment).

The participation of social sciences and humanities, also addressing the gender dimension, is considered crucial to properly address the complex challenges of this topic, especially those related to human behaviour and attitudes towards water, the inter-linkages between policy and implementation, and acceptance of the solutions developed by both the public and other water users.

For both sub-topics, deployment of enabling digital solutions for the monitoring, control and optimisation of data and processes is also encouraged. Where appropriate, related regulatory and institutional barriers which prevent the wide application of developed innovative solutions should be addressed. Where technological innovation is concerned, TRL 5-7 should be achieved. To assure applicability and wide deployment of the innovative water technologies in different conditions (including different water resources, economic, social and regulatory settings) involvement of market take-up partners and/or end users from a wide range of different European regions is strongly encouraged, as well as SME participation.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 10 million and EUR 15 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.


Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

•    significantly reduced use of water from freshwater sources;

•    improved recovery and use of resources (materials and water itself), including energy;

•    mobilisation of water-related investments and synergies with other funding instruments.

•    the creation of new business opportunities and increased competiveness of EU industries;

•    supporting, as appropriate, the implementation of EU water policies, the transition to a more circular economy at different scales and economic and social conditions31, water security, water use efficiency, enhanced resilience to climate change and achievement of the relevant Sustainable Development Goals;

•    the implementation of the objectives of the EIP Water and, where appropriate, supporting the implementation and evaluation of technology verification schemes, including the EU Environmental Technology Verification Pilot (ETV) programme.


Type of Action: Innovation action

Raw materials

CE-SC5-07-2018-2019-2020 - Raw materials innovation for the circular economy: sustainable processing, reuse, recycling and recovery schemes 38

Specific Challenge: Securing the sustainable access to raw materials, including metals, industrial minerals, wood- and rubber-based, construction and forest-based raw materials, and particularly Critical Raw Materials (CRM), is of high importance for the EU economy. Complex primary and secondary resources contain many different raw materials. Their processing, reuse, recycling and recovery schemes are complex and imply different steps, ranging from collection, logistics, sorting and separation to cleaning, refining and purification of materials.

The challenge for industry is to scale up promising raw materials production technologies and to demonstrate that raw materials can be produced in an innovative and sustainable way in order to make sure that research and innovation end up on the market, to strengthen the competitiveness of the European raw materials industries, meet ambitious energy and climate targets for 2030, minimise environmental impacts and risks, and gain the trust of EU citizens in the raw materials sector. This specific challenge addresses the development of "innovative pilot actions"39, which is one of the major targets of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials.

Scope: Actions should develop and demonstrate innovative pilots for the clean and sustainable production of non-energy, non-agricultural raw materials in the EU from primary and/or secondary sources finishing at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 6-7.

All actions should contribute to achieving the targets of the EIP on Raw Materials, particularly in terms of innovative pilot actions on processing and/or recycling for the innovative production of raw materials, and to building the EU knowledge base of primary and secondary raw materials by feeding into the EC Raw Materials Information System – RMIS 40 . Actions should also contribute to improving the awareness of relevant external stakeholders and the general public across the EU about the importance of raw materials for society, the challenges related to their supply within the EU and about proposed solutions which could help to improve society's acceptance of and trust in sustainable raw materials production in the EU.

All actions should facilitate the market uptake of solutions developed through industrially-and user-driven multidisciplinary consortia covering the relevant value chain and should consider standardisation aspects when relevant.

All actions should justify the relevance of selected pilot demonstrations in different locations within the EU (and also outside if there is a clear added value for the EU economy, industry and society).

All actions should include an outline of the initial exploitation and business plans (with indicated CAPEX, OPEX, IRR and NPV41) with clarified management of intellectual property rights, and commitment to the first exploitation.

Actions should also include a task to cluster with other projects financed under this topic and – where possible – with other relevant projects in the field funded by Horizon 2020, in support of the EIP on Raw Materials.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 8 million and EUR 13 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Applying a circular economy approach throughout the entire value chain, actions for this multi-annual topic should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a)    Sustainable processing and refining of primary and/or secondary raw materials (2018, 2019): Actions should demonstrate new or improved systems integrating relevant processing and refining technologies for better recovery of minerals and metals at increased efficiency in terms of better yield and process selectivity as well as better utilisation of resources (hence reducing wastes). This would include processing of and recovery from low grade and/or complex ores and/or from industrial or mining wastes, and/or the reduction of the content of toxic elements or compounds in the resulting materials. The importance of the targeted raw materials and their sources for the EU should be demonstrated in the proposal. The solution proposed should be flexible enough to adapt to different or variable ore/secondary raw material grades and should be supported by efficient and robust process control. Where relevant, any solution proposed for the reduction of the content of toxic elements or compounds in the resulting materials should also include the appropriate management of the hazardous substances removed. Recycling of end-of-life products is excluded from this option.

b)    Recycling of raw materials from end-of-life products (2018, 2019): Actions should develop and demonstrate novel and environmentally sound solutions for a higher recycling and recovery of secondary raw materials from end-of-life products such as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), batteries, wood-based panels, multi-material paper packaging, end-of-life tyres, etc. These products can contain a multitude of minerals, metals, wood and wood-fibre, rubber, etc. (including critical raw materials and other technology metals).

c)    Recycling of raw materials from buildings (2018, 2019): Actions should develop and demonstrate novel solutions for a high-value recovery of raw materials from buildings. Actions should also benchmark against a series of comparative case studies of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) management in deconstruction of buildings of representative

size categories in countries with different types of end-of-life building stocks, showcasing the appropriate use of the following: the EU C&DW Management Protocol42 , pre-demolition audit, smart demolition practices, using appropriate technical equipment, and sorting/processing and quality management of waste fractions such as metals, aggregates, concrete, bricks, plasterboard, glass, polymers and plastics and wood.

d)    Advanced sorting systems for high-performance recycling of complex end-of-life products (2018, 2019): Actions should develop and demonstrate innovative dismantling and sorting systems enabling functional recycling of critical raw materials, or other types of highly efficient recovery of metals, minerals or construction materials, from complex end-of-life products and scrap thereof. The advanced sorting systems should achieve very high throughput rates in order to allow their economically viable operation on the European market.


Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

•    pushing the EU to the forefront in the area of raw materials processing and/or recycling technologies and solutions through generated know-how (planned patents, publications in high impact journals and joint public-private publications etc.);

•    improving significantly the economic viability and market potential that will be gained through the pilot, leading to expanding the business across the EU after the project is finished, as well as creating added value and new jobs in raw materials producing, equipment manufacturing and/or downstream industries;

•    unlocking a significant volume of various primary/secondary raw materials currently unexploited/underexploited within the EU, hence improving their 'circularity' in the economy;

•    improving significantly the health, safety and environmental performance throughout the whole life cycle considered, including better energy and water efficiency, a reduction in waste generation and wastewater and a better recovery of resources from generated waste or a better recovery and recycling of resources from complex end-of-life products;

•    additionally, only for sub-topic b) 'Recycling of raw materials from end-of-life products', in the shorter term, increasing measurably the efficiency and effectiveness (range, yield, quality and selectivity of recovered materials) of the exploitation of complex and heterogeneous secondary raw materials deposits ('urban mines') when compared to the state of the art;

•    additionally, only for sub-topic c) 'Recycling of raw materials from buildings', lead to wider application of smart demolition techniques, C&DW processing, quality assurance practices, traceability and standardization for secondary raw materials in the construction sector, thus improving the material and value recovery rate.


Type of Action: Innovation action

38    It is expected that this topic will continue in 2020.
39    https://ec.europa.eu/eip/raw-materials/en/content/strategic-implementation-plan-sip-0#Targets
40    https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/scientific-tool/raw-materials-information-system
41    Capital expenditures (CAPEX), operational expenditure (OPEX), internal rate of return (IRR), and net present value (NPV)
42    http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/20509/attachments/1/translations/en/renditions/native

SC5-09-2018-2019 - New solutions for the sustainable production of raw materials

Specific Challenge: Securing sustainable access to raw materials, including metals, industrial minerals and construction raw materials, and particularly Critical Raw Materials (CRM), is of high importance for the EU economy. However, the EU is confronted with a number of technological and environmental challenges along the entire production value chain of primary and secondary raw materials. There is also a need for very innovative and sustainable raw materials production solutions at lower TRLs to bring the next 'digital generation' to the raw materials field.

This specific challenge is identified in the Priority Area 'Technologies for primary and secondary raw materials production' of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials.
Scope: All actions should develop sustainable and resource-efficient solutions through industrially- and user-driven multidisciplinary consortia covering the relevant value chain of non-energy non-agricultural raw materials.

Actions should develop technological solutions finishing at the level of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 3-5.

All actions should contribute to achieving the objectives of the EIP on Raw Materials and to building the EU knowledge base of primary and secondary raw materials by feeding into the EC Raw Materials Information System – RMIS 51 . Actions should also contribute to improving the awareness of relevant external stakeholders and the general public across the EU about the importance of raw materials for society, the challenges related to their supply within the EU and about proposed solutions which could help to improve society's acceptance of and trust in sustainable raw materials production in the EU.

Actions should include a task to cluster with other projects financed under this topic and – if possible – with other relevant projects in the field funded by Horizon 2020, in support of the EIP on Raw Materials.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged.

Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a)    Breakthrough concepts and solutions for sustainable exploration, mining and/or processing (2018): Actions should develop ground-breaking concepts and solutions for exploration, mining and/or raw materials processing to secure the sustainable access to abiotic raw materials for the EU in the long term and to gain the trust of society in clean and safe production of raw materials. Recycling of end-of-life products is excluded from this topic. Solutions for marine mineral resources are also excluded from this sub-topic.

b)    Digital mine (2019): Actions should develop an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform to significantly enhance the efficiency of mining operations by connecting cyber and physical systems and devices to extract valuable insights from their data, in order to improve the decision-making process, better address customer requirements, and to address health and safety aspects, environmental performance, increased automation, predictive maintenance, resource efficiency and real-time coordination of operations. Usage scenarios for mining operations should be presented to demonstrate the viability of the proposed IIoT approach. Actions should promote the adoption of IIoT platforms in the mining sector at EU level.

c)    Recovery of metals and minerals from sea resources (2019): Actions should develop new technological solutions for the processing of minerals and metals from sea resources, including seawater brines, and/or the seabed in a sustainable way addressing the challenges of industrial viability of the whole process and accessibility, and responsibly addressing the environmental impacts. In the case of minerals and metals dissolved in sea water, actions
should demonstrate the technological feasibility and cost-effectiveness of highly efficient and effective recovery processes.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 million and EUR 7 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

•    pushing the EU to the forefront in the relevant areas through generated know how (planned patents, publications in high impact journals and joint public-private publications etc.);

•    safeguarding environmental sustainability (including better energy and water efficiency and a reduction in waste, wastewater and emissions) and improving significantly the health and safety performance of the solutions provided throughout the whole life cycle considered;

•    creating a lower TRL technology base for radical innovations within the next decades in the sectors concerned that would help unlock substantial reserves of new or currently unexploited resources within the EU;

•    in the longer term, improving the economic viability of operations and enhancing the competitiveness of, and creating added value and new jobs in raw materials producing, equipment manufacturing, information and communication technologies and/or downstream industries.


Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

51    https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/scientific-tool/raw-materials-information-system

SC5-10-2019-2020 - Raw materials innovation actions: exploration and Earth observation in support of sustainable mining

Specific Challenge: Securing the sustainable access to raw materials, including metals, industrial minerals and construction raw materials, and particularly Critical Raw Materials (CRM), is of high importance for the EU economy.

The challenge for industry is to scale up promising raw materials production technologies, including for exploration, and to demonstrate that raw materials can be produced in an innovative and sustainable way in order to ensure that research and innovation end up on the market, to strengthen the competitiveness of the European raw materials industries, to meet the ambitious energy and climate targets for 2030, to minimise environmental impacts and risks and to gain the trust of EU citizens in the raw materials sector.
This specific challenge addresses the development of "innovative pilot actions"53 which is one of the major targets of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials.

Scope: Actions should develop innovative pilots demonstrating clean and sustainable production, including exploration, of non-energy non-agricultural raw materials in the EU from primary and/or secondary sources, finishing at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 6-7.

All actions should contribute to achieving the objectives and targets of the EIP on Raw Materials and to building the EU knowledge base of primary and secondary raw materials by feeding into the EC Raw Materials Information System – RMIS 54 . Actions should also contribute to improving the awareness of relevant external stakeholders and the general public across the EU about the importance of raw materials for society, the challenges related to their supply within the EU and about proposed solutions which could help to improve society's acceptance of and trust in sustainable raw materials production in the EU, duly taking into account the applicable EU environmental legislation.

All actions should facilitate the market uptake of solutions developed through industrially-and user-driven multidisciplinary consortia covering the relevant value chain, and consider standardisation aspects when relevant.

All proposals should justify the relevance of the selected pilot demonstrations in different locations within the EU (and also outside if there is a clear added value for the EU economy, industry and society).

All proposals should include an outline of the initial exploitation and business plans (with indicated CAPEX, OPEX, IRR and NPV55) with clarified management of intellectual property rights, and commitment to the first exploitation.

Actions should include a task to cluster with other projects financed under this topic and – if possible – with other relevant projects in the field funded by Horizon 2020, in support of the EIP on Raw Materials.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged

Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a)    Integrated exploration solutions (2019): Actions should develop and demonstrate integrated exploration solutions focused on finding new deep land deposits. They could benefit from any of the advanced geological-geochemical-geophysical-remote sensing integrated (and multi-method) approaches, 3D and 4D modelling, automation and robotisation. Solutions should cover and be tested in both green and brown field mining sites.

b)    Services and products for the extractive industries life cycle (2019): Actions should develop services and products based on Earth observation data and techniques and GNSS services for the extractive industries life cycle. The services and products should be built upon information and data made available by the Copernicus Programme, and other relevant Earth observation and proximal sensing data. Use of data made available by EGNOS (and in the long term, Galileo) or other relevant Earth GNSS data should be considered where relevant. Services should be developed and tested for any of the different phases of the mining life cycle: exploration, extraction, closure or post closure. Particular attention should be given to services for environmental monitoring (including metals dispersion) and safety and security monitoring associated with open pits (slopes stability/landslides risk), underground mining (e.g. subsidence) and mining waste disposal (e.g. tailings dams and dumps). Services to be developed should include the design and testing of early warning systems and associated

monitoring plans to prevent and mitigate risks associated with extraction and mining waste disposal56.


The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 8 million and EUR 13 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

•    pushing the EU to the forefront in the area of sustainable raw materials production technologies and solutions through generated know how (planned patents, publications in high impact journals and joint public-private publications etc.);

•    increasing the reserves of various primary raw materials within the EU;

•    where relevant, reducing the exploration costs for the industry through new cost-effective exploration technologies, while safeguarding long- and short-term environmental sustainability;

•    improving the resolution and interoperability of existing raw materials digital maps;

•    in the longer term, improving the competitiveness of and creating added value and new jobs in raw materials producing, equipment manufacturing, information and communication technologies and/or downstream industries;

•    additionally, only for b) 'Services and products for the extractive industries life cycle', improved validation of global Copernicus land use and land cover products, enhancing the market uptake of the Copernicus based services and products for mining lifecycle, as well as its synergetic use with GNSS.

Type of Action: Innovation action


53    https://ec.europa.eu/eip/raw-materials/en/content/strategic-implementation-plan-sip-0#Targets
54    https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/scientific-tool/raw-materials-information-system
55    Capital expenditures (CAPEX), operational expenditure (OPEX), internal rate of return (IRR), and net present value (NPV)
56    SWD(2016) 205 final/2 Action Plan on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. A disaster risk-informed approach for all EU policies, as well as Directive 2006/21/EC on the management of waste resulting from extractive industries

Innovating cities for sustainability and resilience

SC5-13-2018-2019 - Strengthening international cooperation on sustainable urbanisation: nature-based solutions for restoration and rehabilitation of urban ecosystems

Specific Challenge: Unsustainable, non-resilient urbanisation patterns, the expansion or neglect of urban areas have caused the fragmentation, depletion and destruction of habitats, biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystems and their services. Increasing connectivity between existing, modified and new ecosystems and restoring and rehabilitating them within cities and at the urban-rural interface through nature-based solutions 63 , is necessary to enhance ecosystem resilience and adaptive capacity to cope with the effects of climate and global changes and to enable ecosystems to deliver their services for more liveable, healthier and resilient cities.

Scope: Actions should develop models, tools, decision support systems, methodologies, strategies, guidelines, standards and approaches for the design, construction, deployment and monitoring of nature-based solutions and restoration, prevention of further degradation, rehabilitation and maintenance measures for urban and peri-urban ecosystems and the ecological coherence and integrity of cities. Actions should review and capitalise upon existing experiences and good practices in Europe and (for option a) China or (for option b) CELAC. The strategies and tools should be part of an integrated and ecologically coherent urban planning and city-making process that would secure a fair and equitable distribution of benefits from the restored urban ecology and limit its exposure to environmental stresses. Methodologies, schemes and indicators should be developed to allow for the assessment of the cost-effectiveness of the restoration measures, also accounting for their possible negative effects. They should account for the totality of the benefits delivered by the restored ecosystems in terms of, for example, enhancing cities’ climate-proofing and resilience, enhancing mitigation options, improving human health and well-being, reducing inequalities and reducing cities’ environmental footprint. Actions should also dedicate efforts to awareness raising, outreach activities and education of citizens, including school children about the benefits of nature for their social, economic and cultural well-being.
Actions should bring together European and – depending on the option chosen – Chinese or CELAC research partners, government agencies and urban authorities, private sector and civil society with relevant expertise and competence and foster participatory engagement in urban ecological restoration actions. Further to the eligibility and admissibility conditions applicable to this topic, proposals are encouraged to ensure, to the extent possible, an appropriate balance in terms of effort and/or number of partners between the EU and the international partners, which would correspond to their respective ambition, objectives and envisaged work. This would enhance the impact of the actions and the mutual benefits for both the EU and the international partners.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged. Proposals should pay attention to the special call conditions for this topic.


The participation of social sciences and humanities disciplines, addressing also the gender dimension, is crucial to properly address this topic. Cooperation and synergies with the activities undertaken within the Covenant of Mayors initiative for Climate and Energy 64 initiative (supported by the EC) should be sought where appropriate.

Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a) Strengthening EU-China collaboration (2018)

This topic is part of the EU-China flagship initiative on Environment and Sustainable Urbanisation which aims at promoting substantial coordinated and balanced research and innovation cooperation between the EU and China.

China-based participants have the possibility to apply for funding under the Chinese co-funding mechanism and other Chinese sources65.

b) Strengthening EU-CELAC collaboration (2019)

The possibility for participants from some CELAC countries to apply for funding under national co-funding mechanism should be explored66.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:
•    restored and functioning urban ecosystems with an enhanced capacity to deliver their services;

•    making a business and investment case for nature-based solutions on the basis of increased evidence about the benefits from restored urban ecosystems with regards to urban liveability, climate change resilience, social inclusion, urban regeneration, public health and well-being;

•    guidelines for cost effective urban ecosystem restoration and ecological rehabilitation measures and new planning approaches and methods.


Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

62    https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/urban-agenda
63    A definition is provided in the introductory text of this Work Programme
64    www.covenantofmayors.eu
65    See http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-funding-guide/cross-cutting-issues/international-cooperation_en.htm#support-non-eu-countries
66    See http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-funding-guide/cross-cutting-issues/international-cooperation_en.htm#support-non-eu-countries

SC5-14-2019 - Visionary and integrated solutions to improve well-being and health in cities

Specific Challenge: It is estimated that by 2050 up to 70% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. Urbanisation affects human health and well-being through factors such as exposure to pollutants, including noise, disasters, stressors and diseases, urban density, lack of physical activity, degraded ecosystems and erosion of natural capital, which can be exacerbated by climate change. As acknowledge by the Habitat III New Urban Agenda, public spaces play a crucial role in urban interaction and systemic urban innovation and they need to be designed and managed sustainably and equitably to ensure that the way citizens produce, consume, commute and interact within the urban fabric has a positive impact on their health and quality of life, enhances resilience to disasters and climate change and reduces the environmental footprint of the cities. The systemic integration of social, cultural, digital and nature-based innovation in the design, development and governance of public space has a tremendous potential to transform these spaces into diverse, accessible, safe, inclusive and high quality green areas that increase well-being and health and deliver a fair and equitable distribution of the associated benefits.

Scope: Actions should deliver visionary and integrated solutions (e.g. therapy gardens, urban living rooms, creative streets, city farms) at the intersection of social, cultural, digital and nature-based innovation to increase citizens' health and well-being in cities67. These solutions should address social, cultural, economic and environmental determinants of health and well-being and support urban communities in reducing their exposure to climate-related risks, pollution (including noise), environmental stress and social tensions, including the negative effects of gentrification.
Actions should also demonstrate how the integration of these solutions into innovative land-use management, urban design and planning could reduce health-related environmental burdens in socially deprived neighbourhoods, foster equitable access for all to public spaces, enhance their quality and use and promote sustainable urban mobility patterns.

Actions should test new transition management approaches, governance models, legal frameworks and financing mechanisms to re-design public spaces and urban commons and assess their contribution to improving health and well-being. They should promote multi-stakeholder initiatives, citizens' engagement, co-creation and co-ownership of public spaces. Optimal and cost-effective use of behavioural games, networks of sensors, GIS-mapping, big data, observational programmes such as Copernicus and GEOSS, and citizens' observatories should be made as appropriate to enable the integration and visualisation of data for more effective monitoring of the transition towards healthier and happier cities.


The involvement of social sciences and humanities disciplines such as psychology, behavioural science, economics, law, anthropology, sociology, architecture, or design studies, is considered essential to enhance social learning and promote the role of social and cultural innovation in transforming public spaces, with particular attention devoted to gender dynamics and diversity.

To enhance the impact and promote upscaling and replication of these solutions, projects should engage in substantial networking and training actions to disseminate their experience, knowledge and deployment practices to other cities beyond the consortium. To enhance impact cooperation and synergies with the activities undertaken within the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy initiative and its regional components68 (supported by the EC) should be sought where appropriate.

Furthermore, actions should envisage resources for clustering with other ongoing and future projects on sustainable cities through nature-based solutions funded under the 'Smart and Sustainable Cities' call in part 17 of the 2016-2017 Work Programme as well as relevant projects to be funded under topics SC5-20-2019 and CE-SC5-03-2018 of this Work Programme. Cooperation with relevant actions funded under the Horizon 2020 Societal challenge 6 topic 'TRANSFORMATIONS-03-2018-2019: Innovative solutions for inclusive and sustainable urban environments' should also be sought as appropriate.


Funded projects are expected to establish long-term sustainable data platforms securing open, consistent data about the impacts of the deployed approaches and ensure interoperability with other relevant data infrastructures for effective communication, public consultation, exchange of practices, and sharing of experiences.

Proposals should pay attention to the special call conditions for this topic.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 10 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

•    high quality, multifunctional, public spaces able to integrate digital, social, cultural and nature-based innovation to enhance health and well-being, while ensuring 'the right to the city' as specified in the Habitat III New Urban Agenda;

•    European cities being world ambassadors of sustainable lifestyles, providing universal access to greener, safe, inclusive and accessible public spaces, also accounting for the gender dimension;

•    participatory approaches in re-designing and transforming public spaces to increase health and well-being in cities through innovative public-private-people partnerships (PPPPs);

•    more comprehensive assessment of the sustainability and resilience of cities through the development of health and well-being indicators;

•    establishing innovative monitoring systems to measure benefits and capture the multiple co-benefits created by nature-based solutions in terms of health and well-being.


Type of Action: Innovation action

67    For the purposes of this topic, the definition of a 'city' is to be understood according to the harmonised definition of a city established by the OECD and the European Commission, which can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/focus/2012_01_city.pdf
68    EU Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy: www.covenantofmayors.eu; Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy: www.globalcovenantofmayors.org

Protecting and leveraging the value of our natural and cultural assets: Earth observation

SC5-16-2019 - Development of commercial activities and services through the use of GEOSS and Copernicus data

Specific Challenge: Both GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) and its key European contributor, Copernicus, offer a tremendous innovation opportunity for the EU inthe domain of Earth Observation (EO) as these initiatives enable long term access to a broad range of EO datasets, opening new avenues for the delivery of innovative environmental products and services. These data sources provide new opportunities for business sectors in Europe to deliver information and products that are vital inputs to help decision makers, industry and citizens adapt to changes occurring at different paces and affecting the Earth systems. The challenge faced today is to move from stand-alone observation data supply activities to more downstream integrated information services addressing citizens' needs directly within the context of their day-to-day lives.

However, those opportunities for the development of a new market of EO services and products cannot be fully exploited without a stronger involvement of commercial sector actors in both the GEO and Copernicus initiatives.


Scope: Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a)    Coordination of European innovators in the domain of Earth observation (Coordination and Support Action): Actions should foster the development and implementation of a collaborative and integrated European research and innovation strategy for mass market applications based on space and non-space Earth observation. The action will support an industry-led stakeholder research and innovation forum in the domain of Earth observation in close collaboration with GEO and Copernicus, driving for innovation, knowledge transfer and European competitiveness.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 1 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

b)    Designing Earth observation services and products of the future, building on GEOSS and Copernicus assets (Innovation Action): Actions should deliver solutions addressing citizens' needs and contributing to the development of new markets of products and services through integrating Earth observation (EO) data and information, e.g. from GEOSS and Copernicus, with other data sources. These products and services should incorporate assimilation techniques and interoperability best practices, automation, systemization and integrated web-based services, and be brought – at least – into pre-operational service provision, going beyond the demonstration phase. Activities are expected to focus on Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 5 to 7.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU from between EUR 2 million and EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:

•    effective engagement of the European commercial sector within GEOSS;
•    new commercial products and services using GEOSS and Copernicus data and services;

•    capacity building among current and potential developers of commercial products;

•    demonstrated capability and reliability of novel EO products and services through the whole value chain;

•    mobilising the most dynamic actors of the European commercial sector, developing new EO-derived mass markets and increasing cross-domain exploitation of EO data.


Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Innovation action

Protecting and leveraging the value of our natural and cultural assets: Heritage alive

SC5-20-2019 - Transforming historic urban areas and/or cultural landscapes into hubs of entrepreneurship and social and cultural integration

Specific Challenge: Over the past decades, abandonment and decay of urban, industrial and rural heritage has occurred in many historic urban areas80 and cultural landscapes81 due to reduction of economic activities and closing down of industries. This has led to unemployment, disengagement and economic stagnation. Other areas, in contrast, have implemented regeneration processes, yet these have not always been successful as they were based on top-down decision making and implementation without engaging the local population. This has led to breaking up of traditional social structures, gentrification and over-reliance on volatile sectors, such as tourism.


Thanks to their symbolic and cultural value, and to their specific urban fabric, historic areas have the potential to be transformed into hubs of entrepreneurship, creativity82, innovation, new lifestyles, and social and cultural integration reaping the opportunities offered by, for instance, emerging creative sectors, digital technologies, the sharing and 'maker' economy, and social innovation. Evidence-based intelligent leveraging of the value of historic and cultural assets can transform challenges into economic, social and cultural opportunities, while fully respecting the identity of the historic urban areas and cultural landscapes.

Scope: Actions should develop, demonstrate and document strategies, approaches and solutions to re-activate and re-generate historic urban areas83 and/or cultural landscapes84. They should foster innovation by relevant start-ups, cultural and creative industries, including from the digital technologies sector, small scale advanced manufacturing producers and local 'makers', craft workshops, etc. for adaptive re-use and leverage of heritage assets and social integration. Solutions should be co-created, co-managed and co-implemented at the appropriate scale (e.g. for districts, buildings, public spaces etc.) within the broader context of urban and regional development, and involving local populations, research centres, appropriate authorities, innovators, universities, city-makers movements and, where relevant, new population groups. Systemic approaches and methodologies to identify the latent capacities of historic urban areas and to activate them may be developed. They should assess cultural and heritage values, respect the identity of the places and promote social innovation, also accounting for the gender dimension, economic sustainability, inclusiveness, social cohesion and integration in the long term. Innovation in its various forms (e.g. regulatory, governance, business, finance) should be considered. Synergies with other ongoing relevant projects, such as the European Creative Hubs Network85, should be sought where appropriate.

Proposals should pay attention to the special call conditions for this topic.
Actions should envisage resources for clustering with other ongoing and future projects relevant to cultural heritage funded under previous, current and future Horizon 2020 calls within Societal Challenge 5 as well as with relevant projects to be funded under topics CE-SC5-03-2018 and SC5-14-2019.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 7 million and EUR 8 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The project results are expected to contribute to:


•    reversing trends of abandonment and neglect of historic heritage in urban areas and landscapes;

•    new and tested blueprints for the socially and economically viable regeneration of European historic urban areas and cultural landscapes, with enhanced well-being and quality of life, social cohesion and integration;

•    boosting heritage and culture-relevant innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship and light 'reindustrialisation' of historic urban areas and cultural landscapes;

•    cross-sector collaboration, creation of job opportunities and skills in cultural and creative sectors and innovative manufacturing linked to historic heritage.

Type of Action: Innovation action

80    For    a    definition,    see    http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-    
URL_ID=48857&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
81    For a definition, see the European Landscape Convention - ELC (2001), http://www.coe.int/en/web/landscape
82    Building on the EU-funded European Creative Hubs Network: http://creativehubs.eu/
83    For    a    definition,    see    http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-   
URL_ID=48857&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
84    For a definition, see the European Landscape Convention - ELC (2001), http://www.coe.int/en/web/landscape
85    http://creativehubs.eu/about-european-creative-hubs-network/
 

DT-GOVERNANCE-05-2018-2019-2020 - New forms of delivering public goods and inclusive public services

Specific Challenge: Governance is being transformed by new approaches to delivering public services which allow for the involvement of citizens and various other actors. The challenge is to critically assess and support as needed this transformation based on an open collaboration and innovation platform supported by ICT ('government as a platform') and on an open environment and ecosystem with clear frameworks and guidelines for modular services quality ('government as a service') in accordance with the EU eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 22 and the European Interoperability Framework Implementation Strategy23.
In particular, to deliver better public services, public administrations need to regroup resources together under common infrastructures at the European level that serve the needs of various actors and enable the participation of all relevant communities. In addition, to ensure a cost efficient provision of inclusive digital services, there is a pressing need to identify gaps in accessibility solutions, to establish related best practices, and to promote training, awareness raising and capacity building.

Scope: In a context of open government and digital democracy, the role of the government is changing due to its use of ICT and to the increasing pervasiveness of ICT across all parts of society. In addition to being a manager of societal assets, government is becoming a provider of tools, opportunities, guidance and incentives for co-creation as well as a guarantor of public value over the longer term.

a) Research and Innovation action
Proposals should develop and demonstrate the potential for sharing common services with different actors (public and private and third sectors) to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in these collaborations. The proposals should also evaluate the role and responsibility of the public authorities and of the other actors delivering public goods and services in the new governance model and the related partnerships, including in terms of the challenges of ensuring secure access and use. Evidence of the benefits of the full implementation of the once-only and digital-by-default principles and user centricity should also be taken into account.Proposals should also lead to the development of business plans that would ensure the long-term sustainability of the new governance model. They should engage multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral teams to explore the complexity of this challenge and to identify the necessary changes as well as the legal, cultural and managerial risks and barriers to its implementation.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

b) Coordination and Support Action
For a cost efficient provision of inclusive digital services, the proposed action will:
1. identify gaps in the current accessibility solutions and establish related best practices,
2. promote training, awareness raising, and capacity building.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 and 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Solutions for opening up and connecting public administration data and services will have a measurable impact for both businesses and citizens, leading to efficiency gains. The actions will provide for all the elements required to facilitate the migration of public administrations towards forward-looking models for the co-delivery of public services.The actions will provide evidence of how the open government approach may reinforce trust in public institutions, which is strongly associated with citizens’ satisfaction from full deployment of inclusive digital government. The actions will also contribute to establishing a culture of co-creation and co-delivery, transparency, accountability and trustworthiness as well as of continuous consultation promoting overall digital accessibility. In addition, to support the implementation of the Web Accessibility Directive, enhanced cooperation on digital accessibility between various stakeholders will result in scalable and more affordable accessibility solutions. Overall, the actions will contribute to the widespread recognition of the need for and benefits of an inclusive Digital Single Market.

Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Research and Innovation action

DT-GOVERNANCE-12-2019-2020 - Pilot on using the European cloud infrastructure for public administrations

Specific Challenge: Given the complexity of our societies, public authorities need innovative means and tools that can enable them to develop better evidence-based policies. The development of such policies needs to involve local actors such as citizens and businesses, in order to better inform policy-making while ensuring higher levels of acceptance for policies and of trust in the authorities. Data analytics and usage of cloud infrastructure to gain access to shared data can help improving policy making at all levels, national but also local. Moreover, engaging citizens and local actors in the generation of data or in the analysis of 'big data' and its ethical issues can assist local governance.

Scope: The availability of open and big data, in particular as facilitated by high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities offered by the European Cloud Initiative 26, would provide an infrastructure with data and analytical power for the public administration. Proposals should develop new ways and methods and ethical aspects of using the cloud infrastructure by public administrations for policy modelling, policy making and policy implementation. They should also create reusable models that allow for a better, more accurate and more efficient development and management of policies related to health, emergency responses, weather warning etc.
Proposals should demonstrate the interoperability27, reusability or scalability of the models and analytical tools.
They should also develop a solid and realistic business plan to ensure the long-term sustainability and take-up of the results and consider legal and security aspects. They should also consider how communities can be effectively involved in co-creation of data management and analysis. In addition, they should involve multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral teams to explore the complexity of this challenge, including the problems raised by big data uses and consideration of precautionary approaches to address such problems.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The action will create analytical tools that enable public administrations to reuse common infrastructures and data sets for the development of better targeted and more effective evidence-based policies. It will engage citizens and businesses in the co-creation of the tools, thereby enhancing trust and boosting the perceived legitimacy of authorities.

Type of Action: Innovation action

DT-GOVERNANCE-13-2019 - Digitisation, Digital Single Market and European culture: new challenges for creativity, intellectual property rights and copyright

Specific Challenge: The consequences of digitisation and of the implementation of the Digital Single Market on cultural diversity, on access to culture and on the creation of cultural value need to be better monitored and understood, also through joint efforts by researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. Beyond the issue of portability of cultural content, coping strategies related to legislation on intellectual property rights (IPR) and copyright at European and national levels are at the heart of current creative practices and business opportunities in the cultural and creative sectors and, as such, deserve in-depth scrutiny. Innovative solutions for measuring the impact of digitisation and of the digital market on culture are also needed. In addition, an important knowledge gap exists when it comes to the adaptive or alternative strategies of different cultural institutions and of various creative and artistic communities.

Scope: Proposals should assess the impact of digitisation on access to European cultural goods and services. Proposals should also consider whether increasing digitisation of cultural works may have contributed towards the democratisation of cultural creativity and influenced the formation of social identities in the EU, and whether IPR and copyright may have helped or hindered this process. They should provide a comparative cross-national mapping of differences in the governance and implementation of processes for IPR and copyright harmonisation and for the improvement of digital access to culture. With the aim to provide contextualised new evidence, proposals should deploy participatory research approaches targeted to specific creative and cultural sectors, interest groups, and creative and artistic communities and networks. They should also develop innovative solutions to address practices and bottlenecks jeopardising IPR and copyright protection on the one hand and erecting barriers for creative practices or culture-based business or employment opportunities on the other hand. Copyright and IPR protection and pricing policies should be assessed with a view to maximising access and stimulating creativity, creative (re)use and production. Proposals should evaluate the importance of the Digital Single Market for the for-profit, non-profit and mixed cultural and creative activities in Europe.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: By providing qualitative and quantitative analysis and by proposing solutions, business models and policy recommendations, the action will contribute to a better understanding of regulation and fairer accessibility of digitised cultural goods and services. It will also advise on appropriate levels of harmonisation of copyright and IPR, thereby contributing to the development and deepening of the Digital Single Market.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

GOVERNANCE-01-2019 - Trust in governance

Specific Challenge: Trust is a fundamental condition for a fair and cooperative society. It also plays an important part in contributing to social capital. While a degree of distrust may be required for a well-functioning democracy, waning trust in governments and other institutions and in the EU can impact European governance in multiple ways. The challenge is to restore and improve trust as a basis for sustainable and legitimate governance.

Scope: Proposals should reappraise definitions of and approaches to trust in and between governments, in public authorities and other public institutions as well as in private actors having due regard to the philosophical, ethical and psychological foundations of trust and trustworthiness. This should include amongst others the EU, the Euro, political parties and financial systems, and may include markets and regulatory institutions, the media as well scientific expertise and institutions. Proposals should also investigate possible correlations between the levels of trust in national governments and in the EU as well as their underlying dynamics. The relationship between trust and distrust should be clarified to identify which levels are conducive to stable, sustainable and fair social relations and governance as well as the thriving of citizens. Factors contributing to and affecting trust in governance at various levels, including transparency and accountability, should be investigated too.
Proposals should identify potential thresholds of decreasing levels of trust, i.e. junctures when distrust becomes a game changer. They should also investigate, both empirically and normatively, possible relationships between trust and inequalities, trust and legitimacy as well as between trust and the quality of democracy. Possible correlations between trust, social inclusion and belonging should also be considered. In addition, research may consider whether and under what conditions participatory practices beyond electoral participation aretrust enhancing including transparent and open decision-making. The role of civil society in the underlying dynamics of trust building should be investigated too. In addressing the issues above, experimental research should be performed as relevant. The action should also develop criteria, indicators and early warning mechanisms for detecting weak signals of decreasing trust. The role of the media, including social media, language, news generation and new phenomena such as fake news should be examined. Scenarios on consequences of (further) decreasing trust should be developed which may draw on experiences from outside Europe where relevant.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: By enhancing the knowledge base on trust, including the factors determining changes in trust, the action will feed into various initiatives to restore and improve trust in governance and enhance the quality of democracy. It will also contribute to improving trust in science and to constructing trust-enhancing narratives for national governments and EU governance.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

GOVERNANCE-02-2018-2019 - Past, present and future of differentiation in European governance

Specific Challenge: Recent challenges faced by the EU raise the question of whether Member States will continue on the same integrationist track. Differentiation, which has been core to the constitutional architecture of the EU, has gained prominence in the light of recent manifestations of centrifugal forces. The challenge is to ascertain whether and how much differentiation is necessary, conducive, sustainable and acceptable as well as how future approaches towards differentiation fare in the light of these findings.

Scope:
b) Coordination and Support Action (2019)

The coordination and support action should establish a research network aiming to support policy-making on differentiation both in advising on appropriate approaches to differentiation tendencies and proposals, but also with a view to better anticipating and preparing the EU for future differentiation scenarios21.
To this end, it should take stock of and synthesise the results of research actions conducted at EU level and at other levels as relevant (e.g. national and regional). Collaboration with the projects funded under the research and innovation action under point a) in this topic is strongly encouraged.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The actions will support policy decisions on different levels of differentiations across a comprehensive range of policy areas, thereby improving EU's capacity and resilience when it comes to constructively approaching and designing future differentiation scenarios. They will provide a comprehensive knowledge base upon which scenarios and models of future differentiation will be devised. By mobilising and linking experts and relevant stakeholders, the actions will contribute to linking research and policy in the area of differentiation.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

GOVERNANCE-04-2019 - Enhancing social rights and EU citizenship

Specific Challenge: Boosting social rights can help address divergence in social trends among Member States and reduce the risk of socio-economic shocks. At the same time, social rights are essential for the full realisation of EU citizenship and reaching the EU's targets in reducing poverty and social exclusion. By mitigating social risks and by assisting people with transitions and vulnerabilities, social rights can boost trust to public governance. The challenge is to integrate the social dimension into European policies and to connect it with European citizenship going beyond the traditional focus on mobile citizens to look also at those who are "immobile".

Scope: Proposals should examine how European citizens have been exercising social rights (e.g. to social protection, housing, health, education, access to labour markets, working conditions, including health and safety at work, mobility) in the wake of the economic crisis. The role of the Member States in protecting social rights should be considered as well as the situation of underrepresented and vulnerable groups, including gender aspects. Proposals should analyse how the EU supports citizens' access to social rights and policy levers to foster upward social convergence in the design of employment policies and social protection systems. They should equally establish the relationship between social policy instruments in Member States and outcomes in terms of social inclusion and fairness and should identify policy priorities. Furthermore, they should assess EU social indicators such as the at-risk-of-poverty rate, material deprivation and quasi-joblessness, thereby aiming to strengthen the statistical base. Developments concerning the European Pillar of Social Rights should be studied, including how they can contribute to the exercise of social rights and to social cohesion. The European Pillar of Social Rights brings forward key social rights of citizens structured around three categories: equal opportunities and access to the labour market, fair working conditions, and social protection and inclusion. The merits or pitfalls of harmonisation in social policy among Member States should be investigated. Proposals should also explore conceptualisations and possible content of social citizenship and may consider citizens' own perceptions and understandings of the social dimension of citizenship. Furthermore, attention should be given to the complex links between the exercise of social rights of European citizens and developments in terms of economic growth, inequality trends and social well-being. Studies should also include a historical and comparative dimension when examining the interplay between these factors in European countries.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The action will contribute to advancing the state of the art and normative content of EU social citizenship. It will also contribute to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. It will put forward recommendations on the exercise of EU social rights as an integral part of EU citizenship and on upward convergence. It will also contribute to constructing narratives of European citizenship.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

SU-GOVERNANCE-10-2019 - Drivers and contexts of violent extremism in the broader MENA region and the Balkans

Specific Challenge: Parts of the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and of the Balkans have been experiencing ethnic, religious and territorial conflicts and civil wars as well as a rise in violent extremism fuelled or justified also by religious interpretations. More empirical and interdisciplinary research is needed to understand the various historical, geopolitical, socioeconomic, ideological, cultural, psychological, and demographic factors that drive these conflicts and violent extremism in these regions. The various ways in which these phenomena impact Europe also need closer scrutiny.

Scope: Proposals should produce country and regional analyses of the interplay between religion, politics and identity. This should include country and regional comparisons. Religious extremism in particular should be addressed from angles such as drivers, narratives, authority figures and formal leadership. Radical interpretations and appropriations of religion to justify violent extremism as well as their impact on individual rights (including women's rights and gender issues more broadly) should be studied. Links to recent developments with an impact on Europe - such as the issue of foreign fighters and the role of diasporas and community leaders - should be assessed.
Concrete proposals should be made on which preventive measures are effective and should be stepped up. In particular, research should examine to what extent this is the case with measures such as strengthening moderate voices among religious and other communities, fostering education and inclusion as tools for reconciliation, promoting online media literacy and countering radical propaganda. Proposals should involve relevant actors (e.g. policymakers, religious leaders, representatives of civil society) to ensure mutual learning and take-up of results.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The action will improve the knowledge base on violent extremism in the broader MENA region and the Balkans. It will ensure a step-up in mutual learning between the EU and third countries in light of common challenges.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

DT-MIGRATION-06-2019 - Addressing the challenge of migrant integration through ICT-enabled solutions

Specific Challenge: The integration of migrants, including refugees, in many Member States of the European Union and Associated Countries remains a challenge for both public authorities and local communities. ICT-enabled solutions and toolkits for the implementationof inclusion policies by public administrations may facilitate the management of the integration of migrants, improve autonomy and inclusion and therefore the lives of migrants. Such tools may help alleviate the tasks of public administrations and local authorities. They may also analyse available data and provide migrants with information on and easy access to relevant public services specific to their needs or support policy-makers and public administration at all levels in planning and taking decisions on migration-related issues through data analytics and simulation tools. The specific cultural features, including possible gender differences, the skills and capacities of migrants to express their needs as well as the equity of access to ICT may be considered in this regard.

Scope: An efficient management of migrant integration requires clear understanding of migrants' personal and family situation, including their legal status, origin, cultural background, skills, language skills, medical records, etc. Once such information is available to public authorities, it can improve societal outcomes to the benefit of both host countries and migrants:

1. the management of migrant integration can be facilitated, e.g. by matching their skills with those needed in the Member States and Associated Countries, by designing tailored training programmes or by creating specific decision support tools;
2. better and customised services can be delivered to match the needs of migrants;
3. more efficient integration strategies can be defined and implemented at local level for a sustainable inclusion of migrants and a fact-based public perception of migration.

Proposals should address at least one of the 3 points above, which should be piloted against a set of clearly defined goals. Processing of personal data of migrants must be conducted in accordance with EU applicable data protection legislation (Directive 95/46/EC which will be replaced as of 25 May 2018 by the GDPR5) and existing regulation such as eIDAS6. Proposals should engage all actors and consider the potential for co-creation work with migrant in the design and delivery of services. In addition, proposals should demonstrate the reusability or scalability at European level and should develop strong and realistic business plans to ensure the long-term sustainability as well as take up of the results by the identified users. They should also engage multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral teams to explore the complexity of this challenge, to identify the necessary changes, and the risks and barriers to their implementation, including cultural questions.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: New or enhanced ICT solutions and tools will facilitate the efforts of public administrations at EU, national and local levels to manage the integration of migrants. They will allow for developing and deploying the necessary processes and services in the view of the efficient identification and inclusion of migrants. They will also facilitate communication with migrants and their access to services such as community language teaching, education, training, employment, welfare and healthcare systems within the host communities.

Type of Action: Innovation action

MIGRATION-01-2019 - Understanding migration mobility patterns: elaborating mid and long-term migration scenarios

Specific Challenge: Global migration is growing in scope, complexity and diversity, which requires better preparedness and responses. A deeper understanding of the drivers of migration and of their interrelation with people’s propensity to migrate is needed as well as projections and scenarios that are essential for appropriate planning and effective policymaking.

Scope: Patterns, motivations and modalities of migration should be explored, with a focus on new geographies and temporalities. This may include among others the changing nature of flows and factors such as international demand for and supply of labour, sector policies in countries of origin and destination, aging population in industrialised countries, demographic trends in countries of origin, migration propensity, transnational networks, the impact of corruption, shifting representations of Europe, temporary migration and return (both voluntary and forced) and forced movements linked to conflicts, environment-related threats, other relevant geopolitical factors, international development and regional policies, as well as livelihood opportunities (e.g. inequalities, income levels, poor job opportunities, working conditions, traditional gender roles). The movement of third country nationals among the various regions of the EU should also be analysed. Proposals should capture population estimates and synthesise solid data on gross international migration flows, including towards Europe, in order to identify emerging trends and anticipate future patterns. Proposals should address the gender dimension of international migration and large-scale movements of migrants, including minors unaccompanied and with their families. Proposals should also reappraise assumptions about migration and identify key uncertainties. The involvement of refugee and migrant scholars and scientists from relevant backgrounds and disciplines is strongly encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The action will enhance the knowledge base on migration-related flows, drivers, attitudes and behaviours in qualitative and quantitative terms. Scenarios and projections will inform evidence-based governance and regulatory frameworks at international and EU levels as well as relevant sector policies in EU Member States, e.g. social, health, education and labour market related policies and the impact on welfare policies and public social security systems. The action will also improve statistical data and methods in cooperation with national statistical institutes, relevant organisations and Eurostat.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

MIGRATION-03-2019 - Social and economic effects of migration in Europe and integration policies

Specific Challenge: A greater understanding of the social and economic effects and impacts of migration in Europe is needed in order to obtain an objective overview of developments and to address misperceptions. In light of recent and current migratory flows, an assessment of integration policies and efforts is equally important for ensuring their effectiveness in promoting the integration and inclusion of migrants in host societies.
Scope: Proposals should take stock of the long-term effects of migration at EU aggregate and cross-national level on economic growth and productivity, employment levels and wages, entrepreneurship, and fiscal and welfare impacts. They should analyse policies related to the integration of migrants, including refugees. Particular attention should be paid to gender and vulnerable groups such as unaccompanied children and stateless persons. Attention should be also paid to economic, human capital and cultural factors in relation to the integration outcomes of different groups of migrants and the social impact of segregation. Furthermore, proposals should analyse the local and interactional dimension of integration processes andtheir effects on the provision of local services, workplace conditions, productivity and innovation. They should comparatively examine integration policies (labour market, education, health, civil rights, social welfare, housing, family policies, etc.), and the role of transnational institutions and networks in shaping integration at a local scale. In addition, they should estimate the efficiency, effectiveness and social impact of such policies and highlight best practices and relevant benchmarks, building on the extensive knowledge that already exists in the EU. Finally, an understanding of past and historical experiences of integrating migrant communities, and what these can tell us about current challenges, should also be assessed. Interdisciplinary research with combined insights from disciplines such as sociology, economics, history, anthropology, cultural studies and psychology among others is needed.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The action will improve the knowledge base on the socio-economic effects of migration. It will provide solutions and recommendations for strengthening the effectiveness of policies targeting the integration of migrants. It will also contribute to building comprehensive strategies for integration across EU Member states, conducive to socially inclusive economic growth.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

MIGRATION-05-2019 - Mapping and overcoming integration challenges for migrant children

Specific Challenge: At a time where the integration of refugee and migrant children into host societies is most pressing, education systems face multiple challenges due to growing cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity and to socio-economic inequalities.

Scope: Proposals should generate quantitative and qualitative data and policy recommendations on the integration in schools of pupils (ISCED 0-3) from existing migration cohorts, children of refugees and asylum seekers, and unaccompanied minors, including those residing in hotspots and reception centres. They should take account of the complexity of pupils' background, including of children who are EU long-term residents with migration background and of newcomers, and should assess issues related to gender, identity,achievement, well-being, home-school links and discrimination among others. Ethnological, cultural, and anthropological perspectives should be included. Social and learning environments should be considered as well as strategies to promote resilience, avoid segregation and to enhance children's skills and well-being. Proposals can take an integrated approach, looking at how access to adequate housing, a decent standard of living, protection from all forms of abuse and exploitation, healthcare and psychosocial support, alternative pedagogical approaches and arts affect successful integration in schools. Proposals should also address (several of) the following issues: the time elapsed between arrival to Europe and access to education; year(s) spent out of education as a child; experiences of detention and deportation; governance and funding; roles and attitudes of families, communities, educational centres, civil society and local services, also from a gender perspective; preparedness of schools and teaching staff; language learning and multilingualism; educational and vocational opportunities for those who arrive past the age of compulsory schooling, as well as the role of extra-curricular activities (including sports and leisure) in promoting integration. Refugee and migrant children’s lived experience and voice must be taken into account in line with Article 12 of the UN Convention on the rights of the child. Best practices supporting equal life-chances should be identified with the involvement of stakeholders, maximising the potential of existing experiences4, including those developed in cooperation with refugee and migrant scholars and scientists.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Through informing policymakers, families, children themselves, teachers and other stakeholders, the action will support the advancement of effective practices for integrating migrant children in schools. The action will enhance synergies and cooperation amongst the relevant stakeholders, thereby promoting the uptake of innovative practices as well as improving monitoring and data collection. The action will also contribute to the development of the research agenda on education.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

MIGRATION-07-2019 - International protection of refugees in a comparative perspective

Specific Challenge: While policy areas such as development or trade benefit from global governance structures, a global refugee governance regime is still in its infancy. The challenge is to safeguard international law standards on the treatment of asylum seekers and internally displaced persons, address imbalances in sharing responsibilities, and ensure the EU plays a key role globally while also aligning the reform of its common asylum system to feed into the emerging regime of global asylum governance.

Scope: Proposals should examine the processes and content of the emerging international protection system, e.g. following the United Nations commitment for the adoption of a global asylum compact as well as its implementation in comparative perspective, with special focus on the EU’s role and engagement. They should examine how sharing responsibilities, transferring skills and capabilities, can be organised as well as the compatibility of the emerging global asylum regime with international law, including international conventions on refugees and human rights. The EU arrangements with refugees' origin and transit countries should be assessed. Proposals should advise on the future development of asylum policies and their implementation both globally and within the EU, also addressing issues around both gender issues and equality. They should include comparative assessment of existing legal responses to protection needs and explore future options and their compatibility with international refugee law, with a view to also identifying durable solutions. Particular attention should be paid to the protection of vulnerable groups such as minors, unaccompanied or with their families, including from all forms of abuse and exploitation, and women and girls from gender-based violence and discrimination. International cooperation is encouraged, in particular with Canada, Brazil, South Africa and Jordan, as well as relevant international organisations. Furthermore, the involvement of refugee and migrant scientists and scholars from relevant disciplines is strongly encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The action will significantly advance the knowledge base on global migration and asylum governance by evaluating the process, discourses and outcomes of the planned compact on refugees. The action will assist European policymakers with identifying suitable strategies for engagement in the process leading to the implementation of the global refugee compact. They will also inform the EU's reform process of its common asylum system.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

DT-TRANSFORMATIONS-02-2018-2019-2020 - Transformative impact of disruptive technologies in public services

Specific Challenge: The challenge is to assess the potential benefits and risks of using disruptive technologies in public administrations as well as the social impact, including the impact on public servants, of using them for government processes and governance (e.g. for registers, for archiving, for decision-making processes, etc.). In addition, the political, socio-economic, legal and cultural implications of disruptive technologies and their acceptance are important not only for public administrations, but also for citizens.

Scope: The use of disruptive technologies (such as block-chain, big data analytics, Internet of Things, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, algorithmic techniques, simulations and gamification) in public administrations, public goods, public governance, public engagement, public-private partnerships, public third sector partnerships and policy impact assessment is growing and can be very beneficial. Yet, the real potential impact of such technologies and the ways in which they can disrupt the existing landscape of public services and legal procedures and can replace present solutions and processes are largely unknown. As a result, deploying these disruptive technologies in public administration requires a thorough assessment of their potential impact, benefits and risks for the delivery of public goods. Proposals should pilot the technology and should engage multidisciplinary partners, stakeholders and users to examine how emerging technologies can impact the public sector (including the impact on public servants and the relation between public services and citizens) and explore in a wide-ranging fashion the issues surrounding the use of these technologies in the public sector.
Proposals should also lead to the development of business plans that would ensure the long-term sustainability of the services offered based on the used technology.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The action will enable public authorities to develop pathways for the introduction of disruptive technologies while also addressing the societal challenges raised by such technologies. Based on a thorough understanding of users’ needs, the action will enhance knowledge on digital democracy; develop new ways of providing public services, of ensuring public governance and of boosting public engagement with the help of disruptive technologies. It will also contribute to developing new practices, to optimising work processes and to integrating evidence-based decision-making processes in public services and in services such as health, education, social welfare and mobility.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

DT-TRANSFORMATIONS-07-2019 - The impact of technological transformations on children and youth

Specific Challenge: The ICT are generally valued in terms of skill development, learning and future employability of young generations. Educational and training institutions are getting equipped with ICT tools and educators are trained for designing activities aimed at digital literacy and for making use of media for educational purposes. The time children and young people spend on ICT has been increasing in school, at home and for leisure. However, research on the impact of ICT on health, lifestyles, wellbeing, safety and security has identified potential threats. Moreover, the quantity and quality of digital media use vary accordingly to family backgrounds, with the risk of widening the educational divide between children from favoured and disadvantaged groups. The challenge is to develop a solid and independent multidisciplinary and longitudinal knowledge base that explains under which conditions harmful versus beneficial effects occur so that effective social, educational, health and online safety policies, practices and market regulation can be developed.

Scope: a) Research and Innovation action
Proposals should assess the online behaviour of children and young people as well as their use of digital content and devices by socio-economic, gender and age group, with attention to motivations for using ICT at home, for leisure and in schools or training institutions. Robust methodologies for measuring and explaining long-term impacts in areas such as skills and competencies (i.e. digital and media literacy, innovation and creativity, learning and socio-emotional competencies and more specific labour market relevant skills), wellbeing and(mental) health or other relevant aspects of brain development should be developed and tested across EU level. Methodologies should focus on understanding why and how some children and adolescents benefit from ICT use while others seem to be impacted negatively. Evidence-based models identifying and analysing at-risk groups can be developed. Proposals should take into account diversity as appropriate (age, cultural, social and economic background, gender etc.) and address the impact of ICT use on education inequalities. (Lack of) equity of access to ICT across social groups should also be considered. Children and young people should be active collaborators in the project.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

b) Coordination and Support action

This coordination and support action should aim at the establishment of a Pan-European platform to co-ordinate research activities in the EU Member States and Associated Countries with the purpose of developing a knowledge base, and filling current gaps, into how children and young people behave and interact online as well as the risks they may encounter while online. Proposals should pay particular attention to the vulnerability of children and young people in the digital environment and propose solutions for building online resilience, while also taking cultural and gender-related issues into account. Through the proposed platform, researchers across different countries, disciplines and approaches should share existing knowledge, fill research gaps, build capacity and work towards a consensual framework for future work. Based on the evidence base, policy recommendations should be developed on how to best protect and ensure positive online experiences for children and young people. In addition, emerging issues such as the rise of hate speech and radicalisation should be addressed.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Explanatory models will inform relevant stakeholders and practitioners on the long-term effects of ICT on child development and on practices that maximise risks (risk factors), minimise risks (resilience factors) and maximise benefits (enhancing factors). The action will contribute to better regulation (e.g. labelling, evaluation of ICT educational tools, protection of online users) and to a safer and more beneficial use of digital technologies at home, for leisure and in educational settings by children and young people. It will formulate recommendations in support of national and European policies in the field. The action will enhance cooperation between schools and families (school-community partnership) in ensuring safe and productive ways of using ICTs. It will also improve statistical data, generate innovative quantitative and qualitative methods as needed, and expand the knowledge base on in-depth case studies.

Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Research and Innovation action

DT-TRANSFORMATIONS-11-2019 - Collaborative approaches to cultural heritage for social cohesion

Specific Challenge: While a key mission of the cultural heritage sector is to provide inclusive access, some socio-cultural groups are still not sufficiently integrated in cultural heritage experiences. The challenge is to improve the design of cultural experiences by enhancing participatory and collaborative approaches and by fostering mutual cultural understanding and resilient strategies.

Scope: Proposals should develop strategies for fostering collaborative and participative approaches to cultural encounters via communication channels such as social media platforms, participatory approaches, art and co-designed activities. Proposals should consider both tangible and intangible heritage, researching new applications and tools that allow for a more inclusive approach such as digital tagging of objects or co-authoring of societal and place-based memories. The active involvement and engagement with, different groups or communities such as migrants and other communities at risk of exclusion should be promoted. Proposals should design options for these social groups to review or shape both contemporary and historical content, contribute new material or customise and personalise cultural heritage and digital humanities content in a meaningful and effective way. Collaborative tools and applications should help the cultural tourism sectors and cultural heritage institutions, NGOs, community organisations etc. in Europe and beyond to enhance the analysis and understanding of cultures and communities.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The action will contribute to fostering cultural diversity and social cohesion and to the recognition of multiple identities and voices. It will also have a positive impact on cultural institutions by attracting contributions from and boosting involvement of new audiences. In addition, the action will provide disciplines such as computing, design and the social science and humanities with new research tools.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

TRANSFORMATIONS-03-2018-2019 - Innovative solutions for inclusive and sustainable urban environments

Specific Challenge: The increasing percentage of people living in urban areas and the impact of digital technologies on public services make good governance, inclusive policies, smart planning and social and environmental sustainability ever more important for ensuring the quality of human life. Urban environments and agglomeration effects provide an ecosystem for economic growth and innovation. While the impact of the recent financial crisis on European urban areas is by no means uniform, it has led in many instances to rising socioeconomic inequalities that are affecting social cohesion and resilience. The challenge is to identify the main drivers of inequalities in different urban and peri-urban contexts and to identify best practices and initiatives, including digital solutions and alternative participatory growth models, with potential for upscaling that can promote upward social mobility, social inclusion and cohesion, resilience and sustainable development.

Scope:
b) Research and Innovation action (2019)

Proposals should assess the scale, dimensions and drivers of socio-economic inequalities in urban and peri-urban settings across different city typologies, across Europe and across demographic diversities, paying particular attention to gender differences. They should assess the effectiveness at local level of relevant policies, strategies, planning practices and other interventions aimed at promoting social inclusion, cohesion and resilience in urban environments, including new and participatory models of growth that foster sustainable and equitable prosperity. Findings should be communicated also in the form of clearly formulated policy recommendations.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 1.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: By linking research, innovation and policy, the action will support urban strategies, policies and planning practices to promote equitable, inclusive and sustainable growth, including the uptake of new, participatory and alternative growth models. It will contribute to the advancement of the EU Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goal dedicated to making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. It will also inform the continuous development and implementation of Smart Specialisation as well as the urban dimension of cohesion policy.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action.

TRANSFORMATIONS-04-2019-2020 - Innovative approaches to urban and regional development through cultural tourism

Specific Challenge: The various forms of cultural tourism in Europe are important drivers of growth, jobs and economic development of European regions and urban areas. They also contribute, by driving intercultural understanding and social development in Europe through discovering various types of cultural heritage, to the understanding of other peoples' identities and values. However, although cultural tourism by its nature invites cross border regional and local cooperation, its full innovation potential in this respect is not yet fully explored and exploited. The level of development of cultural tourism between certain regions and sites is still unbalanced, with deprived remote, peripheral or deindustrialised areas lagging behind whereas high demand areas being overexploited in an unsustainable manner. There is also a significant knowledge gap in terms of availability of both quantitative and qualitative data on the phenomenon of cultural heritage tourism and on understanding its contribution towards cultural Europeanisation and economic and social development in Europe.

Scope: a) Research and Innovation action (2019)

Proposals should comparatively assess how the presence, development, decline or absence of cultural tourism has affected the development of European regions and urban areas. They should investigate motives for cultural tourism and assess the effectiveness and sustainability of multilevel strategies, policies, trends and practices in attracting, managing and diversifying cultural tourism in Europe in view of identifying best practices that should be communicated to policymakers and practitioners. This should include considerations of specific strategies to promote cultural tourism at a regional, national and European level, including use of structural investment funds where appropriate. Minority cultures and regions as well as urban areas currently less attractive to cultural tourism should receive special attention. Historical perspectives, as well as comparison with lessons learned at international level on the emergence of particular forms of cultural tourism or reasons for cultural tourism in particular areas should also be investigated. Innovative methods and techniques, including statistical tools and indicators, for measuring and assessing various practices and impacts of cultural tourism should be developed and tested. Proposals should also deploy place-based andparticipatory approaches to investigate the relation between intra-European cultural tourism and Europeanisation and whether it impacts identities and belonging.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The action will improve policies and practices on cultural tourism at various levels. It will also provide strategic guidance at European level concerning the efficient use of European Structural Investment Funds. In addition, it will contribute to the establishment of partnerships between public and private stakeholders in this area. Creation of innovative quantitative/statistical as well as qualitative tools and methods will improve available data on and understanding of the impact of cultural tourism on European economic and social development and on cultural Europeanisation.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

TRANSFORMATIONS-08-2019 - The societal value of culture and the impact of cultural policies in Europe

Specific Challenge: Culture has been an important element of public policy for social, cultural and political cohesion and inclusion throughout European history, and its potential could be significantly enhanced. Although it is often seen today from the angle of economic value added, culture generates additional societal value in terms of well-being and by promoting identity and belonging, inclusiveness, tolerance and cohesion. Culture is also a source of creativity and innovation. The challenge is to develop new perspectives and improved methodologies for capturing the wider societal value of culture, including but also beyond its economic impact. Improved cultural value measurements and case studies also need to be developed in support of effective and inclusive policies and institutional frameworks that offer a convincing vision for citizens to cope with current cultural and societal transformations. In order to contextualise the debate on the societal value of culture, part of the challenge is to comparatively study the visions that underlie cultural policies as held by policy-makers and as embedded in institutions responsible for designing and implementing these policies at European, national and local levels.

Scope: Proposals should assess and develop appropriate methodologies and perform comparative qualitative, participative and statistical analyses at national and EU level to map the various forms of cultural engagement, assess the role of cultural participation as a source of wellbeing, and identify the benefits of cultural engagement across population segments. The historical role of culture in integrating and dividing Europe should be addressed with a view to learning more about the specific conditions in which cultural integration occurs. The nature and degree of the contributions stemming from cultural engagement to intercultural dialogue, cultural identity and community building should also be assessed. On the basis of innovative approaches and a representative geographic coverage of different parts of Europe, proposals should explain how cultural values are constructed in the age of social media, internet and television across different socio-economic groups. They should also investigate how urbanisation, spatial and social segregation, gender and rising diversity in European societies influence the formation of cultural values. In addition, proposals should assess the goals, strategies and effectiveness of cultural policies and institutions in evoking, transferring and maintaining cultural value, as well as addressing issues such as diversity and inclusion.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The action will provide new methodologies for capturing the societal value of culture in contemporary societies. It will improve statistical data and methods for capturing cultural impacts in cooperation, when appropriate, with national statistical institutes, relevant international organisations, networks, research infrastructures and Eurostat. It will also equip policymakers with effective tools for measuring, understanding and enhancing the impact of cultural policies. Participatory and co-creation approaches involving a wide range of stakeholders will contribute to innovative scientific and policy results.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

TRANSFORMATIONS-13-2019 - Using big data approaches in research and innovation policy making

Specific Challenge: To exploit the potential of big data approaches for research and innovation policy making by providing more timely and in depth information on the performance of the research and innovation system and its links to productivity growth.

Scope: Many of the advanced economies have, since the crisis, been faced with a productivity paradox: while the pace of innovation continues to accelerate, productivity growth has come to a quasi-standstill. The reasons for this have been the subject of intense debate over the past years and evidence increasingly points to the importance of the links between productivity growth and research and innovation. Seminal work by the OECD18 has pointed to the importance of technology diffusion in this respect, which could also be linked to the changing nature of the innovation process itself, which is going through profound changes, with notably digitalisation leading to increasing complexity, stronger networking effects and a growing importance of winner takes all characteristics.
If research and innovation policy making is to adapt to this rapidly changing environment in an evidence based manner, it needs solid and timely data to support its decisions and it is becoming increasingly clear that official statistics, if relying on traditional sources, cannot continue to provide a full picture of all the dynamics of today's research and innovation systems. However, in today's increasingly digitalised world, alternative sources of data have being emerging exponentially, generated by the use of information and communication technologies and their diffusion through the web. This includes, for instance, information contained in company websites, social media posts, but also increasingly databases being made available by e.g. governments. Such data sources, commonly known as big data, have the advantage of being widely available in a timely manner, have the potential of being able to cover a variety of aspects of research and innovation performance, allow to provide information at a more granular level and examine in a better way social interactions, all of which is not possible through the indicators currently provided by official statistics.
Proposals should aim at exploiting the potential of big data to produce information on research and innovation activity, performance, output and/or impact which has the potential to be available in real time, focusing notably on research and innovation investments in the private sector, public-private cooperation and technology diffusion between private actors. Proposals should also take into account aspects of data accuracy and data security.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of EUR 1.9 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The outcomes of the Research and Innovation Actions are expected to provide research and innovation policy making with more timely and diverse data on research and innovation activity, performance, output and/or impact.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

Accelerating and catalysing processes of institutional change

SwafS-01-2018-2019 - SwafS-01-2018-2019 - Open schooling and collaboration on science education

Specific Challenge: At the moment, Europe faces a shortfall in science-knowledgeable people at all levels of society. This is a good time to expand opportunities for science learning, in formal, non-formal and informal settings. Evidence shows that European citizens, young and old, appreciate the importance of science and want to be more informed, and that citizens want more science education. Over 40% believe science and technological innovation can have a positive impact on the environment, health and medical care, and basic infrastructure in the future. Therefore, collaboration between formal, non-formal and informal science education providers, enterprises and civil society should be enhanced to ensure relevant and meaningful engagement of all societal actors with science and increase the uptake of science studies, citizen science initiatives and science-based careers, employability and competitiveness.

Scope: The proposed action targets the creation of new partnerships in local communities to foster improved science education for all citizens. This action aims to support a range of activities based on collaboration between formal, non-formal and informal science education providers, enterprises and civil society in order to integrate the concept of open schooling, including all educational levels, in science education.
"Open schooling" where schools, in cooperation with other stakeholders, become an agent of community well-being shall be promoted; families should be encouraged to become real partners in school life and activities; professionals from enterprises and civil and wider society should actively be involved in bringing real-life projects to the classroom. Relevant policy makers should also be involved, to encourage policy buy-in and the mainstreaming of good practices and insights into policies, and hence sustainability and impact beyond the lifetime of funding. Partnerships that foster expertise, networking, sharing and applying science and technology research findings across different enterprises (e.g. start-ups, SMEs, larger corporations) should be promoted. Gender, socio-economic and geographical differences should be considered.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of the order of € 1.50 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: It is expected that in the short term the development of partnerships between schools, local communities, Civil Society Organisations, universities and industry should contribute to a more scientifically interested and literate society and students with a better awareness of and interest in scientific careers. In the medium term the activities should provide citizens and future researchers with the tools and skills to make informed decisions and choices and in the long-term this action should contribute towards the ERA objectives of increasing the numbers of scientists and researchers in Europe.

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

SwafS-05-2018-2019 - Grounding RRI practices in research and innovation funding and performing organisations

Specific Challenge: Institutional changes are required to respond to the increased interactions between R&I stakeholders in society. Through institutional changes, research funding and performing organisations become more “porous” and accept inputs from citizens and organisations that used to be considered outsiders to the world of R&I. Examples include citizen science, extended peer review in funding agencies, co-creation of public policies, agenda setting in research and innovation programmes, co-production of research and innovation content, and co-evaluation of proposals, activities or other R&I funding decisions.
1. Citizens' and citizens' associations engagement in science;
2. Formal and informal science education;
3. Gender equality in science;
4. Research ethics and integrity;
5. Open access to research results.
The good practices in these five fields are much more easily, efficiently and sustainably implemented when the organisations funding, performing or associated to R&I have adapted significantly their governance frameworks to open up through a process of institutional change.

Scope: Consortia are expected to implement institutional changes in at least one but preferably all five fields listed above as part of an integrated approach. All scientific disciplines are covered. Consortia members should aim to ensure that the institutional changes are sustainable beyond the lifetime of the project funding.
The action is addressed at organisations funding or performing activities in the field of R&I as one of their significant objectives or activities. All parts of the "quadruple helix" model, which sees close co-operation between industry, government, universities and society (e.g. citizens and Civil Society Organisations) in R&I, are addressed – and it is encouraged that consortia ensure truly engaged roles for all organisation types. Consortia should be composed of organisations that already have some experience of processes of institutional change and beginners, so as to encourage mutual learning. In addition, priority should be given to the development of new partnerships.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of €1.50 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Results should contribute to a greater involvement of all stakeholders in R&I, and a better and more sustainable engagement with citizens and society as a whole. Consortia are expected to contribute to one or more of the MoRRI indicators, in particular GOV2 & GOV323, and to the Sustainable Development Goals (for instance goals 4, 5, 9, 12, 16 or 17)24. Consortia are expected to evaluate their activities and provide evidence of societal, democratic, economic and scientific impacts of institutional changes. The expected number of institutional changes, including their quality and sustainability in partner organisations, will be taken into account in evaluation. As such, it is expected that the topic will support a significant number of impactful and sustainable institutional changes in partner organisations.

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

SwafS-07-2019 - EURAXESS TOP V

Specific Challenge: EURAXESS aims at helping researchers and entrepreneurs to advance their career in Europe and thus make research and innovation more attractive, both for researchers in Europe who are facing career decisions and for those who are currently outside Europe and might consider relocating to Europe to develop their careers. From mainly mobility support, the EURAXESS network shall become the reference tool also for career development of researchers in public or private institutions.

Scope: The objective of the action is to further intensify the services provided by the EURAXESS Service Centres by expanding their mandate of taking care of the early career development of researchers and entrepreneurs in Europe with particular focus on female Higher Education Institution students and researchers. The services of the EURAXESS network will reach out to mobile and non-mobile researchers and entrepreneurs with the aim of contributing to European policy developments in this area on opening new career trajectories in industry, thus including start-ups. This action will support activities of the EURAXESS Service Network represented by Bridgehead Organisations to address strategic issues related to support services of the network. The further diversification of career development and/or support for dual careers centres will be expanded over a wider geographical range of the network, support to researchers and young entrepreneurs for start-ups in SMEs and industry and concepts for better integration of researchers into the culture of the host country and to the culture of a business environment, as well as mentoring programmes for researchers.
Other services for researchers will be proposed: for instance, national EURAXESS websites will provide information on start-up schemes and skills for researchers in the respective country and relate to policy information as provided on the European EURAXESS portal about EU research policies for researchers and EU schemes developing more career opportunities. This includes issues related to a Global and a European Research Area and Responsible Research and Innovation. Activities such as the deepening of existing services through trainings, seminars, networking and updating of national EURAXESS portals will also be part of this action.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of the order of EUR 3.00 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Better take up of career development guidance and the collaboration with start-ups and SME will open new career options for researchers and accelerate knowledge transfer to industry and fast take up of research results.
Increased job and funding opportunities on the EURAXESS Jobs portal and personalised assistance to researchers will accelerate the career development of young researchers, in particular female researchers. In the medium term, the action will produce efficiency gains and reduce transaction costs by creating a better match of existing talent and R&I needs and capacity in European research institutions and businesses. It will contribute directly to the Horizon 2020 objective of cross-national and international circulation of researchers; it will increase the number of researchers who have access to research infrastructures through Union support and the number of excellent researchers overall. It will contribute to meeting ERA objectives on gender equality. Over time, the action will contribute directly towards European targets on R&DI intensity and percentage of researchers in the active population, and to boost European research and innovation competitiveness.
By increasing the service level of the whole EURAXESS Services Network, the benefit for the research community will be long-lasting and far-reaching.

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

SwafS-08-2019 - Research innovation needs & skills training in PhD programmes

Specific Challenge: Within the New Skills Agenda (adopted in June 2016)26 and in the Modernisation Agenda (adopted in May 2017)27 specifications on innovative employment-oriented curricula recommendations are described. The Open Science Agenda incorporates activities which makes it crucial for Higher Education Institutions to integrate new or existing skills courses into PhD programmes and to train data stewards. Especially the formal integration of skills courses developed with and by non-academic actors and provided in non-academic surroundings into curricula, will be a specific challenge.
Scope: A broad package of skills-related training, integration and intelligence for researchers and scientists in all career stages will need to be developed. Preferably pilots will be organised by (or in cooperation with) experienced projects which already received EU funding or are currently funded under Erasmus+, Horizon2020, ITN, MSCA. In all cases,partners should be able to demonstrate proof of concept and initial impact of the PhD training and reasoning for improving and formally integrating skills training. Initial postgraduate tracking exercises have to be integrated in the proposal, to demonstrate ability to trace postgraduates during employment (including sex-disaggregated data). Counselling initiatives of PhD candidates and PhD graduates into focussed careers in and outside academia should be provided.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 0.75 million and 1.00 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Impact is expected on post-graduate candidates and early stage researchers, careers, in closing the skills gap between research employment in academia and beyond academia. Expected impact also on the improvement of the innovation potential of future PhD candidates, by joint design of skills training courses and curricula of consortium partners into modernised PhD programmes. Expected impact on the joint collaboration between academia and stakeholders in the regions (hubs) by improving skills intelligence, skills visibility and comparability for better career choices; learning about future skills needs and employment potential of scientists of all (interdisciplinary) fields. Expected impact on the interdisciplinary and international mobility of researchers working under Open Science in line with the Innovative Doctoral Training Principles (IDTP).

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

Stepping up support to Gender Equality in Research & Innovation policy

SwafS-09-2018-2019 - Supporting research organisations to implement gender equality plans

Specific Challenge: Gender equality is a key priority set with the Member States and Associated countries in the European Research Area. Research funding and performing organisations and universities are invited to implement institutional change through Gender Equality Plans (GEPs). The Council conclusions of 1/12/201530 acknowledged the contribution of gender equality to the quality of research and innovation. It reaffirmed the need for sustainable cultural and institutional change along the three following objectives:
1. Removing barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers;
2. Addressing gender imbalances in decision making processes;
3. Integrating the gender dimension in research and innovation content31.
The GEAR tool developed by the European Commission and EIGE32 regrouped the state of the art knowledge and practices on institutional change and provided a step-by-step guide on how to set up and implement GEPs.

Scope: The action should focus on implementing Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) in research organisations and universities, as "drivers" for systemic institutional changes. The GEPs should be developed using a coherent approach, referring to the GEAR tool step-by-step guide. The proposed GEPs structure will include at least the following:
• Conduct assessment / audit of procedures and practices with relevant data to identify gender bias at organisation level;
• Implement effective actions to be developed over time, according to the identified bias;
• Set targets and monitor progress via indicators at organisation level.
The proposals will explain the planned GEPs in the context of existing national provisions and national action plans (legislation, specific incentives, etc.) relating to gender equality in research and innovation. The proposal should also explain previous steps taken by the organisation for gender equality.The proposal will provide proof of long term commitment in the implementation of GEPs from their highest management level. The role of middle management and relevant departments of the partner organisations in the implementation of the GEPs shall be described.
The proposals will include a methodology for impartially evaluating the progress made on the impact the gender equality plans had on structural change throughout the duration of the project. A specific work package(s) and deliverable(s) should be introduced in the proposal for this purpose.
Special emphasis will be placed on the sustainability of the GEPs to be implemented and on project follow-up initiatives.
The allocation of resources within the consortium will focus on the implementation of GEPs in the partner organisations. These partner organisations must be at a starting/initial stage in the setting-up and implementation of gender equality plans. It is recommended that the proposals should allocate the majority of funding to setting-up and implementing GEPS. The proposal will explain the role of partners not implementing GEPs and their specific contribution in line with the text and requirements of the topic.
Participation of professional associations in the consortium is recommended.
Project duration of at least 48 months is recommended.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 2.50 million and 3.00 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: The proposed action will contribute to increasing the number of research organisations and higher education establishments implementing gender equality plans. The individual implemented GEPs should be shared on the GEAR tool33.
The expected impacts are:
- Increase in the participation of women in research and innovation and improvement of their careers prospects;
- Improvement of gender balance in decision-making bodies in research organisations;
- Inclusion, where relevant, of the gender dimension in research content and increase in the quality and societal relevance of produced knowledge, technologies and innovations.
In the medium to long term, the implementation of Gender Equality Plans will contribute to the achievement of the ERA.

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

SwafS-11-2019 - Scenarios for an award/certification system for gender equality in research organisations and universities in Europe

Specific Challenge: Through the implementation of Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) in the last years in research organisations and universities a substantial knowledge base and a wide set of practices were established which is accessible in particular in the Gender Equality in Academia and Research - GEAR tool36.
Gender Equality Plans are now common in some Member States and Associated Countries, but in others they are in their infancy. The implementation of the Plans as a key instrument for gender equality in the European Research Area and the institutional change they entail in research organisations and universities need to be further promoted and evaluated.
A promising option which is implemented in some countries, could be gender equality award schemes for R&I organisations. Some awarding schemes are also used as drivers for competition in attracting students and researchers and/ or as prerequisite to access funding.

Scope: The action will consist of a feasibility study of a European award/certification system for gender equality in research organisations, including universities. Several options should be investigated.
Based on the experiences of existing schemes and outcomes of previous research and initiatives (e.g. Horizon 2020 projects such as GEDII, and EFFORTI, FP7 ERA-Net Gender-NET37) , the action will:
- Conduct an in-depth qualitative and quantitative assessment of existing national award/certification schemes for gender equality in research organisations and universities. Particular attention will be given to the national context in terms of legislation, policy and research funding environment to understand the intended and non-intended impacts of each evaluated award scheme.
- Provide a clear framework for at least 3 different options of a European award/certification scheme encompassing the three objectives for gender equality in the ERA, i.e. gender equality scientific careers, gender balance in decision-making positions and in the integration of the gender dimension in R&I content. The options should take into account the possible synergies and linkages with the current Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R).
A project duration of maximum 24 months is recommended.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of the order of EUR 1.50 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Strengthen the incentives for research organisations and universities to set up Gender Equality Plans. Make progress on gender equality along the three objectives set in the European Research Area, i.e. in scientific careers, in decision-making and in the integration of the gender dimension in R&I content.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

SwafS-12-2019 - The gender perspective of science, technology and innovation (STI) in dialogue with third countries

Specific Challenge: In its Conclusions of 1 December 2015 on advancing gender equality in the European Research Area, the Council invited the Commission and the Member States to consider including, among others, a gender perspective in dialogues with third countries in the area of science, technology and innovation (STI).
The EU Member States and many countries outside the European Union are facing similar challenges in terms of gender equality in STI: gender-related biases are leading to horizontal (disparities among different scientific disciplines) and vertical (low levels of women representation on top positions) segregation. The perception of and support for gender equality varies significantly across cultures. Cultural and institutional barriers turn women away from STI and affect their careers. Also the take up of the gender dimension in research and innovation content38 is still limited. The EU has developed a strategy for gender equality along three objectives relating to equality in careers, gender balance in decision-making and the integration of the gender dimension in R&I content.
The Commission has pledged reinforced cooperation with third countries under one of the three goals set by the current Commissioner, i.e. Open to the World. There is increasing interest from third countries to cooperate with the EU in the field of STI and encourage the mobility of researchers. It is therefore important to develop common solutions for common challenges regarding gender inequalities in STI.

Scope: The project will investigate how gender equality matters are taken into consideration at different levels of international cooperation in the area of science, technology and innovation between the EU and a selected set of third countries, along three objectives, i.e. equality in scientific careers, gender balance in decision making, and the integration of the gender dimension in R&I content. The project will build on the work done by the ERA-related groups in charge of gender equality and international cooperation as well as EU funded projects. It will provide a mapping and a subsequent analysis of how gender equality is taken into account and promoted:
1. in the formal bilateral and multilateral agreements in the STI area between the EU Member States and Associated Countries on one side and the selected third countries on the other side;
2. in the bilateral and multilateral STI implementation activities, including access to grants and the evaluation process;
3. in the dissemination and promotion of the results of international dialogues and cooperation.
The project will also formulate recommendations to enhance the integration of gender equality objectives at the various stages mentioned above.
In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of the order of EUR 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Improve awareness and implementation of gender equality objectives in the bilateral and multilateral activities between EU Member States and third countries in the area of STI. Contribute to removing potential barriers to the equal treatment of women and men scientists and to integrate the gender dimension in R&I content in international dialogues and cooperation.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

Building the territorial dimension of SwafS partnerships

SwafS-14-2018-2019 - Supporting the development of territorial Responsible Research and Innovation

Specific Challenge: The Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach supported by the European Commission since 2011 aims to encourage societal actors to work together during the whole research and innovation (R&I) process to better align R&I and its outcomes with the values, needs and expectations of society. Experience shows that strategies and practices based on RRI can open up R&I to all relevant actors, and improve co-operation between science and society, fostering the recruitment of new talent, and pairing scientific excellence with social awareness and responsibility.
Territories have a specific advantage to address the complexity of the challenges set by the interplay between science and society. Indeed local actors have an intimate knowledge of the physical territorial setting, and local ecology, i.e. the status quo of the complex relationships between cultural, social, economic and political actors, of the local dynamics, history, expectations and requirements as well as specific concerns.
During the last century, local and regional development policies have slowly, unevenly, but surely, integrated dimensions related to science, technology, and innovation (STI). For example, the European Commission supported regional technology plans in the 1990s and regional innovation strategies during the 2000s. Since 2010 the Commission has encouraged regions to develop smart specialisation strategies, based on comprehensive stakeholder involvement, to identify specific fields of industrial and research strengths with a potential for competitive advantages for the region43. A more comprehensive approach involving citizens and communities is likely to result in positive impacts on STI and local and regional development.
Territories can work towards the establishment of self-sustaining R&I ecosystems that are characterised by a high degree of openness, democratic accountability, and responsiveness to need by taking action to promote all parts of RRI (i.e. gender equality, science education, open access/open data, public engagement, and ethics). This requires them to bring relevant R&I actors together, for instance citizens and civil society organisations (CSOs), universities,research institutions, formal and informal education institutions (including primary and secondary schools), governments and public authorities (including regional and local administrations and science policy institutions), businesses (including industry, the service sector and social entrepreneurs) and science mediators. New R&I working methods within and between organisations, including novel and transparent governance relations, would promote greater sustainability and inclusiveness at local, national, EU and global levels.

Scope: For the present topic, 'territory' should be understood broadly. Territories may be defined by any particular area characterised by certain geographical features, or any area with shared cultural, environmental or economic ties.
Consortia should focus activities in more than one territory in Europe (and possibly also in Third Countries), with a view to developing and promoting shared learning and diffusion of governance innovations. Local and regional authorities should be active partners of the consortia, in particular those institutions or parts of institutions responsible for research and innovation. The RRI approach should be integrated in regional development policies, e.g. spatial planning, land use planning, coastal planning, urban development and urban structuring activities (list not exhaustive). Consortia should make strong efforts to ensure the involvement of all kind of citizens, irrespective of their age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background.
Consortia should lay out a sequence of actions that open up and transform the R&I ecosystem and governance systems so that they are more open and inclusive.
Consortia will:
- Map their current territorial R&I ecosystem, taking into account and complementing existing mapping exercises such as the Smart Specialisation Platform44, the European Cluster Observatory45, and the Regional Innovation Scoreboard46,
- Reflect on how the system could be more open and inclusive, and
- Consider their place within larger societal, geographical, economic and environmental framework.
- Consequently, proposals should develop concrete actions within individual beneficiaries' organisations (e.g. agenda setting and institutional changes in the fields of gender, ethics, public engagement, science education and open access) and in the territorial context (e.g. local and regional governance relations and decision-making processes).
Changes should be sustainable (i.e. last beyond the lifetime of funding), for instance through the introduction of new forms of decision making, development of business plans or co-operation agreements, and institutional changes in participating organisations.
The actions should avoid duplicating the analytical and data collection activities of the Smart Specialisation Platform. Previous project findings and good practices should be considered as and when appropriate. Projects such as ONLINE-S347 and SEiSMIC48 could be useful in this regard. The ONLINE-S3 project aims to assist national and regional authorities in the EU to elaborate and revise their smart specialisation agendas, in terms of policies and strategy, whereas the SEiSMiC project helps tackle Europe's biggest urban problems by engaging citizens, identifying social innovation needs, and contributing to future urban policies and research strategies.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of the order of € 2.00 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Consortia are expected to elaborate and implement a more open, transparent and democratic R&I system in their defined territories. Consortia are expected to evaluate their activities and provide evidence of societal, democratic, environmental, economic and scientific impacts. Involvement in the project should have a measurable transformative and opening effect on organisations involved, which should be sustainable beyond the lifetime of funding. Consortia are expected to contribute to one or more of the MoRRI indicators (for instance GE1, SLSE1, SLSE4, PE1, PE2, PE5, PE7, PE8, E1, OA6, GOV2)49, and to the Sustainable Development Goals50 (for instance goals 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16 or 17).

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

Exploring and supporting citizen science

SwafS-15-2018-2019 - Exploring and supporting citizen science

Specific Challenge: Citizen science is blooming across all scientific disciplines and the humanities. It can potentially bring a wide variety of benefits to researchers, citizens, policy makers and society across the research and innovation cycle, e.g; it can accelerate and sometimes even make possible the production of new scientific knowledge; it can help policy makers monitor implementation and compliance with regulations; it can increase public awareness about science and feeling of ownership of policies; and it can enable faster and evidence-informed reactions to events and better territorial coverage.
At the same time there are difficulties setting up citizen science initiatives – in terms of choosing the optimum methodologies; in terms of quality assurance and validation of the outcomes; in terms of linking the various governance levels, from local to global; in terms of ensuring balanced participation of citizens (e.g. regardless of background, gender and age); in terms of integrity of methods and data; in terms of recognising the work of citizens participating in citizen science initiatives; in terms of managing large numbers of volunteers for many months or even years (and keeping them motivated and responding to their questions).
Furthermore, questions remain unanswered about the potentials of citizen science for society e.g: what is the potential number of citizen scientists and who are they? What are the costs and benefits of citizen science (e.g. in terms of scientific excellence and the economy)? What relationship can and does citizen science have to informal and formal science education? Are there limits to citizen science, and if so what are they?
For the present topic citizen science should be understood broadly, covering a range of different levels of participation, from raising public knowledge of science, encouraging citizens to participate in the scientific process by observing, gathering and processing data, right up to setting scientific agenda and co-designing and implementing science-related policies. It could also involve publication of results and teaching science.

Scope: There are the two sub-topics:
A, Coordination and Support Action - CSA (1 project in 2018): This will provide support to citizen science at the European level. It will also create a mutual learning space where citizen science projects/participants can exchange experiences and successful strategies. It will raise awareness of citizen science among the general public, provide co-ordination support between citizen science initiatives (in particular those funded by SwafS but also working in a spirit of co-operation with established networks of citizen scientists), identify training needs with a view to developing and implementing training to help citizen scientists, and support communication between citizen science and science journalists/science media. It will also identify good practices that incentivise career scientists to engage with citizen science activities.

B, Research and Innovation Actions - RIA (multiple projects in 2018-2019): This will support hands-on citizen science activities. Proposals may focus on one particular area of scientific enquiry or tackle several, though transdisciplinary approaches should be favoured. The intended activities should be clearly defined and result in the development of new knowledge, new technologies, or new means of using existing technological or social innovations better. Activities can explore how citizen science develops scientific skills and competences, act as a tool for informal and formal science education of young people and adults, counter perceived anti-intellectual attitudes in society, raise the scientific literacy of European citizens, and promote social inclusion and employability. Gender, geographical and socio-economic factors should be taken into account so as to ensure activities are open to people from all backgrounds. Effort should be made to evaluate the impacts on society, democracy, the economy, science itself, and the individual citizen scientists involved in the activities. Lines of communication should be established with other relevant SwafS projects in order to share evaluation data and data arising from the citizen science in the spirit of open science.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of € 2.00 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:
A. Coordination and Support Action: Strengthened networks, co-ordination and communication among citizen science projects (particularly, but not limited, to those funded by SwafS). Availability of tools, guidelines, or other materials useful to actors inexperienced in organising and supporting citizen science initiatives. Increased awareness amongst the general public of citizen science. Delivery of training to citizen scientists (or potential science practitioners) and resultant increased skills, competences, and scientific excellence. Consortia should choose a basket of indicators to measure the impact of their work against. In particular, consortia are expected to contribute to one or more of the MoRRI indicators (for instance PE1 to PE10) and to the Sustainable Development Goals.
B. Research and Innovation Actions: Development of new knowledge and innovations by citizen scientists. Availability of evaluation data concerning the societal, democratic and economic costs and benefits of citizen science. Consortia should choose a basket of indicators to measure the impact of their work against. In particular, consortia are expected to contribute to one or more of the MoRRI indicators (for instance PE1 to PE10) and to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Type of Action: Coordination and support action, Research and Innovation action

SwafS-16-2019 - Ethics of Innovation: the challenge of new interaction modes

Specific Challenge: Innovation, from idea to product, and including social innovation, is a main driver for change, a pillar of EU growth and globally for socio-economic development. It addresses key challenges in fields such as the environment and health and improving the quality of life and well-being of citizens.
Over the past years, the modes of interaction between the different stakeholders have evolved significantly. Active participation of citizens in science and innovation has gained prominence. At the same time, new IT tools have profoundly impacted the way in which researchers work and interact. These developments are promising and have numerous advantages. At the same time, however, these new modes of innovation also raise ethical and regulatory considerations, including concerns regarding the protection of participating citizens, their potential exploitation, the collection of big data and related privacy considerations, as well as intellectual property issues.

Scope: In order to maximise the social benefits derived from innovation, the action will assess the ethical, regulatory and governance issues potentially arising in this context. The action should identify what the distinctive elements of innovation ethics would be in this dynamic context.
The role of citizen participation in innovation (including social innovation) must be analysed in order to maximise the effectiveness of this participation for all stakeholders, taking into account possible gender differences. Best practices for an active involvement of citizens and relevant stakeholders in the innovation processes should be identified. The design and use of IT tools should also be considered in order to optimise stakeholder participation.
In addition, the existing legal environment applicable to citizen participation in research and innovation should be identified, mapped and analysed. Potential regulatory and legal gaps (concerning for example IP rights and ownership of data) should be described and concrete proposals should be presented to address the highlighted gaps.
The analytical work should not be limited to the legal aspects, but also cover current practices (in the EU and beyond) with a view to discussing their ethics and values dimensions and taking into account the lessons learned so as to be able to identify best practices. In doing so, business ethics practices should also be considered.
The action must propose an ethics framework, based on accepted principles, which aim to ensure that innovation remains a process which responds to citizens' needs and values, improves access and avoids a technological divide. Such a framework should focus on the elaboration and implementation of publicly funded research and innovation programmes, as well as public–private partnerships. It should be developed, validated and translated into a set of practical guidelines that enable the effective handling of the identified ethical and regulatory issues.
Such a framework and guidelines must be compatible with and aim to complement the new European code of conduct for research integrity and include, where applicable, measures for benefit sharing. This process necessitates the active involvement of relevant stakeholders to ensure an effective take-up. The effectiveness of the guidelines should be assessed and tested, notably via workshops and focus groups (such science cafes, etc.) involving citizens, industry, researchers and policy makers. In addition, the resulting guidelines should be applied in real-life pilots with quantifiable results. Piloting needs to be carried out in a representative set of Member States in order to test different cultural/socio-political context.
The action should involve innovation agencies and/or research and innovation funding organisations, which are called to apply the results of the project into their internal procedures.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of the order of EUR 3.00 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Overall, this action will enable more effective handling of the ethical dimension of innovation, in particular regarding the new modes of interaction and participation. It will offer a practical and operative tool for all stakeholders confronted with the challenges related to co-design and to new (IT-based) interaction modes. It will practically support the work of a) the designers and funders of research and innovation policies/programmes, b) the ethics committees tasked with evaluating and monitoring innovative programmes and projects, and c) the research integrity bodies responsible for promoting research integrity and research quality. The implementation of the guidelines in pilots are expected to increase their uptake and overall the impact of the action.

Type of Action: Coordination and support action

Building the knowledge base for SwafS

SwafS-17-2019 - Consolidating and expanding the knowledge base on citizen science

Specific Challenge: Grassroots initiatives related to citizen science are blooming across the world. Citizen science has the potential to bring a wide variety of benefits to researchers, citizens, policy makers and society and across research and innovation (R&I) cycles. It can make science more socially relevant, accelerate and enable production of new scientific knowledge, help policy makers monitor regulatory implementation and compliance, increase public awareness about science and ownership of policy making, and increase prevalence of evidence-based policy making. The growth of citizen science brings with it a need to understand its breadth and consequences. How is citizen science conducted, who is involved and in what way(s), and what effect(s) does it have on R&I systems, scientists and the citizens involved? What are the different incentives and disincentives for career scientists to get involved in citizen science? What are the enablers and the barriers of citizen science, what are good practices, and what are its limits? It is also important to identify the democratic, societal, economic and scientific benefits of citizen science. Moreover, the deep and profound implications on science as a discipline, a profession and as a practice, and also on science's relationship with and for society, need to be considered.

Scope: This topic will deepen scientific knowledge on citizen science. It will work very closely with and examine and synthesise data arising from existing citizen science projects (in particular, but not limited to, those funded by SWAFS) to better understand participation patterns in citizen science, the types of activities conducted, the transformative potentials of participating in citizen science, challenges faced by citizen scientists, enablers and barriers to participating in citizen science (e.g. in terms of socio-economic status, gender, age, and in terms of R&I policies), and a strengthened knowledge base on its benefits. It will place developments in global and European historical contexts, and develop understanding about the implications of citizen science on science itself, and on science's relationship with and for society. It will involve stakeholders from local to European levels, from all parts of the quadruple helix, and taking into account gender, geographical and socio-economic differences, to develop policy messages that work towards an enabling R&I policy environment for citizen science and maximisation of the benefits of citizen science.

In line with the strategy for EU international cooperation in research and innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation is encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of the order of EUR 2.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Consortia should aim to consolidate and expand the scientific and policy knowledge base about citizen science. They should identify key incentives, disincentives, barriers and enablers to involvement of citizens and scientists. They should document, synthesise, and present evidence about the societal, democratic, economic and scientific benefits (and potential caveats) of citizen science. They should aim to impact on R&I policies by developing implementable policy recommendations and targeting them at key stakeholders. They should aim to indirectly work towards MoRRI indicators60 (e.g. SLSE4, PE1, PE2, PE3, PE5, PE6, PE7, PE8, PE9, PE10, OA6) and identified and appropriate Sustainable Development Goals.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

SwafS-19-2018-2019 - Taking stock and re-examining the role of science communication

Specific Challenge: Science and innovation are undergoing deep and fundamental changes, in particular thanks to digitalisation (e.g. social media and citizen science). Science communication, which is a discipline, an activity conducted by scientists and other R&I stakeholders, and a career path followed by journalists, informs citizens about science and innovation, opens up R&I to society, and empowers citizens to participate in activities and debate.
Two concurrent developments lead to the growing need to ensure the quality and reliability of science communication: firstly, dwindling resources in science journalism lead to reduced critical assessment and reporting of science66; secondly, the rapid diffusion of open access publications and science-related news through social media increase opportunities for all citizens and civil society groups to reach large audiences about science-related issues but sometimes without the editorial oversight and fact-checking established in the traditional media.

Scope: This topic aims to better understand how results from research and scientific methodologies are communicated and perceived by citizens (taking into account age, gender, and socio-economic status), develop improved ways to measure and assess science communication, and identify good practices and policy guidelines to increase the accuracy of (and therefore trust in) science communication. It will increase knowledge about science communication at international, EU and member state levels. It will propose innovative ways to open up science and innovation broadly to society by improving the quality and effectiveness of interactions between scientists and other R&I stakeholders, the media and the public. It will examine the teaching of science communication within scientific disciplines and as a dedicated academic discipline. It will also give attention to existing incentive (and disincentive) structures for scientists and other R&I stakeholders to engage in science communication, for instance in terms of career and scientific reputation. Applicants are welcome to propose other innovative ideas in relation to the above specific challenge.

To address this specific challenge, proposals will include a multi-disciplinary team able to explore well defined communication strategies (journalists, science communicators, scientists and other R&I stakeholders, educators, enterprises, economists, civil society/citizens, legal experts, etc.). Specificities related to gender, culture, territorial context and the environment should also be considered.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of the order of EUR 1.2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Dissemination of the results should increase the communication of science in terms of quantity and quality, favour the opening of R&I, and the up-take of RRI. It should eventually improve the quality and effectiveness of interactions between scientists, general media and the public.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action

SwafS-20-2018-2019 - Building the SwafS knowledge base

Specific Challenge: Understanding the evolution of science and society will help proactive and anticipatory policy making. This includes examining how societal actors, including young people, behave, understand, react to and interact with science and scientific developments, and their motives for engaging in science-related activities. It encompasses investigating science communication and science advocacy in the digital world, and how science and technology studies and different disciplines (e.g. behavioural sciences, communication studies, gender studies, linguistics, and social anthropology) – and multi/transdisciplinary approaches – can help explain interactions between science and society. This includes a focus on blind spots of research and innovation in relation to people's needs and concerns and in any of the areas or dimensions covered by RRI. Moreover, consideration could be given to rewarding achievement in RRI in its various dimensions to signal the organisations that are more RRI aware (answering questions such as how such a reward could work and based on which criteria). Another area is implications of deep changes in science and innovation and their interactions with society and the economy, such as the transition to open science and open innovation, and resultant changes in the relationships between science and society.

Scope: The present topic is completely bottom-up. Research and innovation actions are invited, using the above specific challenge to help stimulate ideas about where research is most needed.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of the order of € 1 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact: Consortia should choose a basket of indicators to measure the impact of their work against. In particular, consortia are expected to contribute to one or more of the MoRRI indicators68 and/or to the Sustainable Development Goals69. R&I outcomes should help build effective cooperation between science and society, foster the recruitment of new talent for science, and pair scientific excellence with social awareness and responsibility. Scientific and other types of publication should be foreseen.

Type of Action: Research and Innovation action