Everything You Need To Know About the European Green Deal Calls

What it is and how your project can take advantage of the available funding

Background on the European Green Deal

Climate change mitigation and creating a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 are two of the main priorities of the European Commission. As such, the EC has set out Green Deal-related research and innovation with a dedicated call for proposals under the current research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020.

Additional research and innovation initiatives will be funded under the next EU research and innovation programme - Horizon Europe. (We will have more on Horizon Europe in the weeks to come.)

Basically, the European Green Deal is the policy aimed at addressing the changes that need to be made — and the Horizon programs are the funding arms to make it happen.

Objective of the European Green Deal calls

The Green Deal call aims to move research and innovation from the lab to market in the pursuit of a just and sustainable societal transition.

Projects are expected to deliver tangible and visible results quickly while showing how research and innovation can provide concrete solutions for the main tenets of the Green Deal.

The call will support:

• Pilot applications, demonstration projects and innovative products

• Innovation for better governance of the green and digital transition

• Social and value chain innovation

• Experimentation and social innovation for new ways to engage civil society and empower citizens

In relation to the current pandemic, the call will also contribute to the green and digital recovery, as well as increasing societal resilience for the future.

Structure of the European Green Deal calls

The call contains 11 areas - 8 thematic areas and 3 horizontal areas:

Thematic areas

• Call area 1: Increasing climate ambition: cross-sectoral challenges

• Call area 2: Clean, affordable and secure energy

• Call area 3: Industry for a clean and circular economy

• Call area 4: Energy and resource-efficient buildings

• Call area 5: Sustainable and smart mobility

• Call area 6: Farm to Fork

• Call area 7: Restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services

• Call area 8: Zero-pollution, toxic-free environment

These reflect the key work streams of the European Green Deal.

Each stream is meant to target specific technological and societal innovations that can help to quickly advance the sustainable energy transition.

Horizontal areas

• Call area 9: Strengthening our knowledge in support of the European Green Deal

• Call area 10: Empowering citizens for transition towards a climate neutral, sustainable Europe

• Call area 11: Accelerating the clean energy transition and access in partnership with Africa

These cut across the eight thematic areas and offer a longer-term perspective in achieving the transformations set out in the European Green Deal.

Timeline of the European Green Deal calls

All of the calls are now open and are single stage with deadlines of 26 January 2021, 17:00 Brussels time. The full call texts can be found under the Horizon 2020 Funding & Tenders Portal.

Be sure to watch for online webinars for more information and match-making. Are you in the UK? Then you can already register for the KTN Information and Consortia Building Event Series starting on 29 September 2020 here.

Participation of UK organisations

As part of the UK/EU Withdrawal Agreement, UK Organisations are fully eligible to participate in this competition and those that are successful in winning Horizon 2020 funding will continue to receive their funding from the European Commission until the completion of those projects, even if they are several years duration.

How Linq can help with proposals for the European Green Deal calls

Time is of the essence — one of the major points of the call is to enact change as quickly as feasibly possible. Linq specializes in writing grant proposals and call text under tight deadlines. If your organisation is looking to take advantage of the available funding, contact us to see how we can help. We have extensive experience securing funding for European projects rooted in sustainable development technologies.

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