European Green Deal Call: €1 billion investment to boost the green and digital transition

The European Commission is launching a €1 billion call for research and innovation projects that respond to the climate crisis and help protect Europe's unique ecosystems and biodiversity. The Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal Call, which is already open for registration, will spur Europe's recovery from the coronavirus crisis by turning green challenges into innovation opportunities.

This Green Deal Call differs in important aspects from previous Horizon 2020 calls. Given the urgency of the challenges it addresses, it aims for clear, discernible results in the short to medium-term, but with a perspective of long-term change. There are fewer, but more targeted, larger and visible actions, with a focus on rapid scalability, dissemination and uptake.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth said: 

“The €1 billion European Green Deal call is the last and biggest call under Horizon 2020. With innovation at its heart, this investment will accelerate a just and sustainable transition to a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. As we do not want anyone left behind in this systemic transformation, we call for specific actions to engage with citizens in novel ways and improve societal relevance and impact.”

The projects funded under this call are expected to deliver results with tangible benefits in ten areas:

Eight thematic areas reflecting the key work streams of the European Green Deal:

1. Increasing climate ambition
2. Clean, affordable and secure energy
3. Industry for a clean and circular economy
4. Energy and resource efficient buildings
5. Sustainable and smart mobility
6. Farm to fork
7. Biodiversity and ecosystems
8. Zero-pollution, toxic-free environments

And two horizontal areas - strengthening knowledge (9) and empowering citizens (10), which offer a longer-term perspective in achieving the transformations set out in the European Green Deal.

Area 10: Empowering citizens for the transition towards a climate neutral, sustainable Europe

The European Green Deal communication stresses that the transition towards sustainability must be just and inclusive, put people first and bring together citizens in all their diversity. This calls for citizen engagement and social innovation in all areas of the European Green Deal. This also requires ambitious cross-cutting actions to engage and empower people and communities and to support behavioural, social and cultural changes wherever this is most needed for a fair and inclusive transition, leaving no-one behind. Such actions must address change at the collective level through participatory processes and experimental research on behavioural, social and cultural change; and at an individual level by empowering citizens as actors of change, including through the co-creation of R&I contents. Activities under this area will be implemented through three different topics addressing both collective level actions (topics LC-GD-10-1-2020 and LC-GD-10-2-2020) as well as individual level actions (topic LC-GD-10-3-2020)

The budget available for area 10 is €45 million. Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

• LC-GD-10-1-2020: European capacities for citizen deliberation and participation for the Green Deal 
• LC-GD-10-2-2020: Behavioural, social and cultural change for the Green Deal
• LC-GD-10-3-2020: Enabling citizens to act on climate change, for sustainable development and environmental protection through education, citizen science, observation initiatives, and civic engagement

The RRI Tools platform has been featured in the EU Green Deal call (Area 10. Subtopic LC-GD-10-1-2020) as a success experience to build on, together with other fellow projects such as Scientix, EU-Citizen.Science, TeRRIFICA and more.

The call also includes opportunities for international cooperation in addressing the needs of less-developed nations, particularly in Africa, in the context of the Paris Agreement as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The deadline for submissions is 26 January 2021, with selected projects expected to start in autumn 2021.

For more information:

• Factsheet: Horizon 2020 European Green Deal call
• Research and innovation for the European Green Deal
• Call - Building a low-carbon, climate resilient future: Research and innovation in support of the European Green Deal (RRI Tools is featured in page 144)
• Some weeks ago (on Oct 27th 2020)  Net4Society organised a Virtual Brokerage Event on SSH related topics in the upcoming EU Green Deal Call - all presentations and info about participants looking for partners is available online