The call is relevant for cities and regions that are looking to collaborate in the forest-based sectors and facilitate concerted research and innovation actions on Europe's diverse forestry challenges, thus reducing fragmentation of related R&I. Proposals should pool the necessary financial resources from the participating national (or regional) research programmes to implement joint calls for transnational proposals resulting in grants to third parties.

The partnership should mobilise key partners and stakeholders, including ministries in charge of research, forest-related areas, and environment, funding agencies, research performing organisations, research infrastructures, foresters, industry, NGOs, international networks, etc. To achieve the international cooperation objectives, and given the global dimension of forests, collaboration with strategic third country partners with proven added value in the field of forests and forestry is strongly encouraged.

Any type of organisation can apply for Horizon Europe funding as long as they have the operational and financial capacity to carry out the tasks that they propose. For most calls for proposals, you must apply as a team of at least 3 partner organisations from 3 different EU or associated countries. At least one of the 3 partners must be from an EU country. In addition to these 3 partners, organisations from other countries might be able to join your consortium.

More information in the Horizon Europe programme guide. Further details or exceptions are listed on the pages of the call topics in the Funding & tenders portal.

The partnership should address all the following: identify R&I priorities to strengthen alignment of European and national research, development and innovation programmes and to increase their policy relevance; develop new knowledge and innovative solutions for a systemic and inclusive approach to forest and forestry challenges, looking for synergies in complementary actions and trade-offs between competing actions; reinforce the European collaboration on improving the understanding of resilience of forest ecosystems and forest-based sectors, and their underlying constituents to multiple hazards, driven by ongoing climate change and other human made impacts as a basis for adaptation and mitigation measures; strike an optimal balance in a range of forest functions and related societal values, including views of different stakeholders, thus responding to societal expectations while supporting the forest industry in a transition towards a greener and circular bioeconomy; focus on the multifunctional role and the sustainable management of forests as well as the interplay between forestry biomes, regimes and the continuous provision of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and resilience to climate change (drought, fire, pests and diseases, compound and cascading risks etc.) as well as climate adaptation; consider the cascading use of forest products and higher added value, supporting business and social enterprise development (creating employment and quality job opportunities and diversified revenue for foresters) in rural areas and industrial development in crucial sectors such as sustainable forest-based industries (traditional and emerging branches), construction, transport, and energy; stronger focus on the processes that lead to transformations toward sustainability in the forest-based and bioeconomy sector at European level, which will also be key to the forest industry´s long-term competitiveness, in Europe and globally; ensure forests and forest management monitoring to ultimately anticipate future developments, provide early alerts on disturbances (e.g., pest outbreaks and climate change driven impacts), and assess the impact of forestry practices on forest and forest soil health and conservation and local communities; increase and strengthen international cooperation to develop a critical mass in relation to the global challenges faced including climate mitigation and imported deforestation.

The total indicative budget for the topic is EUR 70.00 million. The Commission estimates that an EU contribution of around EUR 70.00 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of a proposal requesting different amounts.

1. EC publishes calls for proposals on the funding and tenders portal
2. The call is open for an usual period of ca. 5 months where applicants can submit they proposal
3. Proposals can be single or two-stage application processes. A single stage application process requires the filling in of a structured proposal of max. 45 pages including objectives and innovation approach (excellence), tangible impacts that can be achieved through the project (impact) and the project planning and tasks (quality). If a two stage, the aforementioned would be the second stage application while the first is a simplified proposal of max 10 pages including only excellence and impact sections. These documents are to be uploaded to the portal in pdf format alongside filling in the respective parts of the portal with administrative information on the beneficiares, affiliated entities or others. All participants in a project need to possess a Partipant Identification Code (i.e. PIC number, a 9-digit number registered on ECAS). For more information, please see the work programme and the call documents.
4. Proposal submitted within the deadline will be evaluated by experts against evaluation criteria.
5. Winning proposals will be invited for signing a grant agreement with the EC.

Opening: 06 May 2025
 

Deadline: 17 Sep 2025