The call is relevant for cities and regions that are looking to develop suitable indicators for measuring the progress and level of circularity in local communities, households, or in value chains at different company levels, as well as associated impacts. As awareness of circular economy principles grows, an increasing number of economic actors are beginning to adopt circularity indicators, whether for internal decision-making or to communicate with business partners, clients, and the broader public. Despite this growing interest, a formal and harmonized monitoring system at the microeconomic level is still lacking.
 

The call asks projects to establish such indicators to support more consistent tracking, comparison, and promotion of circular practices across Europe, ultimately reinforcing the transition to a sustainable and resilient economy. Project results will be of relevance for the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI). Projects are therefore strongly encouraged to organise joint activities, ensure synergies and undertake clustering activities with CCRI projects and the CCRI CSO.

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.

Projects should develop and test a set or several sets of simple and meaningful indicators for monitoring of progress towards circular economy at the level of individual economic agents, i.e., in cities and regions, in households, or at different company levels. These indicators should allow circularity monitoring for the addressed entities, but also help public administration and financial institutions in their decision-finding in support of circularity transition measures.

Proposals should test the operability of these indicators in the public/private investor environment, or in municipal/regional governance. Proposals should also thematise reasons for and benefits from the use of these circularity indicators and present convincing arguments. Proposals should take a lifecycle perspective and consider available instruments such as the consumption footprint indicator.

The total indicative budget for the topic is EUR 8.00 million. The Commission estimates that an EU contribution of around EUR 4.00 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