Developing EU advisory networks on the optimal fertiliser use
European Comission
ExpectedOutcome :
In support of the European Green Deal, common agricultural policy (CAP), and biodiversity strategies’, the zero pollution action plan objectives and targets, and the sustainable carbon cycles communication, the successful proposal will focus on advisor exchanges across the EU in order to increase the speed of knowledge creation and sharing, capacity building, demonstration of innovative solutions, as well as helping to bring them into practice, which accelerates the needed transitions. Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS), in which advisors play a central role, are key drivers to speed up innovation and the uptake of research results by farmers.
Transformative changes such as the changes required within the European Green Deal are dynamic processes that require appropriate governance of AKIS actors. Advisors are key actors with a strong role in guiding and with a big influence on producers’ decisions. A novelty in the post-2020 CAP plans[1] is that advisors must now be integrated within the Member States’ AKIS, and that the scope of their actions has become much broader. They must be able to cover economic, environmental and social domains, as well as be up-to-date on science and innovation. They should be able to translate this knowledge into opportunities, and use and adapt this knowledge to specific local circumstances. This specific topic focuses on the important role advisors can play in relation to the soaring fertilizer prices and the ambition of the of the farm to fork and biodiversity strategies for 2030 to reduce nutrient losses to the environment from both organic and mineral fertilizers by at least 50%; and hence reduce the use of fertilisers by at least 20%, while ensuring no deterioration in soil fertility.
Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
- Progress towards the most urgent policy objectives linked to Cluster 6, as well as the European Green Deal, and in particular the farm to fork strategy, the new CAP, the sustainable carbon cycles communication, with a view to increasing the sustainability of farming, helping to raise awareness and tackling societal challenges, including climate change, and helping to reduce nutrient losses and thereby the use of fertilisers;
- Substitution of mineral fertilisers with sustainable, affordable high-quality bio-based alternatives from different residue and waste streams;
- Support to the CAP cross-cutting objective of modernising the sector by fostering and sharing knowledge, innovation and digitalisation in agriculture and rural areas, and encouraging their uptake[2];
- Development of interaction with regional policymakers and of a potential EU network to discuss institutional challenges to the reduction of nutrient losses and the use of fertilisers in practice, such as bottlenecks, lock-ins, political inertia, ambiguous regulations, inequality between Member States and power imbalances;
- Production of supporting services and materials to facilitate the reduction of nutrient losses and the use of fertilisers, including knowledge networks and peer-to-peer counselling, master classes, advice modules, communication and education materials, effective business models for farm management with less fertilisers, and other risk mitigation tools and measures, etc.;
- Speed up of the introduction, spread and implementation in practice of innovative solutions related to fertiliser use and measures to reduce nutrient losses overall, in particular by:
- creating added value by better linking research, education, advisors and farming practice and encouraging the wider use of available knowledge across the EU;
- learning from innovation actors and projects, resulting in faster sharing and implementation of ready-to-use innovative solutions, spreading them to practitioners and communicating to the scientific community the bottom-up research needs of practice. Scope :
Proposals should address the following activities:
- Connect advisors possessing a broad and extensive network of farmers across all EU Member States in an EU advisory network dedicated to the reduction of nutrient losses and optimal use of fertilisers, including bio-based fertilisers and farming techniques which support a sustainable nutrient management, including carbon farming, with a view to sharing experiences on how to best tackle the issues, building on the outcomes of the related EIP-AGRI focus groups and workshops as well as the Horizon 2020 projects and thematic networks.
- Share among the EU advisory network effective and novel approaches to the reduction of nutrient losses and the use of fertilisers, which are sustainable in terms of economic, environmental and social aspects.
- Fill gaps on emerging advisory topics beyond the classical sectoral advice, which is useful in particular in relation with the new obligation for Member States to integrate advisors within their AKIS and their obligation to cover a much broader scope than in the past.
- Provide overall support related to knowledge creation, organisation and sharing.
- Take strong account of cost-benefit elements. Collect and document good examples in this regard, connecting with farmers, intermediates and consumers in Member States to be able to take into account financial aspects and local conditions. Select the best practices, learn about the key success factors, possible quick wins and make them available for (local) exploitation, to ensure financial win-wins for producers, citizens and intermediate actors.
- Integrate the advisors within the EU network on the reduction of nutrient losses and the use of fertilisers into their MS AKIS as much as possible. As innovation brokers they should encourage innovative projects on low-input sustainable farming systems in EIP Operational Groups. They should give hands-on training to farmers and local advisors, lead national thematic and learning networks on the subject, deliver and implement action plans to make farming activities more efficient, reduce farmers’ yield losses, inspire new and incoming farmers or farms at the cross-roads of intergenerational renewal, connect with education and ensure broad communication, support peer-to-peer consulting, develop on-farm demonstrations and demo films distributed widely via social media, and provide specific back-office support for generalist advisors within the national/regional AKIS.
- Explore if the activities of the EU advisory network on the reduction of nutrient losses and use of fertilisers can be scaled up at the level of a number of Member States under a cooperative format. Wherever possible, develop digital advisory tools for common use across the EU. Determine whether common tools can be created to incentivise the implementation of the learnings from this project.
- Include all 27 EU Member States in the EU advisory network, using local AKIS connections which can more accurately interpret the national/regional contexts to help develop the best solutions for that Member State or region. Use the support of the Member States’ knowledge and innovation experts of the SCAR-AKIS Strategic Working Group to discuss project strategy and progress in the various stages of the 2 projects.
- Projects should run at least 5 years. They must implement the multi-actor approach, with a majority of partners being farming advisors with solid field experience.
- Provide all outcomes and materials to the European Innovation Partnership 'Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability' (EIP-AGRI), including in the common 'practice abstract' format for EU wide dissemination, as well as to national/regional/local AKIS channels and to the EU-wide interactive knowledge reservoir (HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-24) in the requested formats.
Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, with a majority of partners being farming advisors active in fertiliser use and with frequent field expertise. Proposals should capitalise and build on the outputs of relevant EIP-AGRI Operational Groups, EIP-AGRI Focus Groups and EIP-AGRI networking activities, as well as those of the Horizon 2020 Thematic Networks related to the reduction of nutrient losses and the use of fertilisers. Proposals should also build on the results of past/ongoing research projects and thematic networks.
[1] Art 13(2) of the post 2020 CAP regulation.
[2] Art 5 CAP post 2020 proposal.
General conditions
- Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System
- Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide .
- Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
The following additional eligibility criteria apply: The proposals must use the multi-actor approach. See definition of the multi-actor approach in the introduction to this Work Programme part.
Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes
Evaluation and award:
Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes
Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes
- Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].
Specific conditions
- Specific conditions: described in the specific topic of the Work Programme
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE CSA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE CSA)
MGA
Call-specific instructions
Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?"
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual