|GRANTWAY
EN

Environmental impacts of food systems

European Comission

Share
Favorite
Feedback
Summary
17 October 2023
22 February 2024
-
-
-
For profit
Individuals
Not for profit (incl. NGOs)
Public sector
R&D and Higher Education
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Angola
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bonaire
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Colombia
Comoros
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Curaçao
Cyprus
Czechia
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Polynesia
French Southern and Antarctic Territories
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kosovo
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Micronesia
Moldova
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Caledonia
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Korea
North Macedonia
Norway
Pakistan
Palestine
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Republic of Côte d'Ivoire
Republic of the Congo
Romania
Rwanda
Saba
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Sint Maarten
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
St. Eustatius
St. Pierre and Miquelon
Sudan
Suriname
Sweden
Syria
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Tonga
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
UK
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam
Wallis and Futuna
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Research, Development and Innovation Natural Sciences
Overview

ExpectedOutcome :

The food sector contributes to food security but is also responsible for air, water and soil pollution. It can contribute to biodiversity loss, soil erosion and climate change, and it consumes excessive amounts of natural resources, including water and energy, while a significant amount of food is wasted. In supporting the implementation of the European Green Deal, the EU zero pollution action plan, the farm to fork strategy, the European climate pact, the common agricultural policy and the common fisheries policy and the Food 2030 initiative, the successful proposal should address all of the following outcomes:

  • Increased overall knowledge of the environmental and climate impacts stemming from the food systems, including potential trade-offs/synergies with other sustainability aspects (environmental, social, economic).
  • Robust evidence-based understanding of the impacts of food systems related to direct and indirect soil, water and air pollution that drive biodiversity losses, soil erosion, climate change and can negatively affect human health.
  • Improved capacity to reduce the environmental and climate impacts of food systems, particularly in relation to pollution.
  • Support to actors across the food systems through new available knowledge, shared existing data on environmental and climate impacts of food systems and identification of innovative solutions. Scope :

There is an increasing understanding of the impacts related to the green-house gas (GHG) emissions stemming from food systems. Around one third of human-caused GHG emissions worldwide originate from food systems.[1] A similar share of emissions is also recorded in Europe. Although the largest share of the GHG emissions and other relevant environmental impacts can be attributed to the primary food production (or harvesting in the case of fisheries), a significant amount of food-related environmental impacts is also generated in post-production and post-harvest processes along food supply chains. However, when considering wider environmental and climate impacts of food systems, more information is needed to understand these impacts, particularly when it comes to pollution stemming from food processing, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, trade, consumption (including emerging food consumption trends, such as products of alternative diets), food waste and end of life practices.

The relevant data covering these latter industries or practices are often less available and/ or accessible compared to the agricultural data, for example through the CAP indicators. At the same time, knowledge gaps also exist when it comes to environmental impacts of primary food production and harvesting. Therefore, the successful proposal should fill the relevant knowledge and data gaps. It should explain how it will deliver co-benefits to some of the Food 2030 priorities: climate, biodiversity and environment, circularity and resource efficiency, innovation and empowering communities. The data should be aligned with, and support the relevant objectives of the upcoming Sustainable food system framework initiative.[2]

Proposals are expected to:

  • Collect relevant qualitative and quantitative data on environmental and climate impacts related to water, air and soil pollution stemming from the food systems, biodiversity losses, climate change and negative impacts on human health, as well as data on freshwater consumption, soil erosion, resource and energy efficiency of food production and supply practices.
  • Increase the accessibility of relevant high quality life cycle inventory data according to FAIR principles and the EU’s open science policy by setting up actions to develop, review and make available existing databases.
  • Provide new data based on requirements for Environmental Footprint compliant datasets[3] and in line with the 2021 Recommendation on the use of the Environmental Footprint methods[4].
  • Assess the environmental impacts of food systems from a life-cycle perspective, using the Environmental Footprint methods.
  • Identify and map opportunities and innovative solutions, including existing good practices that address the identified impacts and promote the uptake of sustainable food production (including harvesting) and/ or food supply practices, including consumption practices, with minimum impact.
  • Identify and map opportunities and innovative solutions, including existing good practices, that maximise synergies among the three dimensions of sustainability (i.e. environmental – including climate and biodiversity, economic, social - including health), different sectors, as well as actors across the food systems (from production/ harvesting to consumption), minimising trade-offs and reducing pollution as well as other environmental and climate impacts in food systems as a whole.
  • Implement the multi-actor approach by involving a wide range of food system actors and conducting inter-disciplinary research.
  • In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is encouraged.
  • Where relevant, build on and expand the results of past and ongoing research projects and collaborate with relevant initiatives.

This topic has strong links with destinations “biodiversity and ecosystem services”, “fair, healthy and environment-friendly food systems from primary production to consumption” and “circular economy and bioeconomy sectors”.

[1] Crippa, M., Solazzo, E., Guizzardi, D. et al. Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nat Food 2, 198–209 (2021).

[2] See f2f_legis_iia_fsfs_5902055.pdf (europa.eu)

[3] See JRC Publications Repository - Guide for EF compliant data sets (europa.eu).

[4] Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/2279 of 15 December 2021 on the use of the Environmental Footprint methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations C/2021/9332, OJ L 471, 30.12.2021, p. 1–396 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32021H2279.

Eligibility

General conditions

  1. 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

  1. 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 .

  1. 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.

  1. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes

  2. 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

  1. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes

Specific conditions

  1. 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 RIA, IA)

Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations

Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)

MGA

HE General MGA v1.0

Additional documents:

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 9. Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes

HE Programme Guide

HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695

HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764

EU Financial Regulation

Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment

EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement

Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual

Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions

Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Learn more or apply
All information about this funding has been collected from and belongs to the funding organization
21 February 2024