European partnership of Agriculture of Data
European Comission
ExpectedOutcome :
A successful proposal will contribute to the objectives of the Agriculture of Data partnership proposal including the strategic research and innovation agenda. This partnership aims to enhance climate, environmental and socio-economic sustainability and productivity of agriculture and to strengthen policy monitoring and evaluation capacities through exploiting the potential of Earth and environmental observation and other data, in combination with data technologies.
Proposals are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes (as listed in the partnership document[1]):
- Increased sharing and harmonisation of data across different actors (e.g. scientists, technicians, policymakers, practitioners, businesses, farmers, end users) and countries based to the extent possible on FAIR [2] data principles, and exploitation of synergies through better integration of the digital Earth, environmental observation, space observation and agricultural communities within Europe, transforming both the R&I and economic systems to deliver more and better data-based solutions to the end users;
- Increased environmental, climate and socio-economical sustainability performance of the agriculture sector;
- Enhanced contribution from the agriculture sector to the important need for protecting the environment, halting and, if possible, reversing biodiversity loss in Europe and globally, as well as to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture;
- Enabling the sector and strengthen its capacity to adapt to climate change and to meet the objectives set by sustainability-related policies, considering e.g. risk analyses/indicators, such as environmental, technical, economic or social risks;
- Contribution to creating structures and/or its concept under the umbrella of the partnership Agriculture of Data that includes data infrastructure needed to provide data-based solutions for both policy-making and the agriculture sector (including to strengthening the sector’s economic performance);
- Strengthened capacities to evaluate the effectiveness of policies (with reference to agriculture, environmental- and market-related policies and the combined potential effects of them). Scope :
Sustainable agricultural production and policy monitoring needs can be supported through the provision of tailored data and data-based solutions; especially, through Earth/environmental observation and in combination with other data and data technologies. At the same time, the agricultural sector at farm level produces data during digitalised farming practises, as also does the public administration. This data can be capitalised to strengthen capacities of the agricultural sector in the public and the private domains. Integrating different sources of data, for instance Copernicus[3] data, precision farming data, Integrated Administration Control System (IACS[4])-data and other reference data, would lead to even more relevant information in this context and provide scope for the development, delivery and uptake of agri-digitalisation products and services, such as decision-making support systems.
Proposals should pool the necessary financial resources from the participating national (or regional) research programmes with a view to implementing joint calls for transnational proposals resulting in grants to third parties.
The successful proposal should:
- Exploit the potential of public and private data, including in the combination with data technologies (including AI) for the agricultural sector in the public and private domain;
- Build on results of existing (ongoing or finished) initiatives and projects;
- Foster EU-wide solutions, scaling up[5] of use-cases and applications close to deployment stage;
- Develop data-based solutions and digital applications in support of achieving the expected impacts of the partnership;
- Consider the necessary technical systemic elements related to e.g. digital and data infrastructure and interoperability;
- Demonstrate how the expected result contribute to the European Green Deal objectives and the ambition of better policy-making[6];
- Demonstrate how it will align to the ongoing work of the Horizon Europe partnership on Agriculture of Data and the projects granted under call HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-11: Upscaling (real-time) sensor data for EU-wide monitoring of production and agri-environmental conditions[7].
A successful proposal is expected to explore the potential for achieving synergies with relevant topics/ projects, partnerships and/ or missions particularly within Cluster 6 and Cluster 4 of the Horizon Europe programme, as well as with the digital Europe programme, the EU space programme and the common agricultural policy.
The strategic research and innovation agenda for the partnership on agriculture of data will give further guidance on possible specific elements to be addressed within the proposal.
The Commission envisages to include new actions in its future work programmes to provide continued support to the partnership for the duration of Horizon Europe.
Specific Topic Conditions :
The total indicative budget for the duration of the partnership is EUR 100 million.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/research_and_innovation/funding/documents/ec_rtd_he-partnership-agriculture-data.pdf
[2] https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/
[3] https://www.copernicus.eu/en
[4] https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/key-policies/common-agricultural-policy/financing-cap/financial-assurance/managing-payments_en
[5] Scaling up should be considered as both the scaling up in TRL or scaling up in geographical outreach
[6] https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/planning-and-proposing-law/better-regulation-why-and-how_en
[7] https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl6-2022-governance-01-11
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
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).
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
The funding rate is 30% of the eligible costs.
Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. As financial support provided by the participants to third parties is one of the primary activities of this action in order to be able to achieve its objectives, the 60 000 EUR threshold provided for in Article 204 (a) of the Financial Regulation No 2018/1046 does not apply. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 10 000 000 for the whole duration of Horizon Europe.
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 COFUND)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE COFUND)
MGA
Call-specific instructions
Information on financial support to third parties (HE)
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