Integrated approach for impact assessment of safe and sustainable chemicals and materials (RIA)
European Comission
ExpectedOutcome :
Proposals are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
- The stakeholder community including academia, industry, public authorities and NGOs will have access to more robust and consistent guidelines and methodologies for integrative social, economic, health and environment impact assessment;
- Industry will be enabled to make impact-based informed investment decisions for future chemicals and materials;
- Public authorities and policy makers at EU and national level will be supported in the implementation of policies, including the transition to safe and sustainable chemicals and materials through improved understanding of potential sustainability trade-offs. Scope :
The Commission initiative for Safe and Sustainable by Design[1] sets a framework for assessing safety and sustainability of chemicals and materials, which should be considered as a reference in the proposal.
Proposals should aim to develop integrated approaches for the assessment of health and environmental impacts together with the social and economic sustainability aspects of a chemical or material, all along their life-cycle. The projects should acknowledge and account for the fact that safety and sustainability of a chemical or material are the result of a mix of intrinsic properties (dependent only on the chemical or material itself) and extrinsic properties (dependent on how the chemical or material is produced or used, and in which quantity and resulting exposures). The proposals should also aim to foster the acceptance and effective uptake of the developed approaches within different sectors. The developed methodologies should support and facilitate decision making when having to weight multiple sustainability criteria against each other. The developed methodologies should contribute to the estimation of health, environmental as well as social and economic impacts at EU and global scale.
Proposals should consider all the following activities:
- Select chemicals/group of chemicals/(advanced)materials for which they will develop an integrated approach for health, environment, social and economic impact assessments and justify this selection in view of their societal relevance;
- Development of methodologies and associated guidelines for integrated health, environment, social and economic impact assessments. Existing life cycle methodologies should be built on;
- Identification of data gaps and data availability along the value chain as regards all relevant sustainability dimensions (environmental, health, social and economic factors) for the targeted substance/group of substances and in particular identification and monetization of externalities arising during the life cycle of a chemical or a material;
- Identification and engagement of all relevant stakeholders along the value chain to take into account the existence of conflicting interests and potential impacts affecting differently each of them. Foster a shared support and agreement on developed methodologies;
- Develop a demonstration of the integrated approach, which can contribute towards its effective acceptance and implementation by different stakeholders;
- Delivery of FAIR[2] data and methodologies including results obtained from applying the methodologies to allow for further testing of the methodologies, enhance acceptance and their wider applications.
Proposals submitted under this topic should demonstrate synergies with the EU-funded projects from the topic CE-NMBP-42-2020 and the forthcoming topic HORIZON-CL4-2023-RESILIENCE-01-21. In addition, collaboration with the European Partnership on Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC)[3] with regards to their task on delivering the SSbD toolbox is encouraged. Concerning health impact assessment, projects are encouraged to establish synergies with projects resulting from the topic HORIZON-HLTH-2022-ENVHLTH-04-01. Proposals should allocate the necessary resources for collaboration with the above-mentioned relevant projects.
Proposals should indicate to which chapters of the Strategic Research and Innovation Plan for chemicals and materials[4] they will contribute.
Proposals should involve appropriate expertise in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), in particular in social and economic assessments, to achieve efficient integration of techno-economic, safety and life cycle assessment.
Co-operation with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) may be envisaged in areas of mutual interest with regards to methods development and their wider uptake.
Synergies with Horizon Europe missions as relevant are encouraged.
Specific Topic Conditions :
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 2-5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
[1]See documents defining the SSbD framework on: https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/advanced-materials-and-chemicals_en
[2]Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable
[3]https://www.anses.fr/en/content/european-partnership-assessment-risks-chemicals-parc
[4]https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/advanced-materials-and-chemicals_en
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 Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding.
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.
Specific conditions
- Specific conditions: described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) — will be used with the necessary adaptations
HE General MGA v1.0 — MGA
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space
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