Better understanding, anticipating and addressing the biodiversity benefits and impacts of the clean and digital industries

Horizon Europe call HORIZON-NATURE-2027-01-02. Type of action:Research and Innovation Actions (RIA). Grant modality: Horizon Lump Sum Grant. Single-stage submission. Deadline: 14 January 2027, 17:00 Brussels time.

What it funds:Transdisciplinary projects that develop decision-support tools, typologies, spatialised scenarios and mitigation/testing solutions to assess and reduce biodiversity impacts and enhance benefits from Europe’s clean industrial and digital transitions (including supporting infrastructures such as mining, grid, transport, data centres). Projects must cover at least three EU/Associated Country biogeographical regions and analyse a minimum of five different industrial activities at ISIC/NACE division level.

Who can apply:Consortia led by legal entities eligible for Horizon Europe (research organisations, universities, SMEs, large industry, public authorities, NGOs). Projects must include industrial partners, local authorities and civil society; integrate social sciences and humanities expertise; and ensure transdisciplinary capacity and multi-country coverage.

Typical award size and budget:Indicative topic budget: €18,000,000 (2026). Expected EU contribution per project: around €6,000,000. Indicative number of grants: 3.

Key eligibility and preparation notes:follow Horizon Europe General Annexes for admissibility, eligible countries, evaluation and lump-sum rules; prepare evidence of financial/operational capacity and justify consortium composition, geographical coverage and selection of at least five ISIC/NACE industrial activities. Refer to the Funding & Tenders Portal topic page for submission and templates Topic page. 1

Call identifier:HORIZON-NATURE. Programme: Horizon Europe. Call title: Transformative change towards a nature-positive economy and society. Type of action: HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (RIA). Type of model grant agreement: HORIZON Lump Sum Grant (HORIZON-AG-LS). Planned opening date: 13 October 2026. Deadline / cut-off: 14 January 2027, 17:00 Brussels time. Submission procedure: single-stage, open call via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Submission system will provide the application form and Part B page limits as described in the Portal.

Indicative budget and expected contribution:Topic total indicative budget: €18 000 000 (budget year 2026). Expected EU contribution per funded project: around €6 000 000. Indicative number of grants for this topic: 3.

Expected outcomes:Proposals must contribute to all three headline outcomes: 1) society, end-users, industry and decision makers better understand, anticipate and address biodiversity impacts of Europe’s reindustrialisation and decarbonisation across the full value chain (from demand-side and design/operation to end-of-life and waste); 2) understanding of benefits and impacts on biodiversity of societal, political, economic and technological choices including direct, indirect, cumulative, spatial and temporal dimensions to avoid burden-shifting across ecosystems, regions and value chains; 3) clean and digital industries become more resilient and provided with solutions to mitigate impacts on terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems and work towards a nature-positive economy, aligned with the EU Taxonomy and the Do No Significant Harm principle.

Scope and research priorities:the topic targets Europe-based industries relevant to the Clean Industrial Deal and the digital and AI industry together with their supporting physical infrastructures (transport, energy production and electricity grid, mining, extractive and mineral processing, data centres, etc.). Data-intensive industries including intellectual property and copyright industries should be supported to assess biodiversity impacts of digital production and consumption. Proposals must support EU policies including the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the Critical Raw Materials Act, the Clean Industrial Deal roadmap, and help stakeholders comply with EIA, SEA, the Nature Directives, EU Taxonomy, TEN-E and TEN-T regulations.

Type of action and MGA:Research & Innovation Actions (RIA) under Horizon Europe. Projects funded under this topic will be subject to the Lump Sum model (HORIZON-AG-LS). Eligible costs will take the form of lump sums as defined in the Decision authorising lump sums under Horizon Europe. Applicants must use the application form in the Submission System; Part B page limits and layout are described in the application form and Work Programme General Annexes.

Submission and procedure:Submission via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal using the standard HE RIA application form. Single-stage evaluation. Standard evaluation criteria and thresholds described in the Work Programme General Annexes (Annex D for award criteria, Annex F for submission and evaluation procedures).

Admissibility and eligibility details:Applicants must follow the general admissibility, eligible country lists, financial/operational capacity and exclusion rules as described in Horizon Europe General Annexes (Annex A, B, C). Some third countries may be eligible only under specific conditions – consult the Programme Guide and General Annexes.

Eligible applicant types:The topic targets multi-stakeholder consortia including research organisations, universities, research institutes, industry (large enterprises and SMEs), non-profit organisations, NGOs and civil society organisations, public authorities and local authorities, and other relevant actors. Industrial partners and data-intensive sector participants are explicitly expected to be part of consortia. Legal entities from EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries are eligible according to Annex B of the Work Programme; specific third-country participation rules apply as described in the Programme Guide.

Expected project outputs and deliverables include:typologies and typology database (linked to ENCORE), AESA-based sustainability assessments and guidance, spatial scenario products and maps, system dynamics models and lifecycle accounting outputs, cost-benefit and trade-off analyses, decision-support tools and operational toolkits for industry and policymakers, policy briefs and recommendations, pilot results demonstrating measurable biodiversity improvements, data management plan and open datasets where applicable, and active participation in the project cluster and joint activities.

Data, standards and references to be used:Applicants should build on and interoperate with ENCORE (UNEP), EEA biogeographical regions dataset for spatial coverage, ISIC / NACE classifications for industrial activities, and the JRC guidance for AESA. Projects should support stakeholders in meeting EIA/SEA/Nature Directives, EU Taxonomy and other relevant EU frameworks and may cooperate with Clean Industrial Deal projects funded under Horizon calls. Key reference materials are listed in the topic text and Work Programme documents. 2 1 3

Funding type:grant (Horizon Europe lump sum grant under RIA). Funding is provided as lump sum contributions per project according to the Lump Sum Decision for Horizon Europe. The Work Programme indicates the expected EU contribution per project (around €6 000 000) and the total topic budget (€18 000 000). The lump sum approach means eligible activities are funded by agreed lump sum amounts and reporting focuses on delivering the planned outputs and milestones rather than detailed unit-cost claims. Guidance on lump sums and detailed budget tables is provided in the Portal reference documents.

Co-funding requirement:Horizon RIA grants typically do not require additional mandatory co-funding from beneficiaries beyond consortium contributions in-kind or cash; projects must justify resources and feasibility. No specific co-funding percentage is requested in the topic text. Specific consortium contributions and resource commitments should be clearly described in the application and in the business/operational plans.

Consortium requirement:A multi‑partner transdisciplinary consortium is expected. The topic emphasises the effective contribution of industrial partners, institutions, civil society and SSH disciplines. Although the Work Programme General Annexes list eligibility rules, this topic expects consortia capable of testing and operationalising recommendations in real-world conditions; therefore multiple partners across sectors and countries are required to deliver the scope and pilots described.

Project stage / expected maturity:Projects are RIA-level research and innovation activities. They are expected to progress from research and development through validation/demonstration in operational settings and deliver deployable decision-support tools and piloted mitigation measures. They should be capable of producing results that directly inform deployment and compliance with policy instruments (i.e., beyond pure early-stage theory).

Application type:open call via the Funding & Tenders Portal. Single-stage submission. Use the application form available in the Submission System (Part A and Part B). Evaluation will use standard HE RIA evaluation templates adapted for this topic (excellence, impact, quality and efficiency of implementation).

Application templates and structure guidance:Applicants must complete the Portal application form. Part B (technical description) must cover: objectives and alignment with expected outcomes; state-of-the-art and innovation beyond it; methodology and work plan with work packages; transdisciplinary approach and SSH integration; pilot and operational testing plans; consortium roles and involvement of industrial/local partners; data management and FAIR principles; clustering and joint activities with other projects; dissemination, exploitation, communication plan including business plan and market-readiness strategy for applicable outputs; risk assessment and go/no-go decision milestones; and detailed lump-sum based work package deliverables and milestones.

Application stages:single-stage submission followed by external expert evaluation (remote and/or panel review) according to Horizon Europe procedures. Successful projects will enter grant preparation and signature, then project implementation, reviews and interim reporting linked to lump sum payments and deliverables.

Number of stages to obtain funding:1 (single-stage call) plus grant preparation / negotiation stage following selection. Evaluation thresholds and scoring are those in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Success rates:not specified in the topic text. Success rates will depend on number and quality of submissions and available budget. The Work Programme indicates an indicative number of grants (3) and the topic budget. Historical success rates for Horizon RIA topics vary widely and cannot be reliably stated here.

Key mandatory references and resources:EEA Biogeographical regions dataset for spatial coverage, ENCORE for industry-nature exposure typologies, ISIC/NACE for industrial classification, JRC guidance on AESA for absolute sustainability assessments, and the EC Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity for policy interaction. Applicants must consult the Work Programme General Annexes and the Funding & Tenders Portal reference documents for full templates and legal conditions. 1 2 3 4

Key applicant requirements and expectations:The consortium should ensure geographical coverage across at least three EU or Associated Country biogeographical regions, address at least five industrial activities at ISIC division or NACE level, build on ENCORE, and use methods such as Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment, natural capital accounting, lifecycle analysis and system dynamics modelling where appropriate.