Copernicus Anthropogenic CO₂ Emissions Monitoring & Verification Support (CO2MVS) capacity: new and innovative methods to estimate the impact of fires on vegetation and related carbon fluxes

The Horizon Europe grant opportunity titled "Copernicus Anthropogenic CO₂ Emissions Monitoring & Verification Support (CO2MVS) capacity: new and innovative methods to estimate the impact of fires on vegetation and related carbon fluxes," identified as HORIZON-CL4-2025-02-SPACE-43, aims to enhance the Copernicus program’s capability in monitoring carbon emissions, particularly focusing on how fires impact vegetation and carbon fluxes.

Eligible applicants include research institutions, universities, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises, and consortia from EU member states, associated countries, and other relevant international partners. This opportunity is structured as a Horizon Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA) and operates under a lump-sum grant model.

The funding amounts to a total budget of €10 million, with expectations for approximately €10 million per project. The application process is a single-stage open call, set to start on May 22, 2025, and closing on September 25, 2025.

The projects under this grant are aimed at improving the understanding and characterization of the effects of wildfires on the carbon cycle and anthropogenic emissions, enhancing fire risk forecasting and carbon measurements within the Copernicus services. Key objectives include refining fire vegetation models, investigating the interplay between droughts and fires, and improving the estimation of fire emissions and air quality.

No co-funding is explicitly required due to the lump-sum grant nature, and success rates are viewed as competitive, likely under 10%. The grant encourages proposals to facilitate the transition from research to operational activities, with a focus on making developed software open-licensed.

Moreover, the participation of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) may be involved to provide resources, operational insights, and testing for new developments in the project. The call also mentions the importance of gender dimension integration relevant to the research objectives.

Overall, this funding opportunity emphasizes advancing climate science, particularly in the realms of environmental monitoring and data-powered solutions, aligning with the priorities of the Horizon Europe initiative.

The EU Funding and Tenders Portal presents a Horizon Europe call for proposals titled "Copernicus Anthropogenic CO₂ Emissions Monitoring & Verification Support (CO2MVS) capacity: new and innovative methods to estimate the impact of fires on vegetation and related carbon fluxes" with the topic ID HORIZON-CL4-2025-02-SPACE-43.

The call falls under the Horizon Europe (HORIZON) program, specifically the SPACE-HADEA (HORIZON-CL4-2025-02) call. It is a HORIZON Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA) and utilizes the HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS] model grant agreement.

The call is currently open for submission with a single-stage deadline. The opening date is May 22, 2025, and the deadline for submission is September 25, 2025, at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The expected outcomes of the projects should contribute to: Enabling accounting for the interaction between droughts, fires, and vegetation in the CO2MVS capacity. Improving the estimation of fire emissions in the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). Improving the fire risk forecasting in the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS). Improving the assimilation of Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) products in vegetation fire impact and carbon fluxes assessments.

The scope of the call includes research and innovation activities to: Better understand and characterise the impact of wildfires on the carbon cycle and on anthropogenic emissions through land use change. Investigate the current state of fire modelling and how the interaction between droughts, fires, and vegetation can be accounted for in a global monitoring system, such as the CO2MVS. Investigate how a better understanding of the impact of fires on vegetation can improve the estimates of fire emissions of chemical species and aerosols, and subsequently air quality products in CAMS and the fire risk forecasting in CEMS.

The areas of R&I to address the above expected outcomes include: Better understand and characterise the impact of wildfires on the carbon cycle and on anthropogenic emissions through land use change. This has been recognized especially in the climate community when developing process-based vegetation models for use in climate models. While a large variety of empirical or process-based vegetation models exist today, it is still unclear which type of model or degree of complexity is required to model fire adequately at regional to global scales. International collaborations, such as the Fire Model Intercomparison Project (FireMIP), have evaluated existing global fire models against benchmark data sets for present-day and historical conditions. Investigate the current state of fire modelling and specifically how the interaction between droughts, fires and vegetation can be accounted for in a global monitoring system, such as the CO2MVS. Because of the monitoring aspects of the CO2MVS, use should be made, where possible, of including observation-based data sets representing certain aspects of the fire-vegetation interaction. Investigate how a better understanding of the impact of fires on vegetation can improve the estimates of fire emissions of chemical species and aerosols, and subsequently air quality products in CAMS and the fire risk forecasting in CEMS. Wildfires have become widespread during summer over many regions of the world, including Europe, and have major safety and larger societal impacts (air quality and health, aviation, weather, agriculture, etc). Wildfires and biomass burning are significant sources of CO2 and air pollutants in the atmosphere. Fires also change the vegetation and therefore affect the exchange of CO2 between the biosphere and the atmosphere. Current vegetation and fire models need to be improved to refine the quality of CAMS products (air quality, emissions), the Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) supporting CEMS and forcing data sets for climate projections supporting the IPCC. Innovative methodologies should be investigated to include fire-vegetation interactions, also taking into account the impact of drought conditions in global monitoring systems such as the CO2MVS capacity, via the improvement of currently used process-based vegetation models or through empirical models. The use of relevant observation-based data sets (e.g. vegetation states, drought conditions, burnt areas) should be a key element of these methodologies. Current CLMS products should be considered, including options for potential improved specifications. The proposal should include some demonstrations of downstream applications that would benefit from these improvements.

The transfer of research results to operations should receive active attention during the project to strengthen the readiness for an operational deployment in the future. Appropriate involvement and/or interaction with, and/or coordination across the relevant Entrusted Entities of the Copernicus services, the conditions for making available, for re-using and exploiting the results (including IPR) by the said entities must be addressed during the project implementation. Software should be open licensed.

The possible participation of the JRC may consist in (1) ensuring access to relevant models, tools and datasets of the operational CEMS, (2) providing a good understanding of existing operational workflows for CEMS and advice regarding the operational feasibility of new developments and (3) testing of new developments/prototypes for CEMS in a pre-operational setting.

In this topic, the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content should be addressed only if relevant in relation to the objectives of the research effort.

Admissibility conditions include proposal page limits and layout as described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and Part B of the Application Form. Eligible countries are 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. Other eligible conditions include the use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS for projects using satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a member of the consortium.

Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria are described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. The granting authority can fund a maximum of one project. Evaluation and 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. The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: 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), described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes, and the specific topic of the Work Programme.

Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA) details are provided, including links to the application form, evaluation form, HE Programme Guide, Lump Sum MGA, call-specific instructions, detailed budget table, and guidance on lump sums. Additional documents include references to the HE Main Work Programme, HE Framework Programme, HE Specific Programme Decision, EU Financial Regulation, decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions, rules for legal entity validation, EU Grants AGA, Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual, and related terms and conditions and privacy statements.

The budget overview lists various SPACE topics under the HORIZON-CL4-2025-02 call, including their budget, stage, opening date, deadline, contributions, and indicative number of grants.

Partner search announcements indicate 15 searches for partners to collaborate on this topic.

The call aims to improve the understanding and modelling of wildfires and their impact on the carbon cycle, atmospheric emissions, and vegetation, leveraging data from the Copernicus program. It seeks innovative methodologies to enhance fire-vegetation interactions in global monitoring systems, ultimately improving climate projections and risk forecasting. The call encourages the transfer of research results to operational services and promotes open-source software. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate by providing access to models, tools, and datasets, offering expertise on operational workflows, and testing new developments. The call emphasizes the integration of the gender dimension where relevant to the research objectives. The funding is provided as a lump sum, and the call is open to eligible countries, with specific provisions for non-EU/non-associated countries.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated, but based on the nature of Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Innovation Actions (IA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA), eligible applicants can include universities, research institutes, SMEs, large enterprises, and other relevant organizations from eligible countries. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a member of the consortium.

Funding Type: The funding type is primarily a grant, specifically a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant. The call includes HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-RIA), HORIZON Innovation Actions (HORIZON-IA) and HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (HORIZON-CSA).

Consortium Requirement: The opportunity appears to require a consortium, as the Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a member of the consortium. Partner search announcements are available.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): Eligible countries are 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.

Target Sector: The target sector is space, specifically related to Copernicus Anthropogenic CO2 Emissions Monitoring & Verification Support (CO2MVS) capacity, climate, environment, agriculture, and remote sensing. The focus is on improving fire vegetation models, drought conditions, burnt areas, vegetation states, and related carbon fluxes.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity mentions Europe and non-EU/non-Associated Countries.

Project Stage: The project stage is geared towards research, development, and demonstration, with an emphasis on transferring research results to operations. Therefore, the project stage includes research, development, validation, and demonstration.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific action:
HORIZON-CSA: around EUR 1,000,000
HORIZON-RIA: EUR 500,000 to EUR 17,500,000
HORIZON-IA: EUR 5,000,000 to EUR 11,000,000

Application Type: The application type is an open call with a single-stage submission process.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a lump sum grant.

Application Stages: The application process involves a single stage.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned.

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding requirements are not explicitly mentioned.

Summary: This Horizon Europe call, under the SPACE-HADEA program, focuses on enhancing the Copernicus Anthropogenic CO2 Emissions Monitoring & Verification Support (CO2MVS) capacity by improving methods to estimate the impact of fires on vegetation and related carbon fluxes. The call invites proposals for Research and Innovation Actions (RIA), Innovation Actions (IA), and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA). The projects should aim to better understand and characterize the impact of wildfires on the carbon cycle and anthropogenic emissions, improve fire modeling, and enhance the estimates of fire emissions and air quality products. The indicative budget varies from EUR 500,000 to EUR 17,500,000 depending on the action type. The call is open for submission with a deadline of September 25, 2025. Eligible applicants include universities, research institutes, SMEs, and other relevant organizations from EU, associated and third countries. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a member of the consortium. The funding will be provided as a lump sum grant, and the application process involves a single stage. The projects should also focus on transferring research results to operational deployment and involve relevant Entrusted Entities of the Copernicus services. Software developed should be open licensed.