Exploring the potential of controlled environment agriculture (CEA)

The grant opportunity HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-08 focuses on exploring Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) aimed at enhancing sustainability and resource efficiency in European agricultural systems. This initiative is part of Horizon Europe's Cluster 6, which addresses food, bioeconomy, agriculture, and the environment.

Eligible applicants include various entities such as research institutes, universities, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and agricultural technology developers, benefiting from collaborations among multiple stakeholders. The funding mechanism for this grant is primarily a lump sum grant, providing a simplified financial management approach with payments linked to set milestones. While it encourages consortium formation, the grant does not specify exclusive requirements for collaboration, allowing flexibility for partnerships.

Geographically, the grant is accessible to EU member states and associated countries, with a broad aim to support sustainable agricultural practices across these regions. The target sectors involve agriculture, environmental sustainability, and innovative farming technologies, particularly focusing on CEA systems that might include hydroponics, robotics, and IoT applications.

The grant's project stage spans research and development, aiming to validate the socio-economic feasibility of innovative farming practices within CEA. Though the exact funding amounts are not specified, similar calls often range from €1M to €5M, reflecting the substantial financial backing required for research initiatives.

The application process is a single-stage submission with a deadline set for September 16, 2025. Notably, while success rates are unspecified, they tend to vary, with past competitive calls showing rates between 10% to 39%. There's likely a requirement for co-funding in some proposals; however, the specifics on this funding requirement remain uncleared.

Overall, this funding opportunity aims to foster advancements in CEA by enabling novel farming practices, ultimately improving food security, supporting the EU's sustainability objectives, and enhancing agricultural resilience. It prioritizes collaborations that generate scalable, socially equitable innovations aligned with the overarching EU strategies, including the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Green Deal. Projects must demonstrate technical feasibility while addressing environmental benefits and pathways towards commercialization within the EU context.

This is a description of a Horizon Europe funding opportunity focused on exploring the potential of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) to address global food security and sustainability challenges. The call, part of the Cluster 6 Call 02, is a single-stage process with a deadline of September 16, 2025. The funding is provided through HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions, utilizing a lump sum grant approach.

The primary goal is to support the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the European Green Deal, and the EU Climate Law by enabling sustainable, efficient, and climate-resilient farming systems. This involves generating new knowledge, fostering innovation, and scaling up sustainable farming practices to make farming a more attractive and remunerative career choice.

Expected outcomes of successful projects include:

A holistic understanding of CEA, covering technological needs, trade-offs, sustainability, societal and environmental impacts, and policy implications.
Advancement of knowledge regarding CEA sustainability across economic, environmental, and societal dimensions, including profitability, energy efficiency, GHG emissions, circularity, and social aspects.
Identification of novel and diverse crop varieties suitable for CEA and exploration of next-generation CEA systems.
Enhanced adoption, expansion, and uptake of CEA best practices.

The scope of the projects should encompass:

Assessment of state-of-the-art technologies and innovations in CEA, evaluating their effectiveness and resource efficiency, and identifying opportunities for optimization.
Analysis of the socio-economic feasibility and viability of CEA systems at different scales, evaluating their cost-effectiveness compared to conventional agriculture.
Investigation of the environmental sustainability and footprint of CEA systems, including GHG emissions.
Assessment of current crop varieties grown in CEA systems, identifying gaps and opportunities for developing novel crop varieties and addressing challenges in adopting these varieties.
Providing insights into the future trajectory of CEA, examining emerging trends, and investigating technological innovations like IoT, AI, robotics, and biotechnologies.
Identifying key challenges hindering CEA adoption and providing strategies for enhancing the expansion of best practices.

The involvement of SMEs is considered essential, and proposals may include financial support to third parties, particularly SMEs involved in testing or validating innovative technologies. A maximum of 30% of EU funding can be allocated for this purpose, with a maximum of EUR 60,000 granted to each third party. Proposals should also capitalize on relevant research findings and tools from previous projects.

General conditions for participation include:

Admissibility conditions related to proposal page limits and layout, as described in the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and the Application Form.
Eligible countries, as described in the Work Programme General Annexes and the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
Other eligible conditions, as described in the Work Programme General Annexes.
Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria, as described in the Work Programme General Annexes.
Evaluation and award criteria, scoring, and thresholds, as described in the Work Programme General Annexes.
Submission and evaluation processes, as described in the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.
Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement, as described in the Work Programme General Annexes.
Legal and financial setup of the grants, with eligible costs taking the form of a lump sum.

Specific conditions are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.

Application and evaluation forms, as well as the Model Grant Agreement (MGA), are available in the Submission System. Additional guidance and documents are provided, including the HE Programme Guide, Lump Sum MGA, call-specific instructions, detailed budget table, and information on financial support to third parties.

The budget overview lists several topics under Cluster 6, with varying budgets and indicative numbers of grants. The opening date for submissions is May 6, 2025, and the deadline is September 16, 2025.

This funding opportunity aims to transform agriculture by promoting controlled environment practices, enhancing food security, supporting the European Green Deal, and fostering climate-neutral and resilient farming systems. It encourages research, innovation, and the involvement of SMEs to develop sustainable and efficient agricultural solutions for the future.

In simpler terms, this EU grant is all about making farming more sustainable and efficient by using technology to control the growing environment of crops. Think greenhouses and vertical farms. The EU wants researchers and businesses, especially small ones, to come up with new ideas and technologies to make these types of farms better for the environment, more profitable, and more appealing as a career. They are offering funding to projects that can assess current technologies, explore new crop varieties, and figure out how to make these farms more sustainable and widespread. The goal is to support the EU's green initiatives and ensure food security in the face of climate change.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated, but based on the context, they likely include SMEs, farmers, actors in the agricultural primary sector, research organizations, and other entities involved in agricultural innovation. The involvement of SMEs is essential.

Funding Type: The funding type is primarily a grant, specifically a HORIZON Research and Innovation Action (RIA) and HORIZON Innovation Actions (IA) and HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) and HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum. Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties (FSTP) in the form of grants.

Consortium Requirement: The opportunity appears to favor consortia, as it encourages the involvement of SMEs and collaboration among various actors. However, the specific requirement for a consortium versus a single applicant is not explicitly stated.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility is not explicitly stated but is likely within the EU and associated countries, as indicated by the Horizon Europe program. 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.

Target Sector: The target sector is agriculture, specifically Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), food systems, climate, and related technologies (IoT, artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnologies). It also targets the food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture and environment sectors.

Mentioned Countries: No specific countries are mentioned, but the opportunity is within the context of the European Union and associated countries.

Project Stage: The project stage appears to span from research and development to innovation and upscaling of best practices. It includes assessing technologies, analyzing feasibility, investigating sustainability, and providing insights for future trajectories.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific topic within the call, ranging from €2,000,000 to €50,000,000. Some topics specify an indicative amount per grant, while others are co-funded actions with larger overall budgets. For example, HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-08 has a budget of 6,000,000 EUR and will give around 6,000,000 EUR to 1 grant. HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-CLIMATE-02 has a budget of 19,500,000 EUR and will give around 6,500,000 EUR to 3 grants.

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

Nature of Support: The beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a lump sum grant. There is also scope for beneficiaries to provide financial support to third parties, particularly SMEs.

Application Stages: The application process is a single-stage process.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly stated, but the indicative number of grants for each topic provides some insight into the potential success rate.

Co-funding Requirement: Some topics are co-funded actions, indicating a co-funding requirement. For example, HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-CLIMATE-05 is a co-fund action.

Summary:

This Horizon Europe Cluster 6 call focuses on "Exploring the potential of controlled environment agriculture (CEA)" as a transformative solution for global food security and sustainability. The call aims to support the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the European Green Deal, and the EU Climate Law by funding projects that promote sustainable, efficient, and climate-neutral farming systems. The scope includes research and innovation actions (RIA), innovation actions (IA), coordination and support actions (CSA) and co-fund actions, with a strong emphasis on the involvement of SMEs. Projects should address technological needs, sustainability, societal and environmental impacts, and policy implications of CEA. The funding is provided as a lump sum, with opportunities for beneficiaries to provide financial support to third parties (especially SMEs). The call is structured around several topics related to climate, communities, and farm-to-fork initiatives, each with a specific budget and expected outcomes. The application process is a single-stage submission, and while the success rates are not explicitly mentioned, the indicative number of grants per topic offers some guidance. This call is designed to foster collaboration, innovation, and the upscaling of best practices in CEA to enhance food production while minimizing environmental impacts and supporting the European Union's broader sustainability goals.