Fighting disinformation and effectively communicating on climate change

The EU funding opportunity, HORIZON-CL5-2026-07-D1-04, titled "Fighting disinformation and effectively communicating on climate change," is part of the Horizon Europe program. This call falls under the Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-RIA) and will provide lump sum grants. The submission period is from December 18, 2025, to April 15, 2026, with a total budget of €15 million allocated for three expected grants, each ranging from €4 million to €5 million.

The opportunity aims to combat misinformation related to climate change and improve public engagement on climate action. It encourages diverse applicant types, including universities, research institutions, SMEs, public authorities, civil society organizations, and media entities from EU and associated countries. International cooperation, particularly with the United States and low- to middle-income countries, is encouraged.

The expected outcomes include advancing knowledge on disinformation dynamics, developing tools for public authorities to combat misinformation, creating effective communication strategies, and enhancing public trust in climate science. The initiative seeks a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating insights from natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, media studies, and communication theory.

The application process is a single-stage open call, and no co-funding is required. This structure significantly lowers the barriers for participation. The projects will investigate sources and channels of misinformation, develop detection strategies, and promote fact-checking to bolster climate literacy.

Overall, this funding opportunity addresses the critical need for effective communication around climate science amidst a backdrop of widespread misinformation, aiming to foster societal resilience and a transition to a climate-neutral society. The application process and project requirements reflect a focus on collaboration, innovation, and impactful engagement with diverse audiences.

This is a summary of the EU funding opportunity HORIZON-CL5-2026-07-D1-04, titled "Fighting disinformation and effectively communicating on climate change". This opportunity falls under the Horizon Europe (HORIZON) program, specifically the CLIMATE (HORIZON-CL5-2026-07) call. It is a HORIZON Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA) with a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS] model grant agreement. The submission process is single-stage, opening on 18 December 2025 and closing on 15 April 2026 at 17:00:00 Brussels time. The budget for this topic is 15,000,000 EUR for the year 2026, and the indicative number of grants is 3, with contributions ranging from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 EUR.

The expected outcomes of this funding opportunity are:

Advanced knowledge and understanding on the dynamics of disinformation affecting climate policy and climate policy backlash from a communication perspective.
Tools and products developed for public authorities, media, and civil society to detect and combat the influence and spread of climate change-related disinformation at scale.
Tailored, innovative, and effective communication techniques, tools, and materials developed, tested, and disseminated to better communicate with and engage citizens on climate change, climate action, and climate policies.
Increased acceptance of climate action, strengthened democratic processes and societal resilience, and progressed sustained behavioral change through higher trust in climate science and improved climate literacy, supporting the objectives of the Preparedness Union Strategy.

The scope of this funding opportunity includes:

Addressing the challenge of effectively communicating climate change science and necessary climate actions, particularly in the face of misinformation and disinformation.
Strengthening public trust in science and democracy through evidence-based climate communication strategies.
Advancing the understanding of the sources, channels, types, and influence of misinformation and disinformation on public perception of climate change information, including the role of AI.
Developing and testing strategies for the public and private sectors to detect, monitor, and counteract mis/disinformation about climate and climate policy.
Creating tools and products for policymakers, companies, and the general public to critically assess climate change-related information.
Exploring how to bridge the gap from climate knowledge to behavioral change, considering various factors that shape perceptions across different segments of society.
Generating knowledge and developing innovative, engaging, tailored, and multilingual tools, learning techniques, and narratives for impactful climate change communication frameworks.
Training climate scientists to effectively communicate with non-specialist audiences.
Designing and implementing targeted communication campaigns that boost climate awareness and preparedness while preventing climate anxiety and counteracting disinformation.
Promoting fact-checking, clear and transparent knowledge on climate science and policymaking, and fostering the ability to interpret uncertainties.
Encouraging citizen engagement, particularly of youth and other vulnerable audiences.
Developing communication strategies, tools, and products tailored to real-world context and societal needs, leveraging visual and digital tools including AI.
Demonstrating clear pathways for uptake and scaling, such as piloting with end-users and integration into existing platforms or frameworks.

The primary focus should be on Europe, with international cooperation encouraged, especially with the United States and low- to middle-income countries.

This research requires a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary approach drawing on insights from the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities (SSH) including behavioural sciences and gender, media studies, and communication theory. Participation of the private sector, in particular SME, is also strongly encouraged.

Funded projects are encouraged to collaborate and cluster activities with other relevant projects within and outside of Horizon Europe, including collaboration with the EU Missions on Adaptation to Climate Change and on Climate neutral and Smart Cities.

The destination of this topic is "Advancing science for a fair transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society (2026-27)". This destination contributes to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientations ‘Green transition’, ‘Digital transition’ and ‘A more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe’. The expected impact is to contribute to the “Advancing science for a transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society”.

The main impacts to be generated by topics under this Destination are:

Supporting climate action (both mitigation and adaptation) in Europe and globally, through advancing climate science and the knowledge base underpinning actionable solutions, to accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral, climate-resilient and prosperous society.
Closing key knowledge gaps related to climate change, thereby contributing substantially to key European and international assessments such as IPCC, IPBES, EUCRA, and other initiatives such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) under the World Climate Research Programme.
Strengthening the European Research Area on climate change by boosting scientific excellence and capacity in an inclusive manner across the participating countries.
Maximising synergies between mitigation and adaptation and with other policy priorities such as biodiversity and ecosystem preservation and restoration, disaster-preparedness, digitalisation, circular economy, prosperity and competitiveness, strategic autonomy, security and resilience, just transition, and the Sustainable Development Goals by exploring co-benefits, trade-offs and potential unintended consequences of climate strategies and policy interventions.

General conditions for participation include admissibility conditions, eligible countries, other eligible conditions, financial and operational capacity and exclusion, evaluation and award criteria, submission and evaluation processes, indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement, and legal and financial set-up of the grants. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum.

Application forms, evaluation forms, model grant agreements, and guidance documents are available in the Submission System and on the Funding & Tenders Portal. Partner search announcements are also available on the portal.

In summary, this funding opportunity aims to address the critical challenge of communicating climate change science and actions effectively, particularly in the context of widespread misinformation. It seeks to fund research and innovation actions that will advance understanding of disinformation, develop tools to combat it, and create effective communication strategies to engage citizens and promote climate action. The projects should be interdisciplinary, collaborative, and focused on Europe, with potential for international cooperation. The ultimate goal is to increase public trust in climate science, improve climate literacy, and foster a transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types include public authorities, media, civil society organizations, private sector entities, and SMEs. The call encourages participation from natural sciences, social sciences and humanities (SSH) including behavioural sciences and gender, media studies, and communication theory. Climate scientists are also mentioned as potential beneficiaries through training.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA) with a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS] model grant agreement.

Consortium Requirement: The opportunity encourages collaboration and clustering activities, suggesting a consortium is preferred, although not explicitly stated as mandatory.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The primary focus is on Europe, with local and national foci as appropriate. International cooperation is encouraged, especially with the United States and low- to middle-income countries automatically eligible for Horizon Europe funding.

Target Sector: The program targets climate, energy, digital transition, media, communication, research, innovation, social sciences, humanities, and artificial intelligence. It focuses on combating climate change-related misinformation and improving climate communication.

Mentioned Countries: United States, Europe, and low- to middle-income countries eligible for Horizon Europe funding.

Project Stage: The project stage is research, development, and demonstration, with an emphasis on testing and scaling communication strategies, tools, and products.

Funding Amount: The funding ranges from approximately €4 million to €7 million per project, depending on the specific topic. The total budget for the call is approximately €82 million, spread across five topics.

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage open call.

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

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

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the indicative number of grants for each topic is provided, allowing for an estimation based on the number of expected proposals.

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding is not explicitly mentioned as a requirement.

Summary:

This Horizon Europe call, CLIMATE (HORIZON-CL5-2026-07), focuses on "Fighting disinformation and effectively communicating on climate change." It aims to fund research and innovation actions that address the challenge of misinformation and disinformation related to climate change, and to improve public communication and engagement on climate action. The call is structured around five topics, each with a specific budget and expected outcomes.

The key objectives include:

Advancing knowledge and understanding of disinformation dynamics affecting climate policy.
Developing tools and products for public authorities, media, and civil society to combat climate change-related disinformation.
Creating tailored and effective communication techniques to engage citizens on climate change.
Increasing acceptance of climate action through improved trust in climate science and literacy.

The scope of the call encompasses a wide range of activities, including:

Investigating the sources and channels of climate change misinformation.
Developing strategies to detect, monitor, and counteract disinformation.
Bridging the gap between climate knowledge and behavioral change.
Training climate scientists to communicate effectively with non-specialist audiences.
Developing communication strategies and tools that leverage visual and digital tools, including AI.

The call encourages a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary approach, drawing on insights from natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, media studies, and communication theory. Participation of the private sector, particularly SMEs, is strongly encouraged. International cooperation, especially with the United States and low- to middle-income countries, is also encouraged.

The funding is provided as a lump sum grant, and the application process is a single-stage submission. The call is open for submission from December 18, 2025, with a deadline of April 15, 2026.