Fostering equity and justice in climate policies – Societal Readiness Pilot

The grant opportunity titled "Fostering equity and justice in climate policies – Societal Readiness Pilot" is part of the Horizon Europe program, specifically under Cluster 5, which focuses on Climate, Energy, and Mobility. This initiative aims to incorporate social equity into climate policy implementation through practical pilot projects. Key aspects of the grant include eligibility, funding structure, application process, and strategic goals.

Eligible applicants include universities, research institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises, non-governmental organizations, and public-private partnerships based in the EU or associated countries, with a strong implication of consortium participation, as collaboration is emphasized within Horizon's Research and Innovation Actions framework.

The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant. Geographic eligibility covers EU member states and associated countries, with a particular interest in involving low and middle-income countries. The grant aims to address sectors centered around climate policy and promotes inclusive and equitable strategies.

Projects under this grant should focus on societal readiness, indicating a stage beyond initial research, involving validation and demonstration at Technology Readiness Levels 4 to 6. The funding range for this call is estimated between €1 million and €5 million, with a total budget that supports various project applications. The submission process is structured as a single-stage open call, with a deadline set for September 24, 2025.

The nature of support is primarily monetary, provided in the form of lump sum grants. Horizon Europe grants typically do not require co-funding, aiming to cover 100% of eligible costs. The success rates for grants in Horizon Europe are generally around 10 to 39%, reflecting the competitive nature of these calls.

The grant emphasizes producing inclusive climate policies that resonate with diverse societal groups and highlights the importance of social science perspectives in achieving effective climate action. It also aligns with global initiatives for increased consensus between the Global North and South within frameworks such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In summary, this Horizon Europe grant invites collaborative research and innovation projects focused on equity in climate policy, encouraging interdisciplinary approaches and international cooperation to create impactful, just climate transitions.

This is a Horizon Europe call, specifically HORIZON-CL5-2025-06, focusing on fostering equity and justice in climate policies through a Societal Readiness Pilot. The call falls under Cluster 5 of the Horizon Europe program and is part of the Work Programme 2025. The type of action is HORIZON-RIA, which stands for HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions. The Model Grant Agreement type is HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS].

The call is a single-stage submission process, with the opening date on 06 May 2025 and a deadline of 24 September 2025 at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The expected outcomes of the projects funded under this call are:
1. Climate policies are made more inclusive and equitable, facilitating acceptance across political and societal stakeholders with various socio-economic and development status, both within the EU and globally, enabling high ambition climate action and helping to deliver on the European Green Deal’s commitment to “leave no one behind”.
2. Improved consensus between the Global North and the Global South within the UNFCCC process, unlocking a greater momentum in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
3. Strengthened, diversified, and more inclusive evidence base underpinning IPCC assessments, facilitating consensus and government approval processes.
4. Social science perspectives on justice and equity are better incorporated into policy narratives, scenarios, and models, improving their societal relevance and ensuring that climate action strategies are more reflective of the needs, values and concerns of diverse societal groups, building trust in results and outcomes, and increasing their uptake potential.

The scope of the call addresses the complex justice questions arising from climate change and the transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. It recognizes that fairness is both an enabler and a potential barrier to ambitious climate action. The call emphasizes the need for research on advancing just climate transitions within the EU and globally. Actions should advance a comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of climate justice in the context of European and global mitigation and adaptation policies, promoting awareness, consistency, and co-production approaches. They should consider socio-economic, territorial, and development disparities, multiple dimensions of justice, and diverse spatial and temporal scales. The call encourages the development of recommendations on how to design, implement, and evaluate just climate transitions, including specific indicators, standards, and criteria.

Specific aspects to be addressed include:
1. Improving integrated assessment models to better represent justice and equity.
2. Enhancing clarity, comparability, and transparency across global mitigation scenarios.
3. Analyzing distributional aspects of climate policies and assessing consequences for well-being.
4. Assessing the trade-offs and co-benefits between climate action and inequality reduction.
5. Investigating innovative climate policy instruments and approaches.
6. Investigating justice in the context of sectorial transitions, particularly in under-researched sectors like agriculture, forestry, and land use.
7. Advancing research on how to better account for the needs and constraints of communities representing diversity of vulnerability profiles in disaster risk reduction and adaptation strategies.

International cooperation is required, with research conducted through close collaboration between research teams from Europe and low or middle-income countries. Involvement of key stakeholders, regional experts, and civil society is highly recommended.

Funded projects are strongly encouraged to connect, coordinate, and participate in networking, intercomparison, and joint activities. Clustering activities with other relevant projects are also encouraged.

This call is a Societal-Readiness pilot, requiring an interdisciplinary approach and effective contribution of relevant SSH expertise. Consortia should mobilize a variety of SSH research backgrounds, in particular equity, poverty, and gender experts.

The admissibility conditions include guidelines on 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. The proposal page limit is extended to 52 pages to address Societal Readiness-related issues.

Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. The consortium must include at least three independent legal entities established in three different low or middle-income countries.

Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria are described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. Evaluation and award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in Annex D. Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F and the Online Manual. The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is also described in Annex F.

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum, as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021.

Application form templates and evaluation form templates are available in the Submission System. Guidance documents include the HE Programme Guide and various Model Grant Agreements (MGAs).

The budget overview for the call in 2025 is as follows:
1. HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-01: EUR 30,000,000, indicative number of grants: 1
2. HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-02: EUR 15,000,000, indicative number of grants: 2
3. HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-03: EUR 7,500,000, indicative number of grants: 3
4. HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-04: EUR 12,000,000, indicative number of grants: 2
5. HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-06: EUR 15,000,000, indicative number of grants: 3
6. HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-07: EUR 4,000,000, indicative number of grants: 1
7. HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D2-07: EUR 56,000,000, indicative number of grants: 1

There are 18 partner search announcements available for collaboration on this topic.

In summary, this Horizon Europe call aims to promote research and innovation actions that foster equity and justice in climate policies, with a focus on societal readiness and international cooperation. It seeks to address the complex challenges of climate change by incorporating social science perspectives and ensuring that climate action strategies are inclusive, equitable, and reflective of the needs of diverse societal groups. The call encourages interdisciplinary approaches and the involvement of stakeholders from Europe and low or middle-income countries. The total budget allocated to this call is significant, offering opportunities for multiple projects to contribute to the expected outcomes.

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 Coordination and Support Actions (CSA), eligible applicants typically include universities, research institutes, SMEs, large enterprises, and other legal entities carrying out research or innovation activities. The requirement for a consortium including entities from low and middle-income countries suggests that NGOs and civil society organizations could also be eligible.

Funding Type: The primary funding mechanism is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant. There are also HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions.

Consortium Requirement: A consortium is required. The consortium must include as a beneficiary or associated partner at least three independent legal entities established in three different low or middle-income countries.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility includes the EU, associated countries, and requires the participation of entities from low and middle-income countries. 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 program targets the climate, energy, and mobility sectors, with a focus on climate justice, social sciences, and humanities (SSH). It also touches on agriculture, forestry, and land use within the context of sectorial transitions.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity explicitly mentions Europe, low-income countries, and middle-income countries. It also refers to the Global North and the Global South in the context of the UNFCCC process.

Project Stage: The expected maturity of the project is research and innovation actions, which suggests projects in the research, development, and demonstration stages.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific action type:
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-01: EUR 30,000,000
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-02: EUR 15,000,000
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-03: EUR 7,500,000 (EUR 2,500,000 to EUR 3,000,000 per project)
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-04: EUR 12,000,000
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-06: EUR 15,000,000 (EUR 4,000,000 to EUR 5,000,000 per project)
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-07: EUR 4,000,000 (EUR 3,000,000 to EUR 4,000,000 per project)
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D2-07: EUR 56,000,000

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 lump sum grants.

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

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

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding is required for HORIZON-COFUND actions.

Summary: This Horizon Europe call focuses on fostering equity and justice in climate policies through research and innovation actions. The call aims to promote inclusive and equitable climate policies, improve consensus between the Global North and South, strengthen the evidence base for IPCC assessments, and incorporate social science perspectives into climate action strategies. Eligible applicants include universities, research institutes, SMEs, and other legal entities, with a mandatory consortium requirement of at least three independent legal entities from low or middle-income countries. The funding is provided as lump sum grants, and the call targets the climate, energy, and mobility sectors, with a strong emphasis on social sciences and humanities. The application process is a single-stage open call, and proposals should address the societal readiness of climate policies. The call encourages international cooperation and the involvement of civil society to ensure diverse perspectives are represented.