Implementing the climate action pillar of the EU-African Union Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy

The grant opportunity titled "Implementing the climate action pillar of the EU-African Union Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy" is part of Horizon Europe, specifically under the call HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-07. The goal of this initiative is to advance collaborative efforts between the European Union and African nations to address challenges in climate change and sustainable energy transitions.

Eligible applicants for this grant include universities, research institutions, NGOs, and both public and private entities established in EU and African Union member states. A critical requirement for applicants is the representation of African partners; at least 40% of the beneficiaries must come from African Union member states. The funding type is described as a grant under the Horizon Action Grant Budget-Based model. The grant is classified under Coordination and Support Actions, signifying its focus on networking, policy support, and capacity building.

The project requires the formation of consortia that include members from both regions, emphasizing joint ownership and collaborative implementation. The initiative aims to implement the climate action objectives of the EU-AU partnership, specifically targeting sectors related to climate, sustainable energy, and environmental resilience. While specific countries are not listed, the partnership broadly includes all EU and AU member states, with South Africa highlighted in discussions regarding climate financing.

The project is focused on the implementation, validation, and scaling up of climate and energy solutions and aligns with other significant initiatives, such as the Africa-EU Green Energy Initiative. Although specific funding amounts for individual projects are variable, total funding for this call under the Africa-EU partnership has been approximated to be around €3.4 billion.

The application process is single-stage, with an opening date of May 6, 2025, and a submission deadline of September 24, 2025. Proposals must be submitted electronically through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. The nature of support involves monetary grants, with no explicit co-funding requirement stated, although partnerships with co-financing entities are encouraged.

Success rates for Horizon Europe grants are generally competitive, often under 20%. The expected outcomes of the projects should lead to strengthened climate action strategies, improved climate literacy, enhanced climate services, and better data management practices adhering to the FAIR principles — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

In summary, this grant aims to foster collaboration between EU and AU partners to effectively tackle climate-related challenges, enhance climate resilience in African nations, and promote innovative solutions that align with global climate objectives. The call requires significant African participation and encourages inclusive approaches that engage local communities and address the unique socio-economic conditions of the continent.

The EU-African Union Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (CCSE) is offering funding under the Horizon Europe (HORIZON) program, specifically Call Cluster 5 Call 06-2025 (WP 2025) with the topic HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-07, Implementing the climate action pillar of the EU-African Union Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy. This is a HORIZON Coordination and Support Action (HORIZON-CSA) with a HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG] model grant agreement. The call is currently open for submission as a single-stage application. The opening date was 06 May 2025, and the deadline for submission is 24 September 2025 at 17:00:00 Brussels time. The budget for this specific topic is 4,000,000 EUR, and it is expected that one grant will be awarded. The indicative contributions are expected to be between 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 EUR.

The expected outcome of this action is to establish a foundation for future collaborative activities between the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) on climate change research. This is within the context of implementing the Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (CCSE) under the AU-EU High Level Policy Dialogue (HLPD) on Science, Technology, and Innovation and its Innovation Agenda.

The project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

Stakeholders, including funding entities, contribute more effectively to the implementation of the climate action pillar of the AU-EU CCSE Research and Innovation Partnership through an agreed strategy and reinforced R&I coordination.

The R&I agendas and initiatives on climate issues relevant for Africa are better aligned and defragmented between the EU, national and multilateral levels, enhancing the impact of funding.

The climate-related data gap on Africa is reduced, enabling AU countries to access, utilize, and deploy state-of-the-art climate knowledge and services for informed decision-making and to accelerate a science-based implementation of the Paris Agreement and the Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development.

Impacts and risks of climate change are more accurately assessed, adaptation strategies are developed, and early warning systems are deployed, strengthening climate and disaster resilience in the AU member states and contributing to the international dimension of the EU Adaptation Strategy, the EU Disaster Resilience Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Nairobi Declaration and the Early Warnings for All initiative.

The climate research community in the AU is strengthened, enabling researchers and scientific institutes to engage more effectively in international fora and multilateral collaboration networks, with positive effects on diversity and quality of climate science and benefiting key international assessments and processes (e.g., IPCC, IPBES).

The scope of the action includes addressing the widespread impacts of climate change already experienced by African societies and productive sectors, such as loss of lives and biodiversity, increased disease burden, water shortages, ocean acidification, reduced food production, and diminished labor efficiency and economic growth. The action recognizes that socioeconomic, political, and environmental factors amplify the region’s vulnerability and that Africa is poorly equipped to deal with these challenges, with only 40% of its population having access to early warning systems.

The action also aims to address the underrepresentation of African scientists, scholars, and practitioners in international fora and the need for assessments of climate change and related strategies to be increasingly delivered by the African community, incorporating indigenous knowledge, local contexts, and needs.

The action is intended as a preparatory step towards future joint collaborative activities between the EU and the AU, and their respective Member States to support the implementation of the “Climate Action for adaptation and mitigation” Pillar of the CCSE partnership, encompassing climate-related data, climate services, and an integrated knowledge approach to support AU countries in their efforts to implement the Paris Agreement.

The action should establish a joint strategy for improving the availability and accelerating the uptake of advanced climate knowledge, data, and products across Africa, enhancing climate literacy, developing and increasing uptake of climate services and early-warning systems, and supporting capacity building while considering the continent’s socio-economic circumstances and user needs.

The action is expected to address the following aspects:

Develop a joint roadmap identifying priorities, flagship actions, and feasible implementation architecture (including financing instruments) to pave the way towards more targeted EU-AU cooperation on climate change research, with a focus on climate risk reduction and resilience building (to be delivered within the first year).

Mobilize and secure commitments from European and African national funding entities and other actors (e.g., philanthropies, international cooperation entities, and financial institutions) necessary to implement joint EU-AU collaborative activities, including a potential Horizon Europe co-fund action in the 2026-2027 work programme (ideally within the first year).

Map relevant EU-funded projects (such as CONFER, FOCUS-Africa, DOWN2EARTH, ALBATROSS, SAFE4ALL, HABITABLE, TEMBO-Africa, SINCERE), match their outputs with the objectives of the CCSE Partnership, and cluster them to establish a vibrant community. Develop and implement a strategy to consolidate, curate, valorize, and disseminate the projects’ outputs towards African and European stakeholders to amplify their impact. This should include a user-friendly approach for sharing best practices and lessons learned from past and ongoing EU-funded projects, with links to internationally and nationally funded activities, to provide visibility and enable scaling and replication of successful initiatives. The action should also investigate how Europe could best learn from Africa and how to valorize, disseminate knowledge and implement solutions from the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, other relevant EU Missions, and other initiatives (like the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean region, PRIMA) that are of relevance to the African context.

Design and start implementing a training and capacity building strategy that should enable: effective climate action planning and management, enhanced representation and diversity of African science and scientists in international fora, upscaled generation of policy-relevant knowledge, data, products, and services on climate change, and greater participation of women, youth, indigenous, and marginalized communities.

The action should bring together core European and African funding agencies, research organizations, and other key African entities such as regional and national climate service centers. Strong representation of African partners in the consortium is a core requirement. The action should strive at better connecting scientists, policy makers, practitioners, and local communities for integrated solutions, at mobilizing private sector engagement, and at promoting the uptake of indigenous knowledge and Citizen Science. Efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced is managed according to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).

The action should build on and aim at improving the coordination between existing and forthcoming multilateral and bilateral initiatives, such as the Climate Services for Risk Reduction in Africa (CS4RRA), the ClimSA programme, as well as projects funded by the EU (Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe) and the JPI-Climate (ERA4CS). Synergies should also be sought, where possible, with relevant activities of the World Climate Research Programme, the World Adaptation Science Programme, the World Meteorological Organisation, the Group on Earth Observations, or the Copernicus programme. It is advisable that the action integrates the lessons learnt from the implementation of the energy pillar of the CCSE Partnership.

The general conditions for this call include:

Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit 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 available in the Submission System.

Eligible Countries as described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific provisions may be available for non-EU/non-Associated Countries, as detailed in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Other Eligible Conditions: Legal entities established in the African Union member states may exceptionally participate as beneficiary or affiliated entity if eligible for funding. International organisations with headquarters in a European Union Member State, Horizon Europe Associated Country or an African Union Member State are also exceptionally eligible to participate (and eligible for funding). At least 40% of the beneficiaries must be legal entities established in the African Union Member States.

Financial and operational capacity and exclusion as described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Evaluation and award criteria, scoring, and thresholds as described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Submission and evaluation processes as described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.

Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement as described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Legal and financial set-up of the grants as described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

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

Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA) information is available, with application form templates and evaluation form templates accessible via the Submission System. Guidance documents include the HE Programme Guide and various Model Grant Agreements (MGA).

Additional documents include the HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025, HE Programme Guide, HE Framework Programme 2021/695, HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, and other relevant guidelines and regulations.

There are 15 partner search announcements available for this topic.

The overall goal of this funding opportunity is to foster collaboration between the European Union and the African Union in climate change research and sustainable energy. The EU recognizes that Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts and that African scientists are underrepresented in global climate research. This action aims to address these issues by providing funding for projects that will develop joint strategies, mobilize funding commitments, map relevant projects, and implement training and capacity-building initiatives. The focus is on enhancing climate literacy, improving climate services and early warning systems, and building climate resilience in African Union member states. The EU is looking for collaborative projects that bring together European and African partners to work together to address climate change challenges in Africa. A key requirement is that at least 40% of the project beneficiaries must be legal entities established in African Union member states. The EU is also encouraging projects that build on existing initiatives and promote the uptake of indigenous knowledge and citizen science.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types for this opportunity include funding agencies, research organizations, key African entities such as regional and national climate service centers, and international organizations with headquarters in a European Union Member State, Horizon Europe Associated Country or an African Union Member State. Legal entities established in the African Union member states may exceptionally participate as beneficiary or affiliated entity. A core requirement is the strong representation of African partners in the consortium, with at least 40% of the beneficiaries being legal entities established in the African Union Member States.

Funding Type: This opportunity provides funding through HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (HORIZON-CSA) and HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-RIA) and HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions (HORIZON-COFUND). The type of Model Grant Agreement is HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG].

Consortium Requirement: A consortium is required for this opportunity, with a strong emphasis on the representation of African partners. At least 40% of the beneficiaries must be legal entities established in the African Union Member States.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility includes the European Union, African Union member states, and Horizon Europe Associated Countries. International organizations with headquarters in a European Union Member State, Horizon Europe Associated Country or an African Union Member State are also eligible.

Target Sector: The program targets the climate, energy, and mobility sectors, specifically focusing on climate change research, sustainable energy, climate action for adaptation and mitigation, climate-related data, climate services, and early-warning systems. It also addresses food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture, and environment.

Mentioned Countries: African Union member states, European Union member states, Horizon Europe Associated Countries.

Project Stage: The project stage is focused on preparatory steps, strategy development, coordination, capacity building, and implementation architecture, indicating a focus on research, development, and demonstration.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific action:
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-01: around €30,000,000
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-02: around €7,500,000
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-03: €2,500,000 to €3,000,000
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-04: around €6,000,000
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-06: €4,000,000 to €5,000,000
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D1-07: €3,000,000 to €4,000,000
HORIZON-CL5-2025-06-D2-07: around €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 through grants.

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

Success Rates: The indicative number of grants varies per topic, suggesting different success rates depending on the specific action.

Co-funding Requirement: The HORIZON-COFUND action implies a co-funding requirement, while other actions do not explicitly state a co-funding requirement.

Summary:

This Horizon Europe call, under Cluster 5, aims to bolster collaborative climate change research activities between the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU). The primary goal is to implement the "Climate Action for adaptation and mitigation" Pillar of the CCSE partnership. The call seeks to enhance climate literacy, improve climate services and early-warning systems, and support capacity building across Africa, aligning with the Paris Agreement and the Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development.

The funding opportunity is structured around several key actions, including HORIZON-RIA for research and innovation, HORIZON-CSA for coordination and support, and HORIZON-COFUND for co-funded programs. Eligible applicants include funding agencies, research organizations, and key African entities, with a strong emphasis on consortiums with at least 40% representation from African Union member states. The geographic scope encompasses the EU, AU member states, and Horizon Europe Associated Countries.

Projects are expected to develop joint roadmaps, mobilize funding commitments, map and cluster EU-funded projects, and implement training and capacity-building strategies. The call emphasizes the importance of connecting scientists, policymakers, practitioners, and local communities, promoting private sector engagement, and incorporating indigenous knowledge and Citizen Science. Data management should adhere to FAIR principles.

The funding amounts vary by action, ranging from €2.5 million to €56 million, with a single-stage application process and an opening date of May 6, 2025, and a deadline of September 24, 2025. This initiative is designed to reduce the climate-related data gap in Africa, improve access to climate knowledge and services, strengthen the African climate research community, and enhance climate and disaster resilience in AU member states.