Improving climate and weather models for Africa

The grant opportunity titled "Improving Climate and Weather Models for Africa" is part of Horizon Europe's Climate call HORIZON-CL5. This initiative aims to enhance climate and weather modeling capabilities for Africa through collaborative international research projects. The program is open to various applicant types, including universities, research bodies, National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, and African Regional Climate Centers, with the exceptional eligibility of legal entities from all African Union member states for Union funding. At least 30% of beneficiaries must be from these African entities. Funding is structured as grants under the Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) model, with a total budget of €21 million, providing €7 million for each project. The funding mechanism is a lump sum arrangement, covering 100% of eligible costs. The call encourages the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and high-performance computing to improve the accuracy and reliability of climate models tailored to Africa’s specific needs. A minimum of three entities from at least one EU member state and two partners is required, reflecting the need for strong collaborative ties between African and European teams. The expected project stages include research, development, validation, and demonstration focused on understanding and representing Africa's weather and climate dynamics. The application process is a single-stage submission, opening on December 18, 2025, with a deadline of April 15, 2026. The anticipated project outcomes include improved weather and climate predictions, effective adaptation strategies, and contributions to broader global climate initiatives. The proposal must demonstrate significant co-creation between African and European researchers, ensuring that solutions are relevant and co-owned by African stakeholders. This initiative reflects a commitment to strengthen African climate science and reduce reliance on external expertise, with a strong emphasis on capacity building and open science practices.

This EU funding opportunity, under the Horizon Europe program, aims to improve climate and weather models for Africa. The call, CLIMATE (HORIZON-CL5-2026-07), is for HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-RIA) and uses the HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS] model grant agreement. The submission deadline is April 15, 2026, at 17:00:00 Brussels time, with the submission session opening on December 18, 2025.

The expected outcomes of funded projects include:

Improved quality and performance of weather and climate models over Africa, tailored to the continent’s needs.

More effective adaptation actions and disaster risk response strategies.

Informing the implementation of the international dimension of the EU Adaptation and Preparedness Union Strategies, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Nairobi Declaration, and the Team Europe Initiative on Adaptation and Resilience in Africa.

Enhanced provision of weather predictions and climate projections for African communities.

Contributing to the objectives of the AU-EU Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy.

Bolstering African climate research and supporting the development of the next generation of climate scientists.

Reduced reliance on external expertise.

Increased representation of African science and scientists in international bodies such as the IPCC and UNFCCC.

Enhanced African contribution to global climate initiatives such as CMIP, CORDEX, and ISIMIP.

The scope of the actions should address critical knowledge gaps for improving weather and climate modeling for Africa in the context of a changing climate. The focus should be on understanding and representing weather and climate dynamics in Africa at regional, interregional, or continental scales. Projects should enhance models’ predictive skill and reduce uncertainties in key areas such as rainfall and extreme weather events. Actions should harness observational data to advance process-based understanding and model performance across various Earth System components (e.g., land, ocean, atmosphere). This includes improving data collection, assimilation, and quality assurance practices, as well as integrating local and rescued historical data to provide high-quality inputs for models. The use of digital technologies, including AI/ML techniques, tools, and models, and advances in high-performance computing are encouraged.

Research should be performed in close cooperation and co-creation between African and European teams to ensure relevance, acceptance, and co-ownership of solutions by African stakeholders. Actions are also expected to contribute to local capacity-building and knowledge exchange to support competence growth and equip African researchers with the data, tools, and expertise necessary to sustain future progress. Strong partnerships should be established between relevant institutions in both regions, such as universities, research bodies, National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), and African Regional Climate Centers (RCCs), to enable mutual learning and collaborations.

Synergies and complementarity should be sought with other relevant EU-supported initiatives on climate modeling and capacity development in Africa, such as Regional Centres of Excellence related to the green transition. Actions should facilitate access for African researchers to cutting-edge European research infrastructures, including supercomputing assets and data repositories, to strengthen institutional and regional expertise and capacity.

Collaboration and clustering activities with other relevant projects within and outside of Horizon Europe are strongly encouraged.

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

Research should contribute to closing major knowledge gaps on the changing climate, its impacts, and associated risks. It should also help develop tools to support decision-makers in designing and implementing effective mitigation and adaptation actions at various time and spatial scales. The main impacts include supporting climate action in Europe and globally, closing key knowledge gaps related to climate change, strengthening the European Research Area on climate change, and maximizing synergies between mitigation and adaptation with other policy priorities.

General conditions for participation include admissibility conditions related to proposal page limits and layout, eligible countries as described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes, and other eligible conditions such as the use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS for projects using satellite-based data. Legal entities established in all African Union member states are exceptionally eligible for Union funding, and at least 30% of the beneficiaries must be legal entities established in the African Union member states. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria are described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. Evaluation and award criteria, submission and evaluation processes, and the indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement are detailed in Annexes D and F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.

Beneficiaries will be subject to additional obligations regarding open science practices, including open access to new modules, models, or tools developed with EU funding. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021.

Application forms, evaluation forms, model grant agreements, and additional documents are available in the Submission System and through links provided in the call documentation.

The budget overview for the call in 2026 is as follows:

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

This funding opportunity seeks to address the urgent need for improved climate and weather models in Africa, a region highly vulnerable to climate change. By fostering collaboration between African and European researchers, leveraging advanced digital technologies, and promoting capacity building, the call aims to enhance the predictive capabilities of climate models, support effective adaptation strategies, and empower African scientists to contribute to global climate initiatives. The focus is on creating tailored solutions that are relevant, accepted, and co-owned by African stakeholders, ultimately leading to a more climate-resilient and sustainable future for the continent.