Increasing knowledge flows to practice within AKIS via EU thematic knowledge hubs

The Horizon Europe grant opportunity HORIZON-CL6-2027-03-GOVERNANCE-05 focuses on increasing knowledge flows within Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) through the establishment of EU thematic knowledge hubs. This program aims to create multi-actor consortia consisting of a diverse range of participants including researchers, advisors, farmers, and other stakeholders with the goal of enhancing knowledge dissemination and practical application in the agricultural sector.

Eligible applicants must form a consortium incorporating a minimum of 30% impartial advisors to ensure a balanced representation of various actors. The funding, provided as a lump sum grant, amounts to €3.5 million per project, expected to support two projects with a total pot of approximately €7 million. The call is designed for submission in a single stage, with the opening date set for February 4, 2027, and the deadline for submission on May 11, 2027.

Geographically, the eligibility extends to EU Member States and associated countries, requiring that knowledge generated and disseminated reach at least 14 EU Member States and be translated into all 24 EU official languages to facilitate broad access. The targeted sectors include agriculture, forestry, and rural development, focusing on two thematic areas: holistic management of crop nutrition and protection systems, and agrobiodiversity and wild pollinators.

The project stage is centered on knowledge dissemination, ensuring that existing research and best practices are transformed into accessible formats for advisors and end-users. This initiative seeks to address practical needs by compiling impactful scientific and practical knowledge and developing training materials and resources aimed at enhancing the competencies of advisors.

While co-funding is not explicitly required, collaborative engagements and contributions from consortium partners are anticipated. The application process includes a sequential evaluation to ensure a balanced selection of proposals from both thematic areas, reinforcing the competitive nature of this funding opportunity. Success rates remain uncertain but are typically low, reflecting the competitive standard of Horizon Europe calls.

Overall, this program aims to foster a collaborative environment within AKIS, facilitating knowledge exchange and practical implementation to enhance sustainability and innovation in agriculture and rural areas across Europe.

This is a Horizon Europe (HORIZON) call, specifically Call 03, a single-stage call for 2027, identified as HORIZON-CL6-2027-03. The opportunity aims to increase knowledge flows to practice within the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) via EU thematic knowledge hubs. The type of action is HORIZON-CSA, which stands for HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions. The Model Grant Agreement (MGA) type is a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]. The planned opening date is 04 February 2027, and the deadline for submission is 11 May 2027 at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The expected outcomes of the projects funded under this call are to foster competitiveness, sustainability (including biodiversity restoration where relevant), and resilience of agriculture, forestry, and rural areas by providing impartial and tailored knowledge to advisors and end-users. It also aims to better integrate advisors into the AKIS with up-to-date, practice-oriented knowledge, enabling them to provide farmers with high-quality and impartial advice. Furthermore, the call seeks to ensure that research findings, innovative solutions, practical knowledge, and best practices are well-known, widely shared, and used in practice by end-users.

The scope of this call addresses the growing need to disseminate practical knowledge on challenges and opportunities for agriculture, forestry, and rural areas, drawing from both scientific research and practical experience. It emphasizes the importance of effectively linking this knowledge to relevant actors through enhanced thematic collaboration between researchers, advisors, and farmers. EU thematic knowledge hubs are expected to transform existing and new knowledge into accessible formats for advisors and targeted end-users, focusing on dissemination rather than collection. By combining the strengths of thematic and advisory networks, these hubs should offer services to disseminate information on specific themes among practitioners, contributing to a well-informed and engaged AKIS community. Proposals should establish these hubs as primary sources for valuable content, facilitating access to relevant thematic research findings presented practically, innovative solutions, and best practices, thereby empowering advisors and providing opportunities for collaboration and cross-fertilization among AKIS actors.

Proposals should compile comprehensive, up-to-date scientific and practical knowledge, best practices, and innovative solutions within a specified thematic area. These should be effective and ready for practical use but not commonly known or used by end-users. This compilation should primarily draw from existing resources while remaining open to incorporating new sources as they become available. They should develop and widely share an extensive range of useful, applicable, and appealing informative materials and training courses, using effective approaches, formats, and tools (including audio-visual) to reach end-users and advisors through diverse channels used by practitioners. The information should be easily accessible and understandable and translated into at least all 24 EU official languages to allow dissemination across the whole EU. Consortia should ensure the collection and dissemination of knowledge from and to at least fourteen EU Member States, guaranteeing balanced geographical coverage across the EU. Services should be offered to enhance networking, cross-fertilization, and knowledge exchange between AKIS actors to stimulate dialogue on innovative solutions and initiatives, build relations, and support mutual learning across the EU. Advisors should be actively involved in EU thematic knowledge hubs, and other relevant AKIS actors (including AKIS coordination bodies) and actions at European/national/regional levels should be mobilized to support the implementation of knowledge and solutions in practice across the EU. A dedicated task and appropriate resources should be included to collaborate with, ensure complementarities, avoid duplication of efforts, and efficiently use the outputs and activities of relevant past, existing, and future AKIS projects. Strong collaborations should be established with national or regional authorities and ecosystems, ensuring effective partnerships that support Member States in the training of advisors and enable them to provide practical guidance tailored to diverse contexts, including accessing finance. A long-term plan should be developed to update and maintain the knowledge hub and its outputs beyond the project duration, ensuring that all resources are created with interoperability, adaptability, and transferability in mind to facilitate their continued use and transfer/integration across diverse platforms and stakeholders.

Proposals should address either thematic Area A: Holistic management of crop nutrition and protection for resilient and healthy cropping systems, or Area B: Agrobiodiversity and wild pollinators for economic and environmental sustainability. The area (A or B) should be clearly indicated in the proposal. Within each broad thematic area, applicants should select specific topics in a bottom-up way to respond to the most urgent needs from practice, explain the relevance of the theme in relation to end-users’ needs, and clarify the added value of the proposal, avoiding duplication with ongoing or completed thematic networks and projects.

Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, with a balanced consortium of relevant actors with complementary knowledge, actively involving advisors and end-users to identify the most urgent practical needs and plan and execute the main tasks of the thematic knowledge hub. A minimum of 30% of the people involved in the project should be impartial advisors, spending at least half of their working time on giving advice to farmers. Consortium partners should have a wide network and be capable of involving as many professionally active advisors as possible across the EU into the activities of the project. To this end, proposals may involve financial support to third parties (FSTP) to ensure the involvement of advisors from across the whole EU in the activities of the advisory network.

The projects under this topic are relevant to EU policies related to the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food and the cross-cutting objective of the common agricultural policy (CAP) to enhance knowledge flows among AKIS actors, particularly advisory services and end-users.

The general conditions include admissibility conditions related to proposal page limits and layout, eligible countries (as described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes, with specific provisions for non-EU/non-Associated Countries), and other eligibility conditions, such as the application of the multi-actor approach. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion are described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

The evaluation and award process includes award criteria, scoring, and thresholds, as described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. To ensure a balanced portfolio, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least to one application highest ranked within each area, A and B, provided that the applications attain all thresholds. Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is also described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum, as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021. Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties, with a maximum amount of EUR 60,000 to each third party. Legal and financial set-up of the grants are 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 agreements (MGA) are available in the Submission System. Additional documents include the HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027, EIC Work Programme 2026, ERC Work Programme 2026, HE Programme Guide, HE Framework Programme 2021/695, HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, and various guidance documents and rules for legal entity validation and financial capacity assessment.

The budget overview indicates that there are seven topics under HORIZON-CL6-2027-03-GOVERNANCE, with varying budgets, action types (RIA, CSA, IA), and indicative numbers of grants. The opening date for all topics is 2027-02-04, and the deadline is 2027-05-11.

Partner search announcements can be viewed and edited by LEARs, Account Administrators, or self-registrants after logging into the portal. The submission system is planned to be opened on the date stated on the topic header.

This funding opportunity aims to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing within the European agricultural sector. It seeks to establish thematic knowledge hubs that translate research findings and best practices into practical advice for farmers and other end-users. The initiative encourages the creation of networks involving researchers, advisors, and farmers to address challenges and opportunities in agriculture, forestry, and rural areas. By providing financial support and guidance, the EU aims to enhance the competitiveness, sustainability, and resilience of the agricultural sector while promoting innovation and knowledge exchange across member states. The call is structured to ensure a balanced portfolio of projects, covering key thematic areas and involving a diverse range of stakeholders.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated, but based on the context, they are likely to include a consortium of relevant actors with complementary knowledge, actively involving advisors and end-users. This suggests that research institutes, universities, agricultural organizations, advisory services, and possibly SMEs and NGOs with relevant expertise could be eligible. The multi-actor approach requires a balanced consortium.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS] under the Horizon Europe Programme. Financial support to third parties is also possible in the form of grants, with a maximum of EUR 60,000 per third party.

Consortium Requirement: A consortium is required. The proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, with a balanced consortium of relevant actors with complementary knowledge. Minimum 30% of the number of people involved in the project should be impartial advisors.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility includes EU Member States. Consortia should ensure collection and dissemination of knowledge from and to at least fourteen EU Member States, guaranteeing a balanced geographical coverage across the EU. Non-EU/non-Associated Countries may also be eligible, as specific provisions may exist for their participation in Horizon Europe projects; refer to the Horizon Europe Programme Guide for details.

Target Sector: The program targets the agriculture, forestry, and rural areas sectors. Specifically, it focuses on enhancing knowledge flows within the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS). The thematic areas include: Holistic management of crop nutrition and protection for resilient and healthy cropping systems, and Agrobiodiversity and wild pollinators for economic and environmental sustainability.

Mentioned Countries: At least fourteen EU Member States must be involved in the consortium, ensuring balanced geographical coverage across the EU. Non-EU/non-Associated Countries may also be eligible.

Project Stage: The project stage is focused on knowledge dissemination and implementation, targeting research findings, innovative solutions, practical knowledge, and best practices that are effective and ready for use in practice. The emphasis is on transforming existing and new knowledge into accessible formats for advisors and end-users, focusing on dissemination over collection.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific HORIZON action type. For the HORIZON-CL6-2027-03-GOVERNANCE calls, the indicative funding ranges are:
HORIZON-RIA: approximately EUR 6,000,000 per grant (two grants available for actions with a budget of EUR 12,000,000 and one grant for actions with a budget of EUR 6,000,000)
HORIZON-CSA: approximately EUR 3,000,000, EUR 3,500,000, EUR 4,500,000 or EUR 4,750,000 per grant (depending on the action)
HORIZON-IA: EUR 5,000,000 to EUR 6,000,000 per grant (two grants available for actions with a budget of EUR 11,800,000)

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage call, meaning that applicants submit a full proposal at once.

Nature of Support: The beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a lump sum grant. They may also provide financial support to third parties in the form of grants, up to EUR 60,000 per third party.

Application Stages: The application process involves a single stage, where a full proposal is submitted.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the indicative number of grants for each topic provides some context. For example, some topics indicate that only one or two grants will be awarded, suggesting a competitive process.

Co-funding Requirement: The information does not explicitly state a co-funding requirement. However, Horizon Europe typically encourages applicants to leverage other sources of funding and demonstrate the sustainability of the project beyond the grant period.

Summary: This Horizon Europe call, part of the HORIZON-CL6-2027-03-GOVERNANCE program, aims to enhance knowledge flows within the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) by establishing EU thematic knowledge hubs. These hubs will serve as central resources for up-to-date scientific and practical knowledge, best practices, and innovative solutions in agriculture, forestry, and rural areas. The call encourages consortia to adopt a multi-actor approach, actively involving advisors, end-users (farmers, foresters, and other rural actors), and other relevant stakeholders. Projects should focus on compiling, translating, and disseminating knowledge in accessible formats across at least fourteen EU Member States, ensuring a balanced geographical coverage. Proposals should address one of two thematic areas: Holistic management of crop nutrition and protection for resilient and healthy cropping systems, or Agrobiodiversity and wild pollinators for economic and environmental sustainability. The funding is provided as a lump sum grant, with opportunities for financial support to third parties. The call seeks to foster competitiveness, sustainability, and resilience in agriculture, forestry, and rural areas by empowering advisors with cutting-edge knowledge and promoting cross-fertilization among AKIS actors. The application process is a single-stage submission, with a planned opening date of February 4, 2027, and a deadline of May 11, 2027.