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Horizon Europe is the financial instrument supporting Research & Innovation in the EU, implementing the Innovation Union policy, a European flagship initiative aimed at enhancing Europe's global research competitiveness.
Horizon Europe is an EU funding programme for research and innovation which will run from 2021 to 2027 inclusive with a proposed budget of €95 billion.
Role of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine role in Horizon Europe and Horizon Europe:
Horizon Europe is broken down into three main pillars: Pillar I. Excellent Science, Pillar II. Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness and Pillar III. Innovative Europe.
Pillar II Cluster 6, encompasses research and innovation calls in relation to Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment. The primary aim of the programme is to contribute to securing sufficient supplies of safe, healthy and high quality food and bio based products and transform Europe into a sustainable bioeconomy while maintaining and enhancing the environment.
Work programmes announce the specific areas that will be funded by Horizon Europe and to-date have been announced on a bi-annual basis. DAFM facilitates Irish involvement in Horizon Europe Pillar II cluster 6, and in preparing for Horizon Europe work programme by providing a National Delegate and a National Contact Point (Dr Willie Ryan), for the Agri-Food related calls whereas fisheries and marine related calls are serviced by the Marine Institute.
The National Delegate has an influential role regarding the Horizon Europe Cluster 6 Work Programme at the related Programme Committee while the role of the National Contact Point is to increase Irish participation and success in these funding programmes. The National Contact Point includes the following activities: provision of information and advice; dissemination of information on upcoming and open calls, identification of potential participants; assistance with partner search activities; pre-submission support; support and training including on legal, contractual and IPR issues (for successful participants); post call review; ongoing advice and support on next steps for successful and unsuccessful applicants.
The National Delegate and Contact Point are also members of the Enterprise Ireland led National Horizon Europe Support Network where they work closely with other National Delegates, National Contact Points and Academic Institution Research Offices to promote agri-food related Irish participation in Horizon Europe across agri-food relevant parts of the other pillars, e.g. Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, as well as other relevant challenge areas in particular health, energy, and environment.
The Horizon Europe funding program will incorporate research and innovation Missions to increase the effectiveness of funding by pursuing clearly defined targets. The Commission has engaged policy experts to develop studies, case studies and reports on how a Mission oriented policy approach will work.
Five Mission areas have been identified under Horizon Europe, each with a dedicated Mission Board and Assembly. They will help specify, define and implement specific Missions within this new funding program.
The 5 Mission areas are; -Adaption to climate change including societal transformation; - Cancer; - Climate neutral and smart cities; - Healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters and - Soil health and food.
Furthermore there will be partnerships of these being of interest to the Agri-food sector. The list of partnerships has not been finalised yet but is expected to include, antimicrobial resistance, infectious animal diseases, agro-ecology living-labs and a sustainable blue economy among others.
DAFM and specifically the National Contact Point for Horizon Europe will engage fully in preparing the Horizon Work Programmes and work to promote and engage with the Partnerships and the Soil Mission.
SCAR is a broader setting used to discuss all agricultural research; it is not limited to Horizon 2020 topics. It meets several times per year in different formats, depending on the topic or level. It is a group of high level officials from around Europe providing advice to the Commission and other MS in relation to research for agriculture, food, fisheries and the Bioeconomy. DAFM is coordinating Irish involvement in SCAR. Dr. Willie Ryan coordinates the Irish involvement in this.
The European Innovation Partnership for Agriculture productivity and sustainability EIP - AGRIproduces specific brochures on Horizon 2020 calls, highlighting the opportunities for funding of interest in particular for agriculture, forestry, bioeconomy and rural areas.
Research & innovation community in Ireland should consider participating in the European Innovation Partnership with regard to sharing projects, ideas, and seeking out partners amongst many actions and possibilities available.
Relevant innovation finance opportunities related to agri-food can also be found here .
The Scientific Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) launched in late 2015 a foresight report in relation to the Bioeconomy.
The 2020 BBI JU Call for proposals is now opened. This is the link in the participant portal. The opening date was: 15 April 2020.
Please see the Biobased Industries Joint Technology Initiative website for more details.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – through its Co-operative Research Programme (CRP) – has opened a call for applications to fund research fellowships and attendance at international conferences (such as workshops, congresses and symposia) in 2020.
The CRP is supported by 24 of the 34 OECD member countries (including Ireland) and operates under three themes:
Managing Natural Capital for the Future
Managing Risks in a Connected World
Bio - Based Industries
Transformational Technologies and Innovation
The CRP supports travelling fellowships from six to 26 weeks for established scientists and supports conferences/workshops on issues relevant to the programme and OECD.
The Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI) brings together 21 member countries and New Zealand (associate member) who are committed to building an integrated European Research Area addressing the interconnected challenges of sustainable agriculture, food security and impacts of climate change.
FACCE-JPI provides and steers research to support sustainable agricultural production and economic growth, to contribute to a European bio-based economy, while maintaining and restoring ecosystem services under current and future climate change.
The FACCE JPI has five core research themes:
-Sustainable food security under climate change, based on an integrated food systems perspective modelling, benchmarking and policy research perspective.
-Environmentally sustainable intensification of agricultural systems under current and future climate and
resource availability.
-Developing synergies and reducing trade-offs between food supply, biodiversity and ecosystem services.
-Adaptation to climate change throughout the whole food chain, including market repercussions.
-Mitigation of climate change: nitrous oxide and methane mitigation in the agriculture and forestry sector, carbon sequestration, fossil fuel substitution and mitigating GHG emissions induced by indirect land use change.
The Governing Board of the FACCE-JPI adopted its 2016-2018 Implementation Plan in November 2015. The Implementation Plans updated the first FACCE-JPI Strategic Research Agenda in 2012 taking into account scientific advances as well as FACCE-JPI’s own achievements and the international policy context. The new updated FACCE-JPI SRA 2016 has updated the content of the five Core Themes andlisted a number of priority actions, taking better account of the socio-economic aspects and the need for impact.
Ireland through DAFM and Teagasc are represented on the Governing Board of the FACCE-JPI. Arising from Irelands’ proactive involvement in the FACCE JPI a number of funding opportunities are available to Irish Researchers to help address the scientific challenges of the five FACCE JPI core research themes, including the ERA-Nets ERA-Gas, SusAn and WaterWorks.
The Joint Programming Initiative a Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life (JPI HDHL) brings together 20 countries that align research programming and fund new research to prevent or minimise diet-related chronic diseases.
The research area focuses on the links between nutrition and health, as well as nutrition-related public health interventions and aims to enhance co-ordination of research investment in these areas. The vision of the JPI HDHL is that by 2030 all citizens will have the motivation, ability and opportunity to consume a healthy diet from a variety of foods, have healthy levels of physical activity and that the incidence of diet-related diseases will have decreased significantly.
DAFM and the HRB participate in the Management Board of the JPI HDHL and participate as funders in various research.
The US-Ireland R&D Partnership is a tri-jurisdictional alliance between Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United States which was officially launched in 2006. Its aim is to promote collaborative innovative research projects which create value above and beyond individual efforts. InterTradeIreland
provides support and facilitates arrangements between the various funding partners involved in the US-Ireland R&D Partnership initiatives.
Agriculture and the US-Ireland Research and Development Partnership
Since 2016 the scope of the Partnership has been extended to include agriculture research focused on selected priority areas – this has resulted in Ireland and Northern Ireland based researchers being able to compete with US-based researchers in selected areas.
The following partner agencies provide research funding in the Agriculture thematic area in the US-Ireland R&D Partnership:
• In the United States (US), the National Institute of Food and Agriculture NIFA), within the US Department of Agriculture
• In the Republic of Ireland (RoI), the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM)
• In Northern Ireland (NI), the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA)
It is under the Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Foundation Programme, one of NIFA’s major competitive grant programs through which it addresses critical societal issues, that US-Ireland tripartite applicants have an opportunity to compete for awards but limited only to the scope of the stated priority areas for the US-Ireland R&D Partnership.
For detailed Call information, please see here
RSF Projects Funded under Transnational Calls 2011-2015
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RSF projects funded under EraGas Call 2016
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RSF projects funded under SusAn Call 2016
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RSF projects funded under US-Ireland R&D Partnership Call 2016
DownloadThe Department is represented on, and contributes to, the European Joint Programme on Agricultural Soils (EJP Soil). As part of DAFM’s commitment to strengthening European research collaborations under Horizon Europe (HEU), the department contributes to a range of strategic research initiatives under DAFM’s International Outreach Research Strand.
The European Joint Programme (EJP) on Soils that aims to overcome current fragmentation in research and to accelerate the potential of agricultural soils to contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation. In parallel, it is also tasked to create an integrated framework for agricultural soil research in Europe to enhance capacity, capability, and knowledge in soil research, and to contribute to the Soil Mission under Horizon Europe.
EJP SOIL is a European Joint Programme Cofund on Agricultural Soil Management contributing to key societal challenges including climate change, water and future food security.
The objectives are to develop knowledge, tools and an integrated research community to foster climate-smart sustainable agricultural soil management that:
• Allows sustainable food production
• Sustains soil biodiversity
• Sustains soil functions that preserves ecosystem services
The main aim of EJP SOIL is to develop a sustainable framework for an integrated community of researchers working on related aspects of agricultural soil management. The major aspects of knowledge on agricultural soil management to be addressed are:
1. Strengthen the European research community on agricultural soil management through a concerted alignment of research, training, and capacity building;
2. Co-construct a roadmap for agricultural soil research with stakeholders;
3. Fill the identified knowledge gaps by fostering research projects and synthesis through the organization of internal and external calls;
4. Build human and institutional research capacity through targeted training end network building;
5. Create harmonised soil information systems and foster their contribution to reporting through a combination of methodological transnational activities and research projects using geodatabases and combining soil information databases with remote sensing and models; and
6. Support European policies on agriculture and climate by providing a scientific underpinning.
The EJP SOIL programme targets key societal challenges such as;
• Food and water security
• Sustainable agricultural production
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation
• Ecosystem services delivery
• Biodiversity preservation
• Human health and well being
Further information can be found and details about current open research call’s:
EJP SOIL website: https://ejpsoil.eu/
EJP SOIL Online submission tool: https://ejp-soil.ptj.de/
For more information contact:
Research and Codex Division
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Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
