ExpectedOutcome:
The second instalment of the partnership is expected in continuation to contribute to expected outcomes specified in topic HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01: European partnership rescuing biodiversity to safeguard life on Earth, for continuation of the activities and the continuation of already agreed outcomes.
Scope:
The objective of this action is to continue to provide support to the European Partnership Biodiversa+ identified in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024 and first implemented under the topic HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01: European partnership rescuing biodiversity to safeguard life on Earth, and in particular to fund additional activities (which may also be undertaken by additional partners) in view of its intended scope and duration, and in accordance with Article 24(2) of the Horizon Europe Regulation.
The consortium which applied to and received funding under HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01: European partnership rescuing biodiversity to safeguard life on Earth is uniquely placed to submit a proposal to continue the envisioned partnership. Not only did this consortium submit the proposal leading to the identification of the partnership in the Horizon Europe strategic planning 2021-2024, it has also implemented the partnership through co-funded calls in years 2021 and 2022 based on this planning and further to topic HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01. In this context, the current consortium has particular expertise in relation to the objectives of the Partnership, the activities to be implemented in particular FSTP calls or other calls/scope of calls clearly required/envisioned pursuant to initial proposal/partnership, and other relevant aspects of the action. In practice, another consortium could not continue the activities of the Partnership underway without significant disruption to the ongoing activities, if at all.
The scope of the application for this call on the European partnership for Biodiversity Biodiversa+ should focus on the flagship programmes 2023-27 according to the partnership’s co-created strategic research and innovation agenda for seven years, which includes calls for research projects, biodiversity- and ecosystems monitoring and science-based policy advisory activities, and all horizontal activities to allow the Partnership to operate and to achieve its five specific objectives.
It is expected that the partnership continues to organise joint calls on an annual base and therefore it should factor ample time to run the co-funded projects. It should build on, and widen, the data availability in European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud.
The partnership should collaborate closely with the EC ‘Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity’ and with the Science Service project ‘Bio-Agora’, and seek to collaborate with EU space programmes (Copernicus, Galileo) to foster the use of emerging or operational space technologies for policy development. Moreover, the partnership should describe specific activities foreseen in order to strengthen the synergies with other related Missions and Partnerships.
While the award of a grant to continue the Partnership in accordance with this call should be based on a proposal submitted by the coordinator of the consortium funded under HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01 and the additional activities (which may include additional partners) to be funded by the grant should be subject to an evaluation, this evaluation should take into account the existing context and the scope of the initial evaluation as relevant, and related obligations enshrined in the grant agreement.
Taking into account that the present action is a continuation of topic HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01 and foresees an amendment to an existing grant agreement, the proposal should also present in a separate document the additional activities and additional partners, if any, to be covered by the award in terms of how they would be reflected in the grant agreement.
The partnership should pool the necessary financial resources from the participating national (or regional) research programmes with a view to implementing joint calls for transnational proposals resulting in grants to third parties.
The Commission envisages to include new actions in future work programme(s) to continue providing support to the partnership for the duration of Horizon Europe.
Specific Topic Conditions:
The total indicative budget for the duration of the partnership is EUR 165 million.
