Additional activities for the European partnership on animal health and welfare

Expected Outcome:

The successful proposal is expected to further contribute to the expected outcomes specified in topic HORIZON-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-2: European partnership on animal health and welfare, for continuation of the activities in line with already agreed outcomes.

Scope:

The objective of this action is to continue to provide support to the European partnership on animal health and welfare identified in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024 and first implemented under the topic HORIZON-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-2: European partnership on animal health and welfare, 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-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-2: European partnership on animal health and welfare 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 been implementing the partnership through a co-funded call launched in year 2024 and a number of internal activities, including research projects, based on this planning and further to topic HORIZON-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-2. In this context, the current consortium has unique expertise in relation to the objectives of the partnership, the activities to be implemented in particular through financial support to third parties and internal activities clearly required/envisioned pursuant to the initial proposal/partnership. In practice, another consortium could not continue the activities of the partnership underway without significant disruption to the ongoing activities, if at all.

The proposal submitted to this call should align with the partnership’s co-created strategic research and innovation agenda. Activities should reflect a balanced proportion of financial support to third parties and of internal activities, including research projects, integrative activities, networking, training or other activities. Through its activities, the partnership should deliver and give rise to ready-to-use tools, solutions and innovations, seek uptake of results by farmers, veterinarians and all relevant stakeholders, and provide science-based policy advisory activities. The proposal should focus on additional priority activities and when duly justified, on continuation of on-going activities.

The partnership should seek to include additional partners, in particular from Member States and Associated countries not yet in the consortium funded under HORIZON-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-2.

The partnership should pool the necessary financial resources from the participating national (or regional) research programmes with a view to organising and implementing joint calls for transnational proposals resulting in grants to third parties, for which it should factor ample time to run the co-funded projects.

Specific additional activities to strengthen the complementarities of the European partnership on animal health and welfare with the related Horizon Europe partnerships, identified in the proposal submitted by the coordinator of the consortium funded under HORIZON-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-2, as well as activities to enhance the partnership’s collaborations at international level, should also be described.

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-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-2 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-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-2 and foresees an amendment to an existing grant agreement, the proposal should also present in a separate document the additional activities and any additional partners to be covered by the award in terms of how they would be reflected in the grant agreement.