European Agroecology Partnership 2024 Call

The Agroecology partnership, 50% co-financed by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme and with a duration of seven years, promotes the transition to agroecology and more resilient, productive and prosperous agricultural systems that are sensitive to place, climate, environment, ecosystems, biodiversity and people - goals to be achieved by 2050. This initiative is based on the concept that it is possible to address the challenges facing the European agricultural sector through agroecology, bringing together farmers, researchers and other relevant stakeholders to co-develop, test and monitor new practices, approaches and technologies in real contexts, namely through living labs. The partnership will develop networks of living labs and research infrastructures to enable experimentation between practice and science at different levels, in order to develop and improve the concrete and local implementation of innovations.

The aim of the first Joint Transnational Call (JTC) launched by the Agroecology partnership is to fund transdisciplinary research and innovation projects that address the agroecological transition of conventional and organic farming systems. Projects are expected to study and implement agroecology under two themes:

• Theme 1 – Enhancing agroecology at the farm level.
• Theme 2 – Implementing agroecology at the landscape level.

Proposals must show a multidisciplinary and integrated approach, following a multisectoral perspective and considering problems and challenges with a European and global vision. R&I issues must address the real needs of stakeholders involved in co-creation processes, together with end users, and integrate their practical knowledge.

The following are individual or co-promotion beneficiaries:

a) Non-entrepreneurial entities of the R&I system, namely:

1. Higher education institutions, their institutes and R&D units;
2. State, Associated or International Laboratories based in Portugal;
3. Private non-profit institutions whose main purpose is R&D activities, including Collaborative Laboratories (CoLab) and Technology and Innovation Centres (TIC);
4. Other non-profit public and private institutions developing or participating in scientific research activities.

b) Companies of any nature and in any legal form.

The information contained in this section does not dispense with consulting Article 3 of the "Regulations for projects financed exclusively by national funds" (Regulation no. 5/2024, which amends and republishes the Regulation no. 999/2016, of 31 October).

The call funds projects submitted by transnational consortia. Applicants can only apply for funding from the respective national/regional funding agencies of the call (please refer to the "Call Text" document in the "Call documents" area for the funding agencies of the call).  Each funding agency will only fund projects submitted by team(s) from their countries/regions that are part of the transnational consortia. The transnational eligibility conditions and the national/regional eligibility rules for each funding agency are detailed in the call documents.

To prepare your application you should:

1- Consult the "Call Documents" area.

2- Consult the national/regional rules of the countries that make up the consortium (including the Portuguese ones), available in the "Call text" document. Partners who are considered ineligible could lead to the rejection of the entire consortium.

3- The coordinator of the transnational consortium must complete the proposal form on the application submission platform (see "Useful links") no later then the 26th of april 2024 at 13:00 GMT.

4- The national Principal Researcher (PR) - coordinator and/or participant in the transnational consortium - and the legal representative of the respective Portuguese Proposing Institution (PI) of an application requesting funding from FCT must complete, sign and send, no later than 10 working days after the application submission deadline (only in the pre-proposal phase), a Declaration of Commitment (DC), a draft of which is available in the "Call Documents" area. The DC should be sent to the emails listed in the "Contacts" tab.

NOTES:

- If there are two or more national PRs in the same transnational consortium requesting funding from FCT, each of the PRs and their respective PI must send the completed and signed DC to FCT.

- Portuguese members of transnational consortia that do not request funding from FCT do not need to submit the DC to FCT.

- The stamp or white seal of the Portuguese Proposing Institution and, if applicable, of the R&D Unit, will not be required on a digitally signed DC, as long as it is signed in the Autenticação.gov application with professional attributes that identify the functions performed by the signatory.

The information on this page is only a summary of the information on the call and does not mean that you should not carefully read all the call documents available on this page and on the call page (see "Useful links").

Eligibility

The eligibility check of proposals is carried out at both stages of the call (pre-proposal submission stage and full proposal submission stage):

• National/Regional Funding Agencies check national eligibility of pre-proposals and full proposals, ensuring compliance with the formal requirements in the applicable national/regional regulations (see “FCT’s regulation” and “Financial Execution Rules”, in the “Call Documents” area).
• Transnational eligibility check of pre-proposals and full proposals will be performed by the Call Secretariat, according to the transnational eligibility criteria presented in the “Call Text” in the “Call Documents” area.

Note: For a proposal to be declared eligible it must fulfil both the national and transnational criteria.

Evaluation

The call includes two evaluation phases:

• Pre-proposal evaluation stage
• Full proposal evaluation stage (only pre-proposals that have been invited by the Call Steering Committee (CSC) - made up by the national/regional funding agencies of the call - to submit a full proposal based on the evaluation obtained in the previous phase, will be evaluated).

The proposals will be evaluated by an evaluation panel composed of independent international experts, according to the evaluation criteria described in the "Call Text" in the "Call documents" area.

It is up to the CSC to decide, depending on the stage the call is at, which 1) pre-proposals to invite to submit a full proposal, and, 2) which proposals to recommend for funding. For this purpose, the CSC will follow the order of the ranking list established by the evaluation panel, according to the available budget.

• FCT financial commitment for the call: 500.000,00€
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese participation: 150.000,00€
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese coordination: 250.000,00€

NOTES:

• Portuguese institutions funding must follow FCT's “Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds”, Regulation no. 5/2024, of 3RD January, which amends and republishes Regulation no. 999/2016, of 31ST October (see “FCT’s regulations” in the "Call Documents" area), and other applicable national and EU legislation, as well as “Financial Execution Rules” (to be available soon in the "Call Documents" area).
• If more than one Portuguese applicant participating in the same consortium applies for funding by FCT, the combined funding demanded by all the Portuguese applicants may not exceed the maximum financial threshold for projects with Portuguese coordination (250.000,00 €) or Portuguese participation (150.000,00 €). Portuguese institutions in the same consortium will have to share the funding that will be granted by FCT.

• The percentage (maximum and/or minimum) of time dedicated (FTE) to transnational projects is not counted towards the dedication (FTE) of national projects.

• Under the terms of number 2 of Article 7 of the Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds, payments made directly to companies, or indirectly through the Proposing Institution cannot exceed 50% of the total cost of the company’s participation.

Call web page

Application submission platform

Agroecology web page (available soon)

Partnering tool web page (available soon)

Marta Norton

marta.norton@fct.pt

Tel: [+351] 21 391 1565

Pedro Ferreira

Pedromiguel.ferreira@fct.pt

Tel: (+351) 213 924 445