EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for the FORWARDS Cascade Grant

Executive Summary

The FORWARDS call – “Pilots of long-term climate impact forest monitoring sites” – offers a uniquely European springboard for deploying near-real-time ecosystem monitoring across the continent. By leveraging cascade funding, beneficiaries can rapidly test, validate and scale forest-climate solutions while tapping into the EU’s single market of 450+ million citizens, harmonised regulations and world-class innovation networks.

1. Single Market Access

• Pan-European Demand: 34 % of EU land is forested; every Member State needs robust climate-impact monitoring to meet EU reporting obligations under LULUCF and the proposed Nature Restoration Law.

• Commercial Upscaling: A unified market simplifies commercial roll-out of hardware (sensors, drones) and data services (AI analytics, digital twins) to public agencies and private forest owners.

• Procurement Leverage: Access to EU joint-procurement frameworks (e.g., Horizon Pre-Commercial Procurement, Digital Europe GovTech) widens customer base and reduces administrative overhead.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration

• Living Labs Network: Grant explicitly funds transnational pilot sites, enabling researchers from Boreal, Temperate and Mediterranean biogeographical regions to co-develop harmonised protocols.

• Knowledge Transfer: Open-data clauses promote exchange of time-series datasets, enhancing interoperability with existing EU infrastructures like Copernicus and the European Forest Data Centre (EFDAC).

• Mobility & Training: Teams can use Erasmus+ and Marie Skłodowska-Curie budgets for staff exchanges, strengthening the human capital pipeline.

3. EU Policy Alignment

• European Green Deal: Directly supports the 2030 Climate Target Plan and the EU Biodiversity Strategy by providing evidence for carbon-sink management and ecosystem resilience.

• Digital Europe Programme: Advances deployment of European Digital Twin of the Earth by supplying high-resolution forest data streams.

• Fit-for-55 & LULUCF Regulation: Generates compliance-grade MRV (Monitoring-Reporting-Verification) data critical for Member States’ carbon accounting.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation

• One Conformity Assessment: CE-marking and EU AI Act conformity achieved once, valid across all 27 Member States.

• GDPR-Aligned Data Governance: A common legal framework eases cross-border data flows of LiDAR, hyperspectral imagery and IoT sensor data.

• State-Aid Compatible: Cascade funding is de-risked and exempt from complex national state-aid notifications, accelerating time-to-grant.

5. Innovation Ecosystem Access

• Top-Tier R&D Infrastructure: Synergies with ESFRI facilities (e.g., eLTER, ICOS) provide calibration sites and advanced labs.

• Cluster Collaboration: Engage with EIT Climate-KIC, Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking, and European Forest Institute networks for co-creation and matchmaking.

• Talent Pool: Unlocks Europe’s 2 million strong STEM researcher base, enabling multidisciplinary teams (ecology, AI, remote sensing, economics).

6. Funding Synergies

• Horizon Europe: Results can feed into larger RIA/IA projects (Cluster 6, Mission Adaptation to Climate Change) for TRL escalation.

• LIFE Programme: Pilot outcomes may qualify for LIFE Climate Action scaling grants.

• CAP & Rural Development: Data products can underpin eco-schemes and result-based payments, unlocking national/EAFRD co-financing.

• InvestEU Green Transition Window: De-risked tech validated through FORWARDS can attract blended finance for commercial roll-out.

7. Scale & Impact Potential

• Continent-Wide Deployment: Harmonised protocols allow replication in >300 regional forest districts, covering diverse ecological gradients.

• Real-Time Policy Feedback Loops: Near-real-time dashboards provide decision-makers with actionable insights during extreme events (droughts, fires, pests).

• Carbon Market Integration: Robust, standardised data supports EU-wide voluntary carbon market accreditation, boosting private investment.

• Climate Resilience Benchmarking: Establishes a European reference network for long-term climate impact, enabling benchmarking and best-practice diffusion.

8. Strategic Value at EU Scale

1. Network Effects: The more Member States join the monitoring network, the richer the dataset and the stronger the predictive models – a self-reinforcing EU-level public good.

2. Cost Efficiency: Shared infrastructure and joint procurement lower per-site CAPEX/OPEX by up to 30 % compared to isolated national pilots.

3. Policy Coherence: Aligns local forestry actions with EU-level climate goals, reducing regulatory fragmentation and compliance costs.

4. Global Leadership: Positions the EU as a frontrunner in forest-climate monitoring, creating export opportunities for European tech and standards.

---

Actionable Next Steps

• Build a consortium spanning at least three climatic regions to maximise cross-border learning.

• Map overlap with ICOS and eLTER sites for immediate infrastructure leverage.

• Design data architecture fully compliant with INSPIRE and Copernicus requirements to facilitate future integration.

• Plan follow-up funding pathways (e.g., LIFE, InvestEU) in your exploitation strategy from day one.