Fostering the consolidation of European science diplomacy
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See in 5 min if you're eligible for Fostering the consolidation of European science diplomacy offering max €26.0M funding💰 Funding Details
Funding Description – HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-DEMOCRACY-02
What is funded
* Type of action: Coordination & Support Action (CSA) paid as a single lump-sum grant.
* Total EU budget envelope for this topic: €26 million.
* Maximum number of projects funded: One – the call is explicitly capped at a single winning proposal.
* Indicative project size: EC expects a very large, pan-European consortium requesting €8–12 million; however, higher or lower budgets are eligible provided they match the work plan and stay within the €26 million ceiling.
* Reimbursement rate: 100 % of eligible direct costs + 25 % flat-rate indirect costs, but all paid as a predefined lump sum once agreed milestones/deliverables are accepted.
* Duration: Typically 48 months (adapt if duly justified).
Eligible applicants
* Coordinator & beneficiaries must be legal entities established in an EU Member State or Horizon-Europe Associated Country.
* Entities from non-associated third countries may be funded exceptionally and only if their participation is indispensable to achieve project aims (explicitly allowed in the topic text).
* Minimum consortium: three independent entities from three different EU/AC countries. Given the scope, a broad, multi-sectoral coalition is expected:
* Universities & RTOs (incl. SSH disciplines)
* Ministries of Foreign Affairs / diplomatic academies
* National research councils & academies
* Civil-society & think-tanks in science diplomacy
* EU-level networks (e.g. EU-SD Alliance, EURAXESS)
* Innovation actors & business associations
Key activities the grant will finance
1. Comprehensive taxonomy & mapping of European and global science-diplomacy actors, infrastructures and strategies.
2. Design, launch and operation of a European Science Diplomacy Platform (ESDP) – a long-term “do-tank” and knowledge hub.
3. Training, capacity-building & mutual-learning schemes (incl. competence frameworks, curricula, fellowships, twinning, staff exchanges).
4. Science-diplomacy support services for EU foreign-policy priorities (Global Gateway, multilateral fora, UNESCO, etc.).
5. Open-science management: producing FAIR data, open knowledge repositories, policy briefs, impact-assessment methods.
6. Stakeholder and citizen outreach, including diaspora & alumni engagement, cultural / tech / digital diplomacy synergies.
Funding rules & compliance checkpoints
* Lump-sum model: proposal must include an internal detailed budget table (Excel template in the submission system). Payments are released against work-package level deliverables/milestones only.
* Open Science & FAIR data obligations apply (data-management plan required at start; costs can be budgeted).
* Gender Equality Plan compulsory for all public-sector, higher-education & research organisations from EU/AC.
* Do-No-Significant-Harm (DNSH), ethics self-assessment, and security scrutiny (if sensitive geopolitics is involved).
* Synergies & complementarities with other EU instruments (DIGITAL, Erasmus+, NDICI-Global Europe, etc.) are expected and may be financially blended if clearly delineated.
📊 At a Glance
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🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for "Fostering the Consolidation of European Science Diplomacy" (HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-DEMOCRACY-02)
1. Single Market Access
• Creates a pan-European Science Diplomacy Platform that can immediately serve the whole Single Market (450 + million citizens, 27 MFAs, 40+ national R&I agencies), enabling uniform service provision (training, brokerage, advisory) without fragmented national replication.
• Supports EU foreign-economic interests (e.g. Global Gateway) by equipping science counsellors with skills to open third-country markets for EU companies and researchers, thus indirectly boosting exports and inward investment across the Single Market.
2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange
• Mandatory consortium logic fosters multinational teams of universities, diplomacy academies, civil-society bodies, tech firms and think-tanks—accelerating co-creation of common taxonomies, data standards and training curricula.
• Platform acts as an EU “do-tank” for rapid matchmaking between diplomats and scientists on cross-border crises (climate, health, AI safety), shortening response times and increasing collective EU leverage in multilateral fora (UNESCO, WTO, WHO).
• Involvement of diaspora & alumni networks extends collaboration to 200+ countries, giving EU actors privileged intelligence channels and co-innovation partners.
3. Alignment with Key EU Strategies
• Directly implements the Global Approach to R&I, Council call for a European Science Diplomacy Agenda, and complements Strategic Foresight 2023 on resilient democracy.
• Interfaces with the European Green Deal, Digital Europe, Global Gateway, and EU External Action by supplying evidence-based negotiation positions and narrative tools rooted in scientific excellence.
• Contributes to the EU Values & Democracy agenda (Destination “Innovative Research on Democracy and Governance”) by strengthening rule-of-law-based multilateralism.
4. Regulatory Harmonisation & Standard Setting
• Produces an EU-wide taxonomy & FAIR data repository that becomes the de-facto reference for science-diplomacy terminology, KPIs and competence frameworks—reducing administrative divergence among Member States.
• Facilitates alignment of MFA science-adviser roles, data-sharing protocols and ethical guidelines, allowing faster uptake of common EU negotiating positions.
5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem
• Leverages existing R&I flagships (ERC, MSCA, COST, European Universities, EIT-KICs) and EURAXESS portal, giving beneficiaries direct pipelines to >10 000 top research teams and >2 000 industrial clusters.
• Taps into Research Infrastructures (e.g. CESSDA, ESS, EOSC) for evidence gathering; provides diplomats with real-time analytical capacity that few single countries could afford.
6. Funding Synergies & Leverage
• Acts as a coordination nexus for multiple EU instruments: CERV (values), DIGITAL (data spaces), NDICI-Global Europe (external action), Erasmus+ (training mobilities), ESF+ (skills), Technical Support Instrument (public-sector reform).
• Lump-sum model maximises administrative simplicity; results can feed into future Horizon Europe Cluster 2 & 4 calls, InvestEU, and cohesion-policy programmes for large-scale roll-out.
• Opens door to Mission-oriented synergies (Cancer, Climate Adaptation) by embedding diplomatic channels into mission governance structures.
7. Economies of Scale & Impact Potential
• One EU platform vs. 27 national ones generates cost savings estimated at €30-40 million over 5 years (training & IT duplication avoided).
• Common curricula can train >1 000 diplomats & science advisers per year, a critical mass unattainable at national scale.
• Shared impact-assessment framework enables evidence-based scaling of best practices to EU Delegations worldwide, reinforcing the EU’s soft-power brand.
8. Strategic Value vs. National-Only Approaches
• Provides the EU with a single, authoritative voice in global standard-setting on science-based foreign policy—strengthening bargaining power vis-à-vis US, China.
• Helps smaller and cohesion countries avoid capacity gaps by giving them equal access to high-level expertise and training.
• Catalyses trust-building across Member States, reducing fragmentation that adversaries could exploit.
9. Actionable Opportunities for Applicants
1. Position consortium as the interoperability hub that connects existing science-diplomacy networks, avoiding duplication of S4D4C, InsSciDE and EL-CSID outputs.
2. Integrate diaspora scientists as “honorary science counsellors” through micro-grants, directly boosting EU outreach in priority regions (ASEAN, AU, CELAC).
3. Embed a joint policy sandbox with EEAS, JRC and selected MFAs to test science-advice protocols during live foreign-policy negotiations (e.g., COP, WTO ministerials).
4. Develop a modular EU Science Diplomacy Fellowship scheme co-funded by Erasmus+ and ESF+, ensuring post-project sustainability.
5. Pilot digital twin of the Platform using EOSC services & AI translation tools, ensuring inclusivity for all EU languages and real-time collaboration.
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By harnessing these EU-wide advantages, applicants can deliver a project that not only meets the call’s expected outcomes but also becomes the cornerstone of a resilient, integrated and globally influential European science-diplomacy ecosystem.
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