EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities under HORIZON-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-9

1. Single Market Access – 450+ Million Consumers

• Pan-European visibility for sustainable food innovations. Products or services validated through the project can be immediately commercialised across 27 Member States without customs barriers.

• Uniform food-labelling & safety standards ease market entry; once EFSA and DG SANTE compliant, products can circulate freely.

• Opportunity to pilot regional test-beds (e.g., Mediterranean diets in Southern Europe, plant-based proteins in Northern Europe) and then roll them out EU-wide.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Consortia must involve minimum three legal entities from three different Member States/Associated Countries, automatically fostering multi-national teams.

• Access to living labs, pilot farms and food tech clusters from EIT Food, European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) and Smart Specialisation (S3) Platforms.

• Easier sharing of big data (agronomic, nutritional, consumer behaviour) because of GDPR harmonisation and EU open-science mandates.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

• European Green Deal & Farm-to-Fork Strategy: Directly targets sustainable, fair and healthy food systems, fulfilling climate-neutrality goals.

• Circular Economy Action Plan: Supports upcycling of agri-food waste streams into new value chains.

• Digital Europe & Data Spaces for Agriculture: Encourages deployment of AI/IoT to optimise resource use, backed by common EU data infrastructure.

• Beating Cancer Plan: Healthier diets and reformulated foods contribute to non-communicable disease prevention.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• Mutual Recognition Principle reduces duplicative authorisations for novel foods and packaging across Member States.

• Streamlined compliance with EU Organic Regulation 2018/848, pesticide reduction targets and food-contact material laws.

• Consortia can influence forthcoming legislation (e.g., Sustainable Food System Framework) via policy-engagement work packages.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Collaboration with 2000+ Horizon Europe Partnering Organisations and 9 European Technology Platforms (ETPs) in agri-food, biotech and climate.

• Direct links to top RTOs (Fraunhofer, TNO, VTT, CNRS) and university networks (COST Actions, ERA-NETs) for rapid TRL advancement.

• Possibility to integrate European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder/Transition projects for breakthrough technologies like cellular agriculture or precision fermentation.

6. Funding Synergies & Cascade Opportunities

• "Type of Action: CSA/RIA" (final type to be confirmed) unlocks ~€6-€8 M per project; budgets can be blended with:

• EIC Accelerator equity for scale-ups

• LIFE Programme for environmental pilots

• ERDF/Interreg for regional infrastructure

• Call scope explicitly allows cascade funding (Financial Support to Third Parties), enabling project coordinators to issue smaller grants (€50k-€200k) to SMEs, start-ups and food labs in multiple countries.

7. Scale & Socio-Economic Impact

• EU-level pilots can reach >50 % of EU population through multi-country retail chains and public procurement (schools, hospitals).

• Harmonised metrics (Product Environmental Footprint, Nutri-Score, front-of-pack schemes) facilitate comparable impact assessment and investor confidence.

• Outcomes feed into EU missions (Soil Health, Climate-neutral Cities) and contribute to SDGs 2, 3, 12 & 13, amplifying global influence.

8. Strategic Value of Acting at EU Scale

• Critical mass of consumers, farmers and tech providers reduces unit costs, accelerates learning curves and de-risks innovation.

• Resilience through geographic diversification: climate-smart cropping solutions can be validated across temperate, continental and Mediterranean zones within one grant.

• Enhanced bargaining power with global suppliers and platforms by presenting one European voice on traceability, sustainability and data standards.

Bottom Line: Leveraging this Horizon Europe call at EU scale multiplies market reach, policy relevance, funding leverage and impact, creating a virtuous cycle that no single national programme can match.