💰 Funding Details

Overview

The HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-06 call, _"Improving grassland management in European livestock farming systems"_, is a Research & Innovation Action (RIA) with a maximum indicative EU contribution of €50 million per project.

Strategic Fit

• Aligns with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), EU Green Deal, Biodiversity Strategy, Nature Restoration Regulation, climate policy and the Action Plan for Organic Production.

• Contributes to Destination *“Fair, healthy and environment-friendly food systems from primary production to consumption.”*

Core Requirements

1. Multi-actor approach – mandatory involvement of farmers, advisors, SMEs, NGOs, policy makers, SSH experts, citizens, etc.

2. Coverage of at least one organic farming system plus a diversity of pedo-climatic zones across Europe.

3. Six integrated activity blocks:

1. Metrics & benchmarking of grassland multifunctionality (ecosystem services, GHG, socio-economics).

2. Development of innovative management & restoration solutions.

3. Farm- and landscape-level decision-support tools.

4. Knowledge sharing & networking with practice-oriented materials.

5. Policy coherence assessment & recommendations.

6. Economic cost–benefit and financing models.

4. Collaboration plan with other projects funded under this topic and relevant partnerships (Agroecology, Animal Health & Welfare, Sustainable Food Systems, etc.).

5. Use of Earth Observation/Copernicus data where relevant and potential integration of JRC & Eurostat datasets.

Budget Logic

• Large, trans-disciplinary consortia (≥ 15 partners from ≥ 7 countries) are typical.

• Allocate ~15-20 % to on-farm & landscape demonstrators, ~10 % to citizen engagement & SSH, ~5 % to coordination with sister projects, and at least 2 % to data management & open knowledge outputs.

Eligibility Snapshot

• Deadline: 16 Sept 2025, 17:00 Brussels time (single-stage submission).

• Eligible entities: legal entities from EU Member States & Associated Countries; JRC may join.

• Proposals must respect page limits (Part B) and use the HORIZON-AG MGA template.

Indicative TRL Range

Projects typically start at TRL 3–4 and may reach TRL 6 for validated decision-support tools or restoration techniques by project end.

📊 Evaluation Criteria

How Your Proposal Will Be Scored

| Criterion | Weight | Threshold |

|-----------|--------|-----------|

| Excellence | 1/3 | 4/5 |

| Impact | 1/3 | 4/5 |

| Quality & Efficiency of Implementation | 1/3 | 3/5 |

Excellence

• Soundness of the methodology for measuring and benchmarking grassland multifunctionality.

• Credibility of the interdisciplinary approach (agronomy + ecology + SSH + data science).

• Quality of open science practices and data management plan.

Impact

• Clarity and pertinence of the pathways to achieve all four expected outcomes.

• Suitability & credibility of the multi-actor engagement and exploitation plan.

• Strength of policy alignment (CAP, Green Deal, Nature Restoration Regulation).

Implementation

• Coherence of work plan, resources and risk management.

• Complementarity of partners and adequacy of the consortium to cover required activities.

• Robustness of governance, including living-lab coordination and sister-project collaboration task.

📝 Application Strategy

Winning Strategy

1. Build a Purpose-Driven Consortium

• Anchor farms & living labs in at least five biogeographical regions (Atlantic, Continental, Mediterranean, Boreal, Alpine).

• Ensure SSH scholars cover behavioural economics, rural sociology and policy analysis.

• Integrate tech providers (EO analytics, IoT sensors, carbon calculators) to operationalise metrics.

2. Co-design Through Multi-Actor Living Labs

1. Launch regional co-creation workshops with farmers and advisors.

2. Translate practical challenges into research questions and KPIs.

3. Secure letters of commitment from farmer organisations and local authorities in your country and beyond.

3. Scientific Excellence

• Leverage state-of-the-art life-cycle assessment, remote sensing, eddy-covariance measurements and socio-economic modelling.

• Compare mixed-species swards vs. mono-species grasslands under similar pedo-climatic settings.

4. Impact Maximisation

• Map how each work package links to CAP objectives and Eco-schemes.

• Develop policy briefs timed with CAP Strategic Plan reviews (2027) and Nature Restoration reporting cycles.

• Craft a clear exploitation pathway for decision tools via digital platforms (e.g. Farm Sustainability Tool for Nutrients).

5. Implementation Credibility

• Gantt chart with critical path: metric development → field validation → up-scaling model → policy synthesis.

• Risk register covering climate anomalies, data gaps, stakeholder drop-out; mitigation via contingency demo sites and data sharing MoUs.

6. your country Leverage Points

• Showcase your country’s high-resolution LPIS data and strong dairy/beef sectors.

• Engage the National CAP Network in your country for dissemination.

💡 Success Factors

Integrated Metrics Framework

Develop a **single dashboard** combining productivity, biodiversity, carbon fluxes and socio-economic KPIs with harmonised units and time-scales.

Living-Lab Demonstrators

Run **on-farm trials in each region** with participatory monitoring, creating immediate trust and accelerating adoption.

Earth Observation Synergy

Fuse **Copernicus Sentinel-2 NDVI time-series** with field sensors to scale up grassland condition assessments EU-wide.

Robust Cost–Benefit Analysis

Quantify **private (farmer profit) and public (ecosystem services) returns**, feeding results into financing instruments such as carbon farming schemes.

Policy Timing Alignment

Synchronise deliverables with **mid-term CAP Strategic Plan reviews (2027) and CBD post-2025 biodiversity framework** for maximal uptake.

Open Knowledge & Capacity Building

Produce **multilingual videos, infographics and on-line courses** and register them in the EU FarmBook to satisfy dissemination KPIs.

❌ Common Mistakes to Avoid

Ignoring the Mandatory Multi-Actor Approach

Submitting a science-driven consortium without **formal, budgeted roles for farmers, advisors, SMEs and NGOs** will render the proposal ineligible or score poorly under Impact.

Superficial Coverage of Organic Systems

Mentioning organic farming only rhetorically rather than **dedicating a work package and demo sites to organic grass-based ruminant systems** fails to meet topic requirements.

Lack of Pedo-Climatic Diversity

Focusing on one region undermines benchmarking validity. **At least five contrasting biogeographical zones** are needed to generalise results.

Weak Policy Integration

Providing generic policy recommendations without mapping findings to **specific CAP eco-schemes, Nature Restoration targets or climate metrics** diminishes credibility.

No Plan for Collaboration with Sister Projects

The call explicitly requests a task and resources for coordination. **Omitting a detailed joint-activity plan** lowers Implementation scores.

Underestimating Data Management Effort

High-resolution EO, sensor and socio-economic datasets require **FAIR principles, GDPR compliance and long-term repositories**; missing this detail is penalised.

Improving grassland management in European livestock farming systems

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