Fostering animal breeding and genetics for climate change adaptation and mitigation, improved robustness and resilience
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See in 5 min if you're eligible for Fostering animal breeding and genetics for climate change adaptation and mitigation, improved robustness and resilience offering max €50.0M funding💰 Funding Details
Funding Overview – HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-07
Basic Facts
* Type of action: HORIZON-RIA – Lump-Sum grant (HORIZON-AG-LS)
* Maximum EU contribution per project: €50 000 000 (no co-funding requirement, but realistic lump-sum budgets in the €8-20 million range are expected)
* Opening date: 06 May 2025
* Deadline (single stage): 16 September 2025 – 17:00 (Brussels time)
* Indicative project duration: 4–5 years
* Technology Readiness Level at start/end: TRL 3–4 ➜ demonstrated in an operational environment TRL 7
What will be funded?
The call finances research and innovation activities that integrate breeding, genetics and farm management to cut livestock GHG emissions, strengthen climate-resilience and improve animal robustness across conventional and at least one organic farming system. Eligible cost categories (personnel, equipment, travel, subcontracting, etc.) are pre-agreed with the EC and paid as a single lump-sum per work package upon achieving milestones/deliverables.
Key R&I dimensions to be covered:
1. Trait discovery & validation – new or proxy indicators (-omics, meta-omics, microbiome, lifetime efficiency, welfare) for selection indexes.
2. Tools & methods – low-cost, on-farm phenotyping, genetic evaluations accounting for genotype × environment interactions, decision support systems.
3. Demonstration (TRL 7) – piloting novel breeding programmes and management practices under real farming conditions (conventional + organic; diverse climates/feeds).
4. Socio-economic analysis – cost-effectiveness, public/private incentive schemes, trade-off assessment, gender-responsive approaches.
5. Policy support & scaling – evidence for CAP, methane strategy, organic action plan; alignment with FAO-LEAP and Global Research Alliance.
Eligibility Snapshot
* Consortium: At least three independent legal entities from three different EU Member States or HE Associated Countries.
* Multi-Actor Approach (MAA): Mandatory – farmers, breeders, advisors, industry, NGOs and policy makers must co-design and co-implement activities.
* International cooperation encouraged, especially with FAO, LEAP, Global Research Alliance and non-EU breeding organisations.
* Open to universities, research institutes, SMEs, large industry, governmental agencies, NGOs and infrastructures.
* SSH integration, gender dimension, open science & data management are compulsory HEU requirements.
Funding Mechanics – Lump Sum Logic
1. Detailed budget is annexed only at proposal stage; once the lump sum is fixed, no cost reporting is required – only achievement of results.
2. Work package-level payments: each WP is assigned a share of the lump sum; payment is triggered once the EC approves the corresponding deliverables.
3. Flexibility: internal reallocations possible as long as objectives are met.
4. Indirect costs are automatically calculated at 25 % of eligible direct costs when building the lump sum.
Complementary Funding & Synergies
Applicants are encouraged to align with and leverage:
* European Partnerships (Agroecology, Animal Health & Welfare, Sustainable Food Systems).
* CAP innovation instruments (EIP-AGRI Operational Groups).
* Regional Innovation Valleys for Bioeconomy & Food Systems.
* LIFE, Interreg, national funds for on-farm pilots.
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📊 At a Glance
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🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-07
1. Pan-European Genetic Capital
• Largest livestock gene pool in the world: 1 400+ recognised European breeds create unparalleled variability for low-methane, heat-tolerant and disease-resistant traits.
• North–South climate gradient: From Nordic cold stress to Mediterranean heat/drought allows real-time testing of genotype-environment interactions that cannot be reproduced within a single Member State.
• Cross-border nucleus herds & reference populations boost effective population size, accelerate genomic prediction accuracy (>30 % accuracy gain vs. national datasets).
2. Economies of Scale in Phenotyping & –Omics
• Joint EU data lakes (e.g. ELIXIR, EMBL-EBI, European Open Science Cloud) reduce per-sample –omics costs by up to 50 % through shared pipelines and FAIR standards.
• Coordinated roll-out of low-cost on-farm methane sensors, rumen microbiome kits and precision phenotyping lowers hardware procurement prices (bulk tenders, joint IP purchase).
• EU super-computing (EuroHPC, LUMI, Leonardo) provides petascale capacity for genome-wide prediction without national investment.
3. Policy & Market Leverage Unique to the EU
• Common Agricultural Policy (CAP 2028+): Results of the project can feed directly into eco-schemes and conditionality rules, giving technologies an immediate incentive framework across 27 countries.
• EU Green Deal & Methane Strategy: Pan-EU validation of mitigation traits positions beneficiaries for regulatory recognition & potential carbon credit monetisation under the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework.
• Single Market labelling options: A harmonised “Low-Emission Livestock” quality label, backed by EU-wide data, can command price premiums and avoid fragmentation of niche national labels.
4. Synergies With Existing EU R&I Assets
• Partnerships & Missions: agroecology living labs, Animal Health & Welfare, Soil Mission, Agriculture of Data → ready-made testbeds and dissemination channels.
• Research Infrastructures: SmartCow, ELISE, AnaEE provide experimental farms and phenotyping platforms TRL 5-7.
• EIT Food & Regional Innovation Valleys supply acceleration, investor networks and SME scale-up services, turning prototypes into market solutions.
5. Multi-Actor & Social Innovation at EU Scale
• Critical mass of stakeholders: >10 million livestock farmers, 3 000 breeding companies, 100+ advisory networks enable statistically robust living labs and gender-balanced engagement.
• Transboundary advisory curricula harmonise breeder and vet training, avoiding duplication and easing labour mobility in rural regions.
• Citizens’ deliberative panels in diverse food cultures (Nordic, Mediterranean, Central-Eastern) improve societal acceptance of genetic tools.
6. International Competitiveness & Leadership
• A united EU consortium outcompetes fragmented efforts from US, NZ or China in setting global breeding indices that include climate traits.
• Alignment with FAO-LEAP & Global Research Alliance positions Europe as agenda-setter and increases influence in ISO/FAO standards for livestock GHG accounting.
7. Financial & Administrative Upside of EU Lump-Sum Model
• Predictable cash flow and reduced reporting lowers admin overhead (~20 % cut) and favours SME & farm-level partners with limited accounting capacity.
8. Concrete EU-Level Opportunities to Exploit
1. Establish a "European Climate-Smart Breeding Alliance" linking national herd books under one genomic reference panel.
2. Develop an EU open blockchain registry of low-methane sires and dams, interoperable with TRACES and Eurostat.
3. Pilot a cross-border carbon-insetting scheme (e.g. DE-DK-NL) where processors reward farmers for using certified low-emission genetics.
4. Create a training MOOC in 24 EU languages on climate-smart breeding, hosted on EU Academy, reaching >50 000 learners.
5. Leverage LIFE & Interreg for post-project roll-out of validated protocols in mountainous and outermost regions.
9. Added Value vs. National Projects
• Scale: Only an EU action can sample enough animals & environments to detect small but significant GxE effects.
• Regulatory coherence: One evidence dossier recognised by EFSA/ECHA is cheaper than 27 separate filings.
• Market penetration: Harmonised indices enable breeding companies to market one product line across the whole Single Market, doubling ROI potential.
10. Expected Pan-EU Impact Timeline
• Short-term (2025-2027): Shared phenotype/genotype database launched; 3 demo farms per bioclimatic region operational.
• Mid-term (2027-2030): CAP eco-scheme integrating project’s trait index; 15–20 % uptake in AI centres.
• Long-term (post-2030): 1 Mt CO₂-eq annual reduction from ruminant sector; EU exports of certified genetics generate €250 M/year.
In sum, EU-level collaboration transforms fragmented national breeding initiatives into a coherent, high-impact engine that accelerates climate mitigation, bolsters farm resilience and secures Europe’s global leadership in sustainable livestock genetics.
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