Raising citizen awareness on alternative proteins derived from biotechnology
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Funding Description
Grant Essence
Call identifier: HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-13
Type of action: HORIZON-CSA (Coordination & Support Action) – Lump-Sum Model Grant Agreement
Indicative envelope per action: up to €50 million (lump-sum) – typical CSA size in this cluster is €3–6 million; larger budgets must be fully justified.
Project duration: 30–48 months (recommended).
What is Funded
* Design and roll-out of science-based awareness and education programmes on alternative proteins derived from biotechnology (e.g. precision fermentation, cellular agriculture, micro-algae, engineered plant proteins).
* Surveys & social-science research capturing consumption patterns, risk perception and socio-economic drivers at national, regional and local level (SSH integration mandatory).
* Development of FAIR data sets and knowledge repositories linking to European RIs (EU-IBISBA, etc.).
* Technical guidelines on hygienic/processing conditions for biotech proteins and recommendations for updated school curricula.
* Multi-channel communication campaigns (digital, broadcast, print, experiential) aimed at counteracting misinformation.
* Policy analysis identifying regulatory or funding inconsistencies hampering market uptake.
* Stakeholder engagement activities following the Multi-Actor Approach (citizens, CSOs, industry, primary producers, educators, authorities, media, US partners, etc.).
Eligibility Snapshot
* Applicants: Any legal entity from EU Member States or Associated Countries; international partners welcome (esp. USA) but EU/AC consortium coordination required.
* Consortium: Minimum 1 legal entity is formally sufficient, but to satisfy the multi-actor approach evaluators expect a balanced, trans-disciplinary consortium (≈8–15 partners) covering science, SSH, communication experts, education bodies, industry and civil society.
* Multi-actor approach: Demonstrated throughout the work plan; lack of it is an eligibility show-stopper.
* Budget form: One single lump-sum per consortium covering 100 % of eligible costs. Internal distribution decided by partners; payments linked to achievement of work-package-level deliverables/milestones agreed during grant preparation.
* Technology Readiness: Mainly TRL 1-4 (knowledge/awareness), no capital-investment heavy pilots expected.
* Ethics & GDPR: Surveys involving citizens must include data-protection compliance and, where relevant, Ethics Review dossier.
Key Dates
* Call opens: 06 May 2025
* Deadline (single stage): 16 Sept 2025, 17:00 CET
* Results: ~Jan 2026
* Grant signature: ~Apr 2026
Complementarities & Synergies
* Build on B-TRUST (HORIZON) outputs, Food 2030 Pathway 4, EU Protein Strategy, EU Biotech Act.
* Exploit links with EIT Food KIC, European Partnerships on Sustainable Food Systems, Agroecology, Animal Health & Welfare.
📊 At a Glance
🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for the CSA "Raising citizen awareness on alternative proteins derived from biotechnology"
1. Policy Alignment & Influence
- Direct contribution to flagship EU agendas: Green Deal, Farm-to-Fork Strategy, Protein Strategy, forthcoming EU Biotech Act, and Food 2030 Pathway 4 give the project immediate relevance and visibility at the highest policy level.
- Centralised regulatory dialogue: Working at EU scale allows the consortium to engage simultaneously with EFSA, DG SANTE, DG RTD, and ENVI/LIBE Parliamentary committees, accelerating clarification of Novel Food authorisations and labelling standards for biotech-derived proteins.
- Pan-European evidence base for future legislation: A 27-Member-State dataset on consumer perceptions and policy inconsistencies will be uniquely persuasive for Commission impact assessments and Council working parties.
2. Critical Mass of Citizens & Diversity
- 450 million consumers / 24 official languages: Enables statistically robust segmentation (age, gender, socio-economic status, urban/rural) and testing of tailored awareness messages across cultural contexts.
- Natural living labs: Diversity of culinary traditions (Nordic, Mediterranean, Central-European, Baltic, etc.) lets the project assess acceptance of biotech proteins under highly variable food cultures—unachievable in single-country projects.
3. Integrated Research & Innovation Ecosystem
- Access to European Research Infrastructures: EU-IBISBA, ELIXIR, EMPHASIS, and EOSC provide facilities and data stewardship services that lower costs and ensure FAIR compliance.
- Leverage existing EU-funded projects: B-TRUST, LIKE-A-PRO, ValProPath, and alternative-protein EIT Food projects supply ready-made tools, training modules, and networks, cutting duplication and speeding deployment.
- Multi-actor approach at scale: Pan-EU consortium can integrate farmers, biotech SMEs, consumer NGOs, vocational schools, and national food safety authorities, ensuring legitimacy and faster market uptake.
4. Single Market Business & Investment Leverage
- EU Novel Food authorisation = one-stop entry: Evidence generated feeds EFSA dossiers that once approved grant access to the entire single market—dramatically improving companies’ ROI and motivating private co-investment.
- Cross-border supply chains: Mapping regional fermentation capacity (e.g., Netherlands, Denmark, France) with downstream food-manufacturing clusters (e.g., Italy, Spain, Germany) helps identify optimal production hubs and logistics corridors, boosting competitiveness.
- Access to blended finance: Results can unlock further funding from InvestEU, EIB bio-economy windows, and structural funds (ERDF, Just Transition), multiplying impact beyond the 3–4-year CSA horizon.
5. Education & Workforce Development Synergies
- Harmonised curriculum recommendations: Working with the European Education Area, Erasmus+ networks, and EIT Food’s professional training modules enables rapid integration of biotech protein literacy into primary, secondary, and vocational programmes across Member States.
- EU-wide digital learning objects (DLOs): Multilingual MOOCs and micro-credentials hosted on the EU Digital Education Hub reach millions of learners, a scale no national project can match.
6. Communication & Media Reach
- Trans-European broadcasters & platforms: Partnerships with Euronews, EBU, and pan-EU social-media influencers amplify messages far beyond national boundaries.
- Shared translation & localisation services: Using EC’s eTranslation and CEF automated subtitling slashes dissemination costs while ensuring inclusivity for lesser-used languages.
7. Data Governance & Trust
- GDPR-aligned, interoperable data commons: A single EU data governance framework reassures citizens and facilitates cross-border analytics, feeding the European Open Science Cloud and strengthening public trust.
- Benchmarking & comparability: Harmonised survey instruments allow Member-State-level dashboards, enabling peer learning and healthy policy competition.
8. International Leadership & Standard Setting
- EU-US cooperation: The call explicitly invites US partners; a strong EU consortium shapes transatlantic standards on precision-fermentation safety, sustainability metrics, and labelling before other blocs dominate.
- Global reference model: Success will position the EU as the go-to region for responsible biotech protein deployment, reinforcing Europe’s soft power in the UN Food Systems Summit follow-ups and Codex Alimentarius.
9. Economies of Scale in Project Implementation
- Lump-sum grant administration: Coordinating under a single Horizon lump-sum reduces financial reporting overheads for all partners, freeing resources for high-impact citizen engagement activities.
- Shared tools & templates: Pan-EU repositories of outreach materials, lesson plans, and policy briefs minimise duplication and ensure consistent quality.
10. Long-Term Sustainability & Replicability
- EU Missions & Partnerships alignment: Linking with the Sustainable Food Systems Partnership and Regional Innovation Valleys ensures continued funding streams and regional spin-offs after project end.
- Scalable, modular outputs: Deliverables designed for EU contexts (e.g., multilingual open-access toolkits, policy roadmaps) can be instantly adopted by new Member States and associated countries, guaranteeing legacy.
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Bottom Line
Operating at EU level transforms the CSA from a communication project into a systemic lever that
1) supplies hard evidence for future EU biotech and food policies,
2) builds an unparalleled, multilingual knowledge base on citizen attitudes, and
3) creates a continent-wide enabling environment in which alternative proteins can move swiftly from lab to plate—safely, sustainably, and democratically.
🏷️ Keywords
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