Network on carbon farming and emissions reductions for agricultural and forest lands
Quick Facts
Email me updates on this grant
Get notified about:
- Deadline changes
- New FAQs & guidance
- Call reopened
- Q&A webinars
We'll only email you about this specific grant. Unsubscribe anytime. No spam.
Ready to Apply?
Get a personalized assessment of your eligibility and application strategy
See in 5 min if you're eligible for Network on carbon farming and emissions reductions for agricultural and forest lands offering max €12.0M funding💰 Funding Details
Funding Opportunity: Network on Carbon Farming and Emissions Reductions for Agricultural and Forest Lands
Overview
The call HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-10 provides up to €12 million per project under a HORIZON-CSA Lump-Sum Grant to build and operate a pan-European network that accelerates carbon farming and GHG-emission reduction in agriculture and forestry.
Strategic Fit
* Aligns with the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ – Objective 2: *Conserve soil organic carbon stocks*.
* Directly supports the recently adopted EU Carbon Removal & Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF) and feeds evidence into the Commission’s *Expert Group on carbon removals*.
* Contributes to SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 15 (Life on Land) by promoting practices that sequester carbon while enhancing biodiversity and soil health.
Eligible Activities (non-exhaustive)
1. Network Coordination – extend the CREDIBLE network, engage research facilities, certification bodies, advisors and land managers.
2. Methodology Development & MRV Standardisation – co-create high-quality certification methodologies across croplands, grasslands, peatlands and forest lands.
3. Data Infrastructure – integrate in-situ, flux-tower and EO data; ensure interoperability with EUSO and *SoilWise*.
4. Capacity Building & Uptake – design result-based carbon farming schemes; train land managers; support improvements to national GHG inventories.
5. Long-Term Sustainability – develop governance & business models to keep the network self-financing post-project.
Budget Logic
The lump-sum model means the EU contribution is fixed at proposal stage. Build a detailed and realistic cost plan covering:
* 35–40 % for multi-actor engagement & co-creation events.
* 25 % for data platform, monitoring equipment and EO integration.
* 20 % for methodology drafting, testing and validation.
* 10 % for policy interfacing with the Expert Group and CRCF reviews.
* 5–10 % for project management, dissemination and sustainability planning.
Geographic Scope
Activities must cover multiple LULUCF categories and farming/forest systems, ensuring representation from diverse pedo-climatic zones in your country and across Europe.
📊 At a Glance
Get Grant Updates
Get notified about:
- Deadline changes
- New FAQs & guidance
- Call reopened
- Q&A webinars
We'll only email you about this specific grant. Unsubscribe anytime. No spam.
🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for the Call
1. Single Market Access
- EU-wide carbon-credit demand: Harmonised CRCF methodologies supported by the project will unlock a single, trustworthy market for soil-based carbon credits, giving farmers and forest owners direct access to 450 + million consumers and corporate off-takers.
- Economies of scale: Standardised MRV tools co-created under the CSA reduce per-farm compliance costs; once accepted in one Member State, the same tools/data are automatically valid across the whole Union.
- New business models: Pan-European certification lowers transaction barriers for agri-tech, remote-sensing, data-analytics and insurance SMEs to sell services EU-wide.
2. Cross-Border Collaboration
- Pan-European stakeholder network: The action is mandated to expand CREDIBLE’s network—facilitating joint living labs that pool contrasting pedo-climatic zones (Nordic peatlands, Mediterranean drylands, Central European croplands, Atlantic grasslands, boreal forests), accelerating cross-fertilisation of best practices.
- Data interoperability: Uniform data standards (linked to EUSO & SoilWise) enable seamless sharing of flux-tower, EO and in-situ datasets, boosting statistical power and decreasing duplication of costly field trials.
- Mobility of expertise: Lump-sum CSA allows flexible subcontracting and secondments, letting experts move rapidly between Member States to troubleshoot implementation bottlenecks.
3. EU Policy Alignment
- European Green Deal & Fit-for-55: Delivers concrete tools to reach the –310 Mt CO₂ e LULUCF sink target and to slash non-CO₂ agricultural emissions.
- CAP Strategic Plans: Results feed directly into eco-scheme design; Member States can transpose project guidelines into CAP intervention menus without extra legislative delay.
- Digital Europe & Data Act: Promotes open, FAIR soil-carbon datasets, dovetailing with the Common European Agricultural Data Space and GAIA-X initiatives.
4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits
- Unified certification rulebook: By supporting the Expert Group, the project short-cuts the current patchwork of voluntary standards, reducing legal uncertainty for investors.
- Inventory integration: Improved Tier 2/3 factors co-developed with national GHG inventory agencies ease conformity with Regulation (EU) 2018/841 and forthcoming MRV obligations, saving Member States compliance costs.
5. Access to the EU Innovation Ecosystem
- Synergy with 100+ Mission Soil Living Labs: Immediate test-beds for validating MRV tools and result-based payment pilots.
- Link to European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs): SMEs can piggy-back on EDIH services for AI/EO tooling, accelerating commercial roll-out.
- Talent pipeline: Marie Skłodowska-Curie, EIT Climate-KIC and Erasmus+ networks provide trained researchers and practitioners ready to scale innovations.
6. Funding Synergies & Leverage
- Blending with CAP Rural Development (EAFRD): Once methodologies are recognised, Member States can co-finance large-scale adoption via eco-schemes or agri-environment-climate commitments.
- LIFE & Innovation Fund: Demonstration results can mature into large LIFE carbon-farming restoration projects or Innovation Fund bids for negative-emissions value chains.
- InvestEU & Horizon Europe Partnerships: Standardised carbon assets derisk private investment for agro-carbon start-ups and create bankable pipelines for InvestEU Green Transition windows.
7. Scale & Impact Potential
- EU-wide deployment roadmap: Common tool-set allows immediate replication in all 27 Member States and associated countries, targeting >50 M ha of cropland & grassland and >30 M ha of managed forest by 2030.
- Climate & biodiversity co-benefits: Integration of Nature Restoration Law targets and CAP Good Agricultural & Environmental Conditions (GAEC) ensures multi-functional impact—carbon, water, biodiversity—under a single payment logic.
- Global leadership: A successful EU certification framework becomes a de-facto global template, opening export markets for European MRV technology and consultancy services.
8. Strategic Value Unique to EU-Level Operation
1. Critical mass of diverse biogeographical zones provides unmatched empirical evidence, making EU standards robust and bankable.
2. Collective bargaining power: A single EU methodology can influence voluntary carbon markets and ISO norms more effectively than any Member State alone.
3. Risk pooling: Aggregating projects transnationally diversifies climatic and policy risks, attractive for green-bond issuance and blended-finance vehicles.
4. Policy feedback loop: Direct channel to the Commission’s Expert Group ensures rapid translation of field feedback into regulatory updates—an agility impossible at purely national scale.
9. Immediate Action Points for Applicants
- Build a consortium that covers at least 15 Member States, explicitly mapping partners to LULUCF categories and climate zones.
- Secure letters of cooperation with CAP paying agencies to pilot eco-scheme integration.
- Align data architecture with EUSO’s INSPIRE-compliant schemas from day one.
- Reserve ≥20 % budget for farmer-facing co-creation workshops and multilingual knowledge-transfer products (EIP-AGRI practice abstracts).
- Embed a sustainability plan that transitions the network into a self-financed European Carbon Farming Hub post-grant (membership fees + service contracts).
🏷️ Keywords
Ready to Apply?
Get a personalized assessment of your eligibility and application strategy
See in 5 min if you're eligible for Network on carbon farming and emissions reductions for agricultural and forest lands offering max €12.0M funding