The European Commission issued a EUR 1 billion Call for research and innovation projects that respond to the climate crisis and help protect Europe’s unique ecosystems and biodiversity. The main goal is to mobilise researchers and innovators across a variety of domains to achieve the European Green Deal objectives:

• No net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
• Economic growth is decoupled from resource use.
• No person and no place is left behind.

The first European Green Deal Call was launched on the 22nd September 2020 and will close on the 26th January 2021, as part of Horizon 2020 Framework Programme –  notice selected projects are expected to start in Autumn 2021. It is indeed the last and biggest call under Horizon 2020 and it aims for clear, discernible results in the short to medium-term, but with a perspective of long-term change.

With focus on technological enablers that can drive the transition towards a de-carbonised society, the European Green Deal Call includes either thematic areas (further broken down in specific Topics) and three horizontal areas:

THEMATIC AREAS:

• Increasing climate ambition
• Clean, affordable and secure energy
• Industry for a clean and circular economy
• Energy and resource efficient buildings
• Sustainable and smart mobility
• Farm to fork
• Biodiversity and ecosystems
• Zero-pollution, toxic-free environments

HORIZONTAL AREAS:

• Strengthening knowledge
• Empowering citizens
• International cooperation