Prevention, detection, response and mitigation of chemical, biological and radiological threats to agricultural production, feed and food processing, distribution and consumption (HORIZON-CL3-2024-DRS-01-01)

Descriptions

Opportunity link:

Opportunity type:

Grant

Sponsor:

Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)

Award amount and duration:

2 grants of 8,000,000 each, project duration variable

Currency:

EUR

Eligibility

Type:

Faculty

Applications from Canadian researchers and innovators will be reviewed as fully-fledged members of consortia in Horizon Europe Pillar 2 calls. While Canadians can participate in all Horizon Europe calls that are open to international partners, as an associated country, Canadians can access a broader range of research opportunities in Pillar 2.

1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System

2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Summary

Expected Outcome:

Projects’ results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:

Increasing EU capabilities to assess risks, detect, alert, mitigate and respond to feed and food intentional and accidental contamination from chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) agents, through the entire food chains (soils and agro-production, feed and food industry, transporting, retail and hospitality industry, public catering);
Increasing the understanding on food terrorism threats and on food chain vulnerabilities to intentional and accidental contaminations;
Raising awareness among feed and food companies and authorities to CBR threats arising from malicious use of hazardous agents that pose danger to animal and public health. This should be done under the premises of feed and food as a critical infrastructure and risks pertaining therein;
In addition to raising awareness, proposals should develop possible preparedness, mitigation and response plans for national authorities and the private sector.

Scope:

Plant and animal health is of global importance for sustainable agriculture and competitive agriculture and forestry, as well as for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems^[1]. Globally, between 10 and 28 percent of crop production is lost to pests and contamination of food and feed by mycotoxins can severely threaten the health of humans and livestock. The International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) 2020, established by the United Nations, raised public and political awareness of the importance of plant health and a recent study (IPPC, 2021) calls the attention of policy makers to the main effects of climate change on plant health, helping governments and the international community addressing plant health challenges. Also, the food chain, from harvest of agricultural products, throughout processing, distribution and until consumption can be challenged by several (hybrid) threats, which are increasingly taking non-conventional forms and possibly targeting the agriculture and food chain with severe consequences.

The Word Health Organisation identified intentional agriculture attack with biological weapons and food contamination as one of the main global public health threats of the 21^st century. The potential for terrorist attacks or other criminal actions against agri-food targets is increasingly recognised as a threat to international security. The population's health could be jeopardised by the manipulation of communicable diseases or the contamination of food, soil, air and drinking water by CBR agents. These risks have been studied and documented by a Network of excellence (Plant and Food Biosecurity) funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (PLANTFOODSEC).

In 2017, the ENVI Committee (Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety of the EU Parliament) has defined food defence as “the protection of food from intentional contamination or adulteration by biological, chemical, physical or radiological agents. It includes measures regarding prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery form intentional acts of food contamination”. The potential impact on human health of deliberate sabotage of agricultural crops, seed or food can be estimated by extrapolation from the many documented examples of unintentional outbreaks of foodborne disease.

Current EU capabilities to detect and respond to agro-terrorism and bio-criminal acts are dispersed across different national practitioners, normally handled by regional or national bodies and are very limited in terms of coordination. Different countries have different governmental authorities for agricultural and feed and food domains, different collaborative networks, different border controls, different inspection bodies and different regulatory references and reporting mechanisms as well as different investigative bodies in the case of suspected feed/food crime. The EU institutions have to start to consider the agri-food chain as a critical infrastructure which can suffer from attacks and which need to be protected. The most effective way to accomplish this goal is through international cooperation by a multi-sectorial approach combing different expertise, such as from law enforcement, the feed and food sector and health emergency services.

The main challenge is to increase the resilience of European agricultural production, feed and food processing and distribution chain in case of sudden shocks. Agriculture and food chains will be included as an important dimension to be analysed in the context of protection of European critical entities^[2] in case of emergencies. It is also crucial to address the interrelations between the food chain shocks and different types of critical entities with the objective of developing tools and methods to minimize cascading effects and allow rapid recovery of service performance levels after incidents. In the new context also the interaction with climate change, global trade and internet trade (spreading often plant material not controlled at all and of low quality) need to be taken into consideration. Artificial intelligence provides new tools for better coping with many of the most important challenges.

In this context, research should address agri-food systems shocks, taking account of the increasing effects of climate change and global trade (and their interaction) on pest outbreaks and spread, feed/food commodity shocks, due to external challenges, feed/food supply chains interruption and organised agri-food terrorism attacks.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is also encouraged.

Coordination among the successful proposals from this topic as well as with the successful proposal(s) under topic HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-02: Soil pollution processes – modelling and inclusion in advanced digital decision-support tools should be envisaged to avoid duplication, and to exploit complementarities as well as opportunities for increased impact.

[1]For R&I on plant and animal health as well as on agro-biodiversity please consult further topics under the Cluster 6 Work Programme.

[2]Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the resilience of critical entities (COM(2020) 829 final.

Topic destination:

Disaster-Resilient Society for Europe (2023/24)

Proposals involving earth observation are encouraged to primarily make use of Copernicus data, services and technologies.

Proposals are encouraged also to coordinate with ESA relevant activities, especially those undertaken under the Science for Society element of the FutureEO programme (https://eo4society.esa.int). Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to the following expected impact of the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024:

“Losses from natural, accidental and human-made disasters are reduced through enhanced disaster risk reduction based on preventive actions, better societal preparedness and resilience and improved disaster risk management in a systemic way.”

More specifically, proposals should contribute to the achievement of one or more of the following impacts:

Enhanced exploitation of the latest scientific results (e.g., from research programmes and institutions) and integrated technologies (e.g. Earth observation, in situ data collection, advanced modelling, AI) into enhanced understanding of high-impact hazards and complex compound and cascade events and improved prevention, preparedness to mitigation, response, and recovery tools;
Enhanced understanding and improved knowledge and situational awareness of disaster-related risks by citizens, empowered to act and consider innovative solutions, thus raising the resilience of European society;
More efficient cross-sectoral, cross-disciplines (including SSH), cross-border coordination of the disaster risk management cycle and governance (from scientific research to prevention, preparedness to mitigation, response, and recovery, including knowledge transfer and awareness of innovative solutions) from international to local levels;
Enhanced collaboration, interactions and cross-discipline dialogue and networking between the scientific community, research institutions and programmes (e.g., HE, ESA scientific activities, national science programmes, FutureEarth RIS-KAN) and first and second responders through dedicated networking and collaboration actions fostering a faster transfer of results from science into practice;
Support of harmonised and/or standardised and interoperability of guidelines / protocols / tools / technologies in the area of crisis management, natural disasters and CBRN-E;
Strengthened capacities of first responders in all operational phases related to any kind of natural and human-made disasters so that they can better prepare their operations, have access to enhanced situational awareness, have means to respond to events in a faster, safer and more efficient way, and may more effectively proceed with victim identification, triage and care;
Improved impact forecasting capability and scenario building for enhanced stress testing of critical entities and adaption of protection and resilience-enhancing activity accordingly;
Improved ability to rescue and manage the first phases of emergencies that take into account extreme climatic events and/or geological hazards that may threaten urban areas (e.g. interface fires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruption etc.).

All proposals of projects under this Destination should be complementary and not overlap with relevant actions funded by other EU instruments, including the European Defence Fund and its precursors (the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) and the Preparatory Action on Defence research (PADR)), while maintaining a focus on civilian applications only.

Where possible and relevant, synergy-building and clustering initiatives with successful proposals in the same area should be considered, including the organisation of international conferences in close coordination with the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS) activities and/or other international events.

Overhead

The budget categories and cost eligibility rules are fixed in the grant agreement, including indirect costs at a 25% flat-rate of the total eligible direct costs (excluding eligible direct costs for subcontracting, financial support to third parties and any unit costs or lump sums which include indirect costs).

Deadlines

Application deadlines

RSO detailed review deadline

Date:

November 6, 2024 - 12:00 PM

RSO final internal review deadline

Date:

November 15, 2024 - 12:00 PM

Program application deadline

Date:

November 20, 2024 - 9:00 AM

Approvals

NOTE: Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Postdocs, students, and trainees: For fellowships and externally-sponsored research training awards or opportunities, you must complete the Research Funding Application Approval (RFAA) Trainee PDF form, and submit it, along with a complete copy of the application, to Research Services at rsotrainee@ucalgary.ca. Trainees should not use RMS at this time.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

Principal Investigator
Department Head
Faculty ADR/Dean
Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.