Danube river basin lighthouse – Demonstration of effective and sustainable management of sediments in the Danube river-Black sea system
Actions for the implementation of the Mission Restore our ocean and waters by 2030 · HORIZON-IA · TRL 5–7 · Needs partners
What this call funds
This call funds large-scale demonstration projects that restore healthy sediment flow and quality in the Danube river basin and Black Sea. It supports practical, on-the-ground actions like fixing erosion and sedimentation problems, reducing pollution in sediments, and using nature-based solutions, while also helping other regions copy these approaches. Two projects will be funded, each expected to show measurable environmental improvements and build cooperation across countries and sectors.
environmental monitoring · water management · biodiversity · climate adaptation · regional development
Who wins this
A multi-country consortium of national water authorities, research organisations, and environmental/technical bodies working across at least three Danube basin countries to demonstrate and scale up sustainable sediment management solutions.
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The call in detail
- Indicative grant size
- €8.5M
- Funding model
- Budget-based — reimbursement of actual eligible costs
- Submission
- Single-stage submission (full proposal at once)
- Partners
- Required. The call asks for a consortium — at least 3 partners, from 3 countries.
- Eligible applicants
- research organisation, public body, national authority, local/regional authority (as third-party recipient)
- Support to third parties
- Up to EUR 100,000 per 'associated region' for the entire project duration, granted only to local/regional authorities in associated regions outside the consortium's countries, each region benefiting only once.
- Also required
- Consortium must include entities from at least 3 Member States/Associated Countries of the Danube river basin where demonstration activities take place, and must engage at least 5 'associated regions' outside these countries; Hungarian public interest trusts under Act IX of 2021 are excluded from funded roles.
- Eligible countries (45)
- Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, IL, TR, UA, RS, MK, ME, AL, BA, XK, GE, AM, MD, TN, NZ
Read the full conditions from the official call ›
General conditions General conditions 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. If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). In addition to the standard eligibility conditions, the consortium must involve and include entities from at least three Member States and/or Associated Countries of the Danube river basin in which demonstration activities will be taking place. 3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes Following the Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506, as of 16 th December 2022, no legal commitments (including the grant agreement itself as well as subcontracts, purchase contracts, financial support to third parties etc.) can be signed with Hungarian public interest trusts established under Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity they maintain. Affected entities may continue to apply to calls for proposals. However, in case the Council measures are not lifted, such entities are not eligible to participate in any funded role (beneficiaries, affiliated entities, subcontractors, recipients of financial support to third parties). In this case, co-applicants will be invited to remove or replace that entity and/or to change its status into associated partner. Tasks and budget may be redistributed accordingly. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The financial support to third parties may only be awarded to local and/or regional authorities from an ‘associated region’. The maximum amount to be granted to each 'associated region' is EUR 100,000, to showcase the feasibility, replicability and scalability of the solutions developed within the project in the 'associated region'[[ ‘Associated regions’ are understood as areas with ecosystems that can benefit from the demonstration activities (e.g. neighbouring regions and/or regions in a different river basin) and/or less-developed regions, with the view to build capacity to implement the innovative solutions to restore freshwater ecosystems. The proposals should ensure that the 'associated regions' are located in Member States/Associated countries other than those that are part of the project consortium.]]. Each 'associated region' may benefit from the Financial Support to Third Parties provided under this topic within the duration of the project only once. Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional obligations regarding open science practices: If projects collect in-situ data and marine observations, beneficiaries must make them openly available through the European Marine Observation and Data network (EMODnet), based on FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principles. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes Specific conditions 7. Specific conditions: described in the topic conditions
Who has won calls like this
Organisations that most often win this call family · 92 past winners