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Grant Details

Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

This grant, part of the Horizon Europe program, aims to understand and significantly minimize the environmental impacts of offshore wind energy development across Europe's sea basins. The core objective is to provide better tools, reliable data, and knowledge for monitoring, assessing, and reducing the cumulative environmental and socio-ecological impacts of large-scale offshore wind energy generation, ensuring sustainable deployment. - SECTOR-SPECIFIC: Focuses on offshore wind energy and environmental research. - Target recipients: Research organizations, public authorities, project developers, civil society organizations, and academic institutions involved in environmental science, marine biology, and renewable energy. - Geographic scope: European sea basins (Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, North Sea, and Mediterranean Sea), requiring collective best coverage. - Key filtering criteria: Focus on environmental impact assessment and mitigation for offshore wind, strong research and innovation component, ability to conduct large-scale field monitoring and modelling. - Grant frequency: This is a single-stage call within the Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme, recurring through the framework program.

Financial Structure

  • Funding takes the form of a 'lump sum' contribution, which simplifies financial management.
  • The total budget allocated for this topic ('HORIZON-CL5-2026-02-D3-08') is 15,000,000 EUR.
  • Each project under this specific topic is expected to receive a grant of 5,000,000 EUR.
  • Expected number of grants: 3.
  • The lump sum amount is an approximation of beneficiaries' underlying actual costs, proposed by applicants based on estimated direct and indirect project costs.
  • Eligible costs include personnel costs (employees, contractors, SME owners), subcontracting costs, purchase costs (travel, equipment, goods, services), and other categories like financial support to third parties, internally invoiced goods, and research infrastructure access.
  • Ineligible costs: Any costs not eligible under the standard Horizon Europe rules.
  • Indirect costs: A flat rate of 25% is applied to direct costs that qualify for indirect cost calculation under Horizon Europe rules.
  • Co-financing: The methodology ensures compliance with co-financing principles; the total estimated costs of the action must be greater than the estimated Union contributions.
  • Payments: Lump sum contributions are paid per work package upon proper implementation of the work package's conditions, irrespective of actual costs incurred. Payments do not depend on the costs actually incurred. If work package conditions are not met, the corresponding lump sum will not be paid.
  • Financial guarantees: Between 5% and 8% of the total lump sum is retained as a contribution to the Mutual Insurance Mechanism.
  • Financial reporting: No obligation to document actual costs incurred for the action, but beneficiaries remain subject to national accounting rules.
  • Reimbursement rate: The final lump sum is calculated by applying the reimbursement rate (typically 100% for Research and Innovation Actions) to the total estimated eligible costs.

Eligibility Requirements

Organization Type & Legal Structure
  • Eligible organization types include a broad range of legal entities capable of conducting research and innovation actions. While not explicitly defined for this topic, Horizon Europe typically includes:
    • Universities
    • Research organizations
    • Companies (SMEs and large enterprises, particularly project designers)
    • Public bodies (e.g., public authorities, permitting authorities)
    • Non-governmental organizations (NGOs, civil society organizations)
  • Projects are expected to be multi-beneficiary, implying a consortium is required.
Geographic Location
  • Organizations must be from EU Member States or countries associated with Horizon Europe.
  • To ensure balanced portfolio, priority will be given to high-ranking proposals that collectively ensure the best coverage of different European sea basins (Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, North Sea, and Mediterranean Sea).
Qualifications & Certifications
  • Specific qualifications are not explicitly stated, but expertise in marine science, environmental impact assessment, offshore engineering, data science, and relevant monitoring technologies is implicit.
  • Projects must demonstrate the capacity to achieve a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 5 by the end of the project for identified strategies, tests, and demonstration technologies.
Track Record & Experience
  • Applicants should demonstrate a strong track record in environmental research, offshore energy projects, maritime spatial planning, and/or developing monitoring and modelling technologies.
Exclusion Criteria
  • Organizations must meet the general Horizon Europe financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria as described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Application Process

Application Procedure & Steps
  • This is a 'single-stage' submission procedure.
  • Applicants must use the standard application form specific to this call, available in the Submission System.
  • Proposals must adhere to page limits and layout described in Part B of the Application Form.
Application Timeline & Deadlines
  • Planned opening date for submission system: 2025-09-16.
  • Application deadline: 2026-02-17 00:00:00+00.
Required Documentation & Materials
  • Application Form (Part A and Part B).
  • Detailed budget table specific for lump sum actions (HE LS).
  • Declaration by beneficiaries of having used their own accounting practices for budget preparation.
Evaluation Process
  • Proposals will be evaluated according to standard Horizon Europe procedures by external independent experts.
  • Experts will assess proposals based on 'Excellence', 'Impact', and 'Quality and efficiency of the implementation'.
  • Financial experts will check the budget estimate for each work package against relevant benchmarks.
  • An indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Support Available
  • Online Manual: Guide on procedures from proposal submission to grant management.
  • Horizon Europe Programme Guide: Detailed guidance on structure, budget, and political priorities.
  • Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ: Answers to common questions.
  • Research Enquiry Service: For general questions about European research.
  • National Contact Points (NCPs): Guidance and assistance on participation in Horizon Europe.
  • Enterprise Europe Network: Advice for businesses, especially SMEs, including funding guidance.
  • IT Helpdesk: For technical aspects of submission, access rights, etc.
  • European IPR Helpdesk: Assistance on intellectual property issues.
  • CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk: Advice on standardization.
  • European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct: Principles for researchers, employers, and funders.
  • Partner Search: Tool to find partner organizations for proposals.
Post-Award Requirements
  • Grant agreements will be based on the Lump Sum Model Grant Agreement (MGA).
  • Payments are tied to the proper implementation of defined work packages.
  • Compliance checks and audits will focus on technical implementation and fulfillment of work package conditions, ethics, research integrity, dissemination, exploitation of results, IP management, and gender equality.

Evaluation Criteria

Award Criteria
  • Proposals will be evaluated based on 'Excellence', 'Impact', and 'Quality and efficiency of the implementation', as described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.
  • Specific criteria for this call include:
    • Coverage of European Sea Basins: Priority for high-ranking proposals ensuring collective best coverage of the Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, North Sea, and Mediterranean Sea.
    • Knowledge Advancement: Contribution to better knowledge and understanding of cumulative environmental impacts of offshore wind deployment, considering existing and planned human activities.
    • Scale and Scope: Ability to expand existing studies and monitoring from local to larger areas, and from specific impacts/species to more general ones.
    • Technological Innovation: Development and deployment of field monitoring and modelling technologies that advance beyond current state-of-knowledge, especially regarding life-cycle environmental impacts.
    • Planning Tools Improvement: Improvement of instruments and models for Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) and environmental assessments aligned with public authorities' needs.
    • Impact Assessment Modelling: Enhanced modelling capacity and environmental impact assessments for future offshore wind deployment.
    • Site Suitability: Support for identifying suitable areas for wind energy deployment with minimal environmental impact and areas to avoid.
    • Mitigation & Restoration: Identification, testing, and demonstration of strategies and technologies to avoid, minimize, mitigate, and compensate for environmental impacts, with a goal for net-positive environmental impacts where feasible.
    • Data Management: Ensuring data produced is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable) and leveraging existing community practices for data sharing (e.g., European common data spaces, European Research infrastructures, EMODnet, IEA Wind TCP Task).
    • TRL Achievement: Expected to achieve TRL 5 by the end of the project for relevant activities.
    • Completeness of Impact Analysis: Beyond evident impacts (displacement, collision, noise, habitat loss, pollution), proposals must analyze new potential impacts from high-density deployments (e.g., decommissioning, dynamic cables, geohazards, microplastics).
Quality Thresholds
  • Proposals must attain all individual and overall thresholds during evaluation.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory Compliance
  • Projects must adhere to general Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and relevant EU Regulations (e.g., Regulation (EU) 2021/695, Council Regulation (Euratom) 2021/765, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509).
  • Compliance with conditions for using lump sum contributions, as outlined in the Decision of 7 July 2021.
Data Protection & Privacy
  • Data produced must be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable).
  • Leverage existing community practices for data sharing, especially within relevant European common data spaces and European Research Infrastructures.
  • Environmental monitoring data must be open source and shared with the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) and the International Energy Agency Wind Energy Systems Technology Collaboration Programme’s (IEA Wind TCP) Task on the environmental effects of wind energy.
Ethical & Environmental Standards
  • Projects must ensure minimal negative impacts on the marine and coastal environment, ideally aiming for net-positive impacts.
  • Activities should consider the full life-cycle perspective of offshore wind installations.
  • Projects must analyze possible new environmental impacts that may become relevant with high-density deployments, such as decommissioning, dynamic cables, submarine geohazards, or microplastics production.
Intellectual Property Policies
  • Standard Horizon Europe Intellectual Property (IP) policies apply, as outlined in the Model Grant Agreement (MGA).
Risk Management
  • While financial audits are minimized due to lump sum nature, technical checks, reviews, and audits will verify the proper implementation of work packages.
Cross-Cutting Considerations
  • Strategic alignment opportunities with the EU's Offshore Strategy and Communication on Delivering on the EU offshore renewable energy ambitions.
  • Ensure complementarities with other ongoing and upcoming Horizon Europe projects, and with the European Digital Twin of Ocean (DTO).
  • Focus on socio-ecological impacts beyond purely environmental ones.
Unique Aspects
  • The lump sum funding mechanism aims to reduce administrative burden and increase focus on scientific/technical performance and output.
  • Emphasis on monitoring and modelling technologies to improve environmental impact assessments and Maritime Spatial Planning.
  • Requirement to cover multiple European sea basins for a balanced portfolio of funded projects.

Grant Details

offshore wind wind energy renewable energy environmental impact marine environment biodiversity marine ecosystems maritime spatial planning monitoring technologies modelling technologies data sharing fair data sustainable energy climate action research and innovation horizon europe energy transition clean energy ocean protection pollution decommissioning marine life ecosystem services
Understand and minimise the environmental impacts of offshore wind energy
HORIZON-CL5-2026-02-D3-08
Horizon Europe - Cluster 5 Call 02-2026 (WP 2025)
UNIVERSITY RESEARCH SME ENTERPRISE NGO PUBLIC OTHER
AT BE BG HR CY CZ DK EE FI FR DE GR HU IE IT LV LT LU MT NL PL PT RO SK SI ES SE IS NO LI AL BA GE MD ME MK RS TR UA UK IL DZ AD AM AR AU AZ BY BI BA KH CA CL CO CR CU DJ DO EC EG ET FJ GA GH GT GY HN ID IR JM JP JO KZ KE KW KG LA LB LY MG MW MY MV ML MR MU MX MN MA MZ MM NA NP NZ NI NG OM PK PS PA PG PY PE PH QA RU RW SA SN SG SO ZA KR LK SD CH SY TJ TZ TH TL TG TT TN TM UG AE US UY UZ VE VN YE ZM ZW
ENERGY ENVIRONMENT TECHNOLOGY OTHER
DEVELOPMENT
OTHER
SDG7 SDG9 SDG13 SDG14
FUNDING RESEARCH_DEVELOPMENT CAPACITY_BUILDING NETWORKING
True
15000000.00
5000000.00
5000000.00
EUR
100.00
Feb. 17, 2026, midnight
Not explicitly specified, but occurs after the submission deadline as per Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.