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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

Single, clear statement of grant's core objective: To establish a co-funded European Partnership for Resilient Cultural Heritage, aiming to drive research and innovation in understanding and mitigating climate change impacts on cultural heritage, and leveraging heritage for sustainable societal transitions.
Explicit identification of target recipient type and size: Public funders, research institutions, businesses (industry), cultural heritage professionals, non-profit organizations, and charities. No explicit size limitations stated.
MUST state if grant is 'SECTOR-SPECIFIC' or 'SECTOR-AGNOSTIC': SECTOR-SPECIFIC (focused on cultural heritage, climate change, and creative industries).
Geographic scope and any location requirements: EU Member States, countries associated with Horizon Europe, and open to third countries for collaboration (though third-country financial commitment won't increase EU funding for this grant).
Key filtering criteria for initial grant screening: Focus on the nexus of cultural heritage and climate change, strong R&I component, interdisciplinary collaboration, co-funding model, and formation of a long-term partnership.
Grant frequency and program context: This grant funds the establishment of a partnership that is expected to organize joint calls for transnational proposals on an annual basis, implying a recurring program context. It is a COFUND action within Horizon Europe, Cluster 2 (Culture, creativity and inclusive society).

Financial Structure

Funding amount: The total indicative budget for the partnership is up to EUR 60 million.
Maximum EU contribution to this specific grant (for establishing the partnership) is EUR 60 million.
Funding rate: The funding rate is up to 30% of the eligible costs.
Co-financing requirements: Partners are expected to contribute financially and/or in kind, depending on the level of ambition of the proposed activities.
Eligible costs: Costs incurred from the starting date of the action may be considered eligible, provided the need for a retroactive starting date is justified in the application.
Financial support to third parties (FSTP):
- Beneficiaries (the established partnership) are allowed to provide financial support to third parties, exclusively in the form of grants.
- Providing FSTP is considered one of the primary activities of the action to achieve its objectives, so the EUR 60,000 threshold of the Financial Regulation does not apply.
- The maximum FSTP amount to be granted by the partnership to an individual third party is EUR 3 million per grant. This amount may be higher if the objectives would otherwise be impossible or overly difficult, and if duly justified in the proposal.
Indirect cost policies: Not explicitly detailed in the provided grant text, but will follow standard Horizon Europe rules.

Eligibility Requirements

Organizational Type and Structure

Any legal entity established in an EU Member State or a country associated with Horizon Europe is eligible.
The partnership itself is open to 'third countries wishing to join', but their financial commitment to the partnership would not be taken into account for the calculation of the EU funding for this co-funded grant.
The applicant must be capable of forming a 'co-funded partnership' which is expected to include, or engage with, a diverse range of stakeholders:
- Ministries responsible for Research & Innovation (R&I) policy.
- National and regional R&I and technology funding agencies and foundations.
- Ministries responsible for cultural heritage, education, environment, spatial planning and development, tourism.
- Other relevant national and regional authorities, organizations, and providers.
- Research infrastructures, such as the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS).
- Industry.
- Charities and other non-profit organizations focused on safeguarding cultural heritage and/or adapting to or mitigating climate change effects.
Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in Innovation Actions (IA) in any capacity. This grant is a 'HORIZON Programme Cofund Action', so this specific exclusion may not apply to this call based on the provided text.

Financial and Operational Capacity

Applicants must demonstrate financial and operational capacity as described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes (details not provided in this document).

Consortium Requirements

A consortium is required to implement this co-funded partnership.
The consortium must propose a governance structure that effectively implicates relevant stakeholders to coordinate, guide, and mentor R&I activities, and facilitate the use and uptake of results.
The partnership is expected to pool necessary financial resources from participating national (or regional) research programmes.

Application Process

Application Submission

Application deadline: September 16, 2025.
Submission system: Applications must be submitted via the Electronic Submission Service on the Funding & Tenders Portal.
Submission format: The application must use the standard application form (HE COFUND).
- Part B template has a page limit of 70 pages.
- Additional annexes are required (templates available in the Submission System).

Grant Agreement and Implementation

Grant starting date: The grant may start as of the submission date of the application. Applicants must justify any request for a retroactive starting date in their proposal.
Implementation timeline: The expected duration of the partnership itself is seven to ten years.
Key milestones: The partnership is expected to organize joint calls for transnational proposals on an annual basis.
Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: As described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes (details not provided).

Post-Award Requirements

Software development: All software developed under the grant should be open source, licensed under a CC0 public domain dedication or an open source license recommended by the Free Software Foundation or the Open Source Initiative.
Non-open source libraries: If non-open source function libraries are used (due to disproportional efforts or diminished quality/performance with fully open source options), a full user license, free of charge for an unlimited period, must be granted to the ECCCH consortium and all users of the ECCCH.
Compliance with prior project guidelines: All software and other related deliverables must be compliant with the data model and software development guidelines elaborated by the project funded under topic 'HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-ECCCH-01-01'.
Concertation activities: All projects funded must participate in concertation activities with the project funded under topic 'HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-ECCCH-01-01'.
Data management: Data produced in the context of such actions must be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).
Coordination budget: Proposals should include a budget for regular joint coordination meetings and may cover costs for other joint activities (concrete activities not required to be detailed at application stage).

Application Assistance and Support

Guidance and support for applicants are available through:
- Online Manual.
- Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
- Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ.
- Research Enquiry Service.
- National Contact Points (NCPs).
- Enterprise Europe Network (with special focus on SMEs).
- IT Helpdesk.
- European IPR Helpdesk.
- CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk.
Partner search: A partner search function is available for this call.

Evaluation Criteria

Overall Impact and Contribution

Proposals will be assessed on their credible pathway to contributing to the following expected impacts of the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan:
- Realizing the full potential of cultural heritage, arts, and cultural and creative industries and sectors as drivers of both sustainable innovation and a European sense of belonging.
- Advancing science for a fair transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society.
Alignment with relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, and 17, and the targets of the Paris Agreement.
Ability to provide public funders, policy-makers, and research communities with a holistic and strategic multi-annual R&I program for resilient cultural heritage.

Quality and Excellence of Research & Innovation Agenda

Capacity to increase and better coordinate investments in R&I at the intersection of cultural heritage and climate change sciences.
Effectiveness in sharing findings, data, tools, and methodologies across sectors.
Potential to propose research-based policy recommendations to overcome fragmentation in the European Research Area.
Development of a long-term Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) that demonstrates cultural heritage's role in Europe's climate neutrality and green transition.
Contribution to a significantly strengthened scientific knowledge base at the intersection of heritage- and climate sciences.
Creation and dissemination of new knowledge, techniques, skills, strategies, and materials for sustainable preservation and management of climate-related risks in cultural heritage.
Development of a coherent methodology for obtaining reliable quantitative and qualitative data on cultural heritage and climate change.
Improvement of long-term monitoring of cultural heritage through innovative technologies and risk management models.

Implementation Quality and Capacity Building

Ability to bring together diverse stakeholders (research funders, authorities, professionals, citizens, innovators, policy-makers) to create critical mass for SRIA implementation.
Implementation through a joint program of activities, including coordinating transnational research, improving data access, optimizing research infrastructure use, networking, capacity building, training, and dissemination.
Fostering fundamental and applied interdisciplinary collaborative research (STEAM and SSH) between cultural heritage and climate research communities.
Providing resources and incentives for holistic research and collaborative actions towards sustainable development and just futures.
Promoting innovations in industries and scaled-up solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Encouraging continued conservation and preservation by involving, educating, and facilitating community participation.

Strategic Alignment and Collaboration

Integration of cultural heritage into mainstream climate change and environmental regulations, policies, and adaptation strategies.
Providing policy recommendations to enhance social cohesion and a European sense of belonging through cultural heritage.
Increasing collaboration across countries and regions to overcome stakeholder fragmentation.
Establishing complementarities with other Horizon Europe actions, partnerships, and missions (e.g., 'Adaptation to climate change – Climate-ADAPT', 'New European Bauhaus').
Ensuring complementarity with ongoing Horizon Europe projects.
Exploring cooperation with other relevant EU programs (e.g., EU space programs, Digital Europe program) and international actions.
Alignment with EU-wide initiatives on open access and FAIR data.
Linkage with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s Knowledge and Innovation Community (EIT Culture & Creativity).
Potential for synergies with European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programs.
Description of methodology and objectives for cooperation with third countries.

Cross-Cutting Themes

Due attention to the 'gender dimension' and the intersectionality of grounds for potential discrimination (e.g., disability, age, socio-economic status, racial or ethnic origin, nationality, sexual orientation).
Integration of advice from gender experts in developing mitigation and adaptation measures.

Evaluation Process

Evaluation criteria, scoring, and thresholds are detailed in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes (not provided in this document).
The submission and evaluation processes follow Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.
Representatives of the EU institutions will be part of the evaluation committee.
A maximum of one project will be funded under this specific topic.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory and Policy Compliance

Projects must adhere to EU anti-discrimination policy, ensuring due attention to the gender dimension and the intersectionality of grounds for potential discrimination (e.g., disability, age, socio-economic status, racial or ethnic origin, nationality, sexual orientation).
Compliance with the EU's cultural and environmental policies, including the Creative Europe programme and the European Green Deal.
Actions should consider findings from the European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) report and contribute to managing climate risks.
The partnership should contribute to achieving the objectives of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, particularly its focus area on cultural heritage protection.

Technical and Data Standards

Software Development: All software developed must be open source and licensed under:
- A CC0 public domain dedication.
- An open source license as recommended by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) or the Open Source Initiative (OSI).
Non-Open Source Libraries: If using non-open source function libraries (when fully open source alternatives would require disproportional efforts or diminish quality/performance), a free user license, for an unlimited period, must be granted to the ECCCH consortium and all ECCCH users.
Software Interoperability: All software and deliverables must comply with the data model and software development guidelines established by the project funded under topic 'HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-ECCCH-01-01'.
Data Principles: All data produced or used within the project should be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).
Satellite Data Use: If projects utilize satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation, or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS services (other data and services may be used additionally).

Ethical and Social Considerations

Gender experts' advice should be incorporated in developing mitigation and adaptation measures related to cultural heritage and climate change.
The approach should empower citizens to contribute to the co-design/co-creation/co-assessment of research and innovation agendas, contents, and outcomes.

Intellectual Property (IP)

IPR rights of digital objects created within the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) and resulting from ECCCH-based collaboration must be fully recorded and traceable.
Guidelines for IPR use, such as RightsStatements.org, should be applied where appropriate to enable new business models.

Unique Strategic Opportunities

Building on Existing Initiatives: The partnership is expected to build on the work of existing initiatives, notably the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Cultural Heritage and the ARCHE Coordination and Support Action.
European Integration: Opportunities to contribute to the New European Bauhaus initiative.
Cross-Sectoral and International Collaboration: Encouraged to explore cooperation with other relevant EU and international actions, and with various economic sectors (e.g., cultural and creative sectors, agriculture, forestry, blue economy, tourism, circular economy, construction).
Synergies: Proposals may include synergies with European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programmes, including Interreg programmes, for greater impact and efficiency.
The partnership is open to third countries wishing to join, encouraging a broader international scope, although their financial commitment does not count towards the EU funding calculation for this grant.

Grant Details