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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

Primary objective: Strengthen science-based policies for soil health, implement the proposed EU Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience, and embed Mission Soil Research and Innovation (R&I) at national and regional levels.
Target recipients: Public bodies, research organizations, businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other stakeholders forming multi-actor consortia.
MUST state if grant is 'SECTOR-SPECIFIC' or 'SECTOR-AGNOSTIC': SECTOR-SPECIFIC, focusing on soil health, agriculture, forestry, environment, and spatial planning.
Geographic scope: EU Member States and interested Horizon Europe Associated Countries.
Key filtering criteria: Focus on soil-health science-policy interfaces and national soil-health hubs, multi-actor approach, contribution to Mission Soil objectives.
Grant frequency and program context: Part of the annual Horizon Europe Work Programme (2025 WP), building on previous programs under the Mission 'A Soil Deal for Europe'.

Financial Structure

Funding type: Lump sum contribution.
Grant amount: Up to EUR 6,000,000 for one expected grant under this specific topic (HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-08).
Currency: EUR.
Eligible costs (which form the basis for determining the lump sum): Include personnel costs, subcontracting costs, purchase costs (travel/subsistence, equipment, other goods/works/services), and other cost categories (e.g., financial support to third parties, internally invoiced goods/services, transnational/virtual access to research infrastructure).
Ineligible costs: Costs that would normally be ineligible under the general Horizon Europe rules.
Indirect costs: Calculated at a 25% flat rate applied to the eligible direct costs.
Co-financing: The total estimated costs of the action are expected to be greater than the EU contribution, ensuring compliance with the co-financing principle.
Payment mechanism: Lump sum contributions are paid per work package upon proper implementation of the activities as defined in the grant agreement. Pre-financing follows standard Horizon Europe rules.
Financial guarantees: Between 5-8% of the total lump sum is retained as a contribution to the Mutual Insurance Mechanism.
Financial reporting: No obligation to report actual costs incurred. Payments are based on the proper completion of work packages.

Eligibility Requirements

Organizational Type and Structure

Eligible organization types include:
- Public administrations (national, regional, local)
- Research organizations and universities
- Farmers, foresters, and their professional associations
- Land managers (including urban and spatial planners)
- Food and bioeconomy businesses
- Consumer associations
- Local communities
- Educators and cultural/creative industries
- Citizens and civil society organizations (including NGOs)
Consortium required: Proposals must adopt a multi-actor approach ensuring genuine and sufficient involvement of a balanced choice of relevant key actors (e.g., researchers, end-users, practitioners) throughout the project lifecycle.
No specific organizational size or maturity requirements are stated, but capacity for broad coordination and engagement is implied.

Geographic and Regulatory Requirements

Eligible countries: All EU Member States and interested Horizon Europe Associated Countries. (Example: 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, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Faroe Islands, Israel, Tunisia - specific list depends on Horizon Europe Association Agreements).
General Horizon Europe eligibility conditions as described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes apply.

Technical and Capacity Requirements

Expertise in soil health science, policy analysis, knowledge management, and relevant digital and earth observation technologies.
Demonstrated ability to facilitate cross-fertilization of skills, competencies, and ideas among diverse actors.
Capacity to develop practical and ready-to-use knowledge, approaches, tools, or products.
Ability to build on and coordinate with existing Mission projects (e.g., SoilWise, Mission Soil Platform) and contribute to the European Soil Observatory (EUSO) hosted by the Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Application Process

Application Timeline

Submission window opens: 2025-05-06.
Application deadline: 2025-09-30.
This is a single-stage submission procedure.
An indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement signature is described in Annex F of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Required Documentation and Submission

Applicants must submit an application form specific to this call, which includes Part B (narrative part) available in the Submission System.
A detailed budget table (HE LS template for lump sum projects) must be provided, showing the estimated direct and indirect costs.
Proposals must include a breakdown of the lump sum amount, indicating the share per work package and, within each work package, the share assigned to each beneficiary and affiliated entity.
Applicants are required to declare that they have followed their own accounting practices for the preparation of the estimated budget.
Submission platform: Applications must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal's Electronic Submission Service.

Post-Award Requirements and Obligations

Project implementation: The action must be implemented in accordance with Annex 1 of the grant agreement.
Monitoring and evaluation: Checks, reviews, and audits will focus on the technical implementation of the action, particularly on the fulfilment of the conditions for releasing lump sum contributions per work package.
Reporting: There is no requirement to report actual costs incurred. Reporting focuses on technical progress and deliverables.
Liaison: Projects are expected to liaise closely with the Mission Secretariat and actively contribute to the development of the European Soil Observatory (EUSO).
Coordination: Proposals should include a dedicated task and allocate resources for close coordination with other relevant Horizon Europe projects addressing (sub-)national involvement in different missions horizontally.

Evaluation Criteria

Overall Proposal Quality

Excellence: Assesses the quality of proposed objectives, methodologies, and the scientific/technical approach.
Expected Impact: Evaluates the potential contribution to strengthening science-based policies for soil health, the implementation of the EU Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience, and the embedding of Mission Soil R&I at national and regional levels.
Quality and Efficiency of Implementation: Focuses on the clarity and effectiveness of the work plan, the appropriateness of allocated resources, and the soundness of the management structure.

Specific Scoring Factors

Contribution to Mission Soil objectives and at least one of the three key strategic orientations of the Strategic Plan 2025-2027:
- Soil health-improving innovative governance, policies, practices, and incentives.
- Improved and coherent soil health monitoring using cost-efficient techniques that harness remote sensing and digital technologies.
- Increased awareness and engagement of researchers, land managers, policymakers, and citizens in designing solutions to protect and restore soil health.
Multi-actor engagement: Assesses how proposed activities address the needs of end-users, how the consortium composition reflects a balanced choice of relevant key actors with complementary knowledge, and how existing practices and tacit knowledge will be included through high-quality knowledge exchange activities.
Coordinated contributions: Emphasizes the sharing of data, knowledge, and information; creation of synergies; avoidance of duplications; and mobilization of additional resources and actors.
Collaboration: Requires close coordination with other Horizon Europe projects addressing (sub-)national involvement in different missions horizontally, and contributions to relevant cluster activities in the context of the Mission Soil Platform.
Engagement with key bodies: Evaluates the liaison with the Mission Secretariat, active contribution to the European Soil Observatory (EUSO) hosted by the JRC, and close collaboration with Soil Mission Board members to engage new stakeholders and align funding.
Dissemination: Considers the development of practical and ready-to-use knowledge/tools that are easily understandable and freely accessible, and how results will feed into existing dissemination channels most consulted by end-users (e.g., EIP-AGRI practice abstracts where applicable).

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory and Ethical Compliance

Regulatory compliance: Projects contribute to the implementation of the proposed EU Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience, thus requiring alignment with its provisions as they develop.
Ethical standards: All projects must adhere to the ethical principles and standards generally applicable under the Horizon Europe programme.
Data protection and privacy: Compliance with EU data protection regulations is implied for all data handling within the project.

Intellectual Property and Risk Management

Intellectual Property (IP): Policies for intellectual property rights generated by the project are governed by the general Horizon Europe rules as described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Risk management: While not explicitly detailed as a separate section, the lump sum funding model shifts financial risk away from beneficiaries, with the focus on technical execution and meeting work package conditions.

Unique Aspects and Collaboration

Lump Sum Funding Model: A key feature is the use of lump sum contributions, simplifying financial management by removing the need for detailed cost reporting and financial ex-post audits. Payments are tied to the proper implementation of defined work packages.
Mandatory Multi-actor Approach: Proposals must demonstrate a genuine and sufficient involvement of diverse stakeholders (researchers, land managers, businesses, citizens, etc.) throughout all project phases, from planning to exploitation of results. This fosters co-creation and ensures practical relevance.
Strategic Alignment: Projects are expected to make credible pathways to contribute to the objectives of the 'A Soil Deal for Europe' Mission and specific long-term impacts related to soil health-improving governance, monitoring, and awareness.
Knowledge Management and Sharing: A strong emphasis is placed on developing tools for managing soil-health knowledge, creating practical outputs, and actively contributing to knowledge exchange. This includes generating 'practice abstracts' in the EIP-AGRI format where relevant, and collaborating with the European Soil Observatory (EUSO).
International Collaboration: Projects are encouraged to work closely with international institutions and initiatives addressing science-policy interaction for soil health (e.g., Global Soil Partnership, UN Convention to Combat Desertification, OECD).

Grant Details