Horizon 2020: Proposals for the Green Deal Call
The European Green Deal keeps the EU in suspense. The Horizon 2020 Programme opened its last calls in the funding period under this green future-oriented headline. We have co-developed three applications and supported the consortia on their way to a greener, more inclusive, and sustainable future.
With the “Green Deal“ the EU Commissions aims to make the EU climate-neutral until 2050. A major building block for this ambitious target is the “Green Deal Call”, that shall fund research- and innovation projects with a total of 1 billion Euro. Until 27th January 2021 applicants submitted 1.550 proposals in eight thematic areas and two horizontal areas. The Green Deal Call is processed via the funding program Horizon 2020. This last call of the funding period was also the one with the highest funding volume.
REM Consult supported the coordinators and the international consortia of three proposals with up to 30 project partners and project budgets of up to 20 million Euro in developing their projects. For doing so, we applied our good practices and methods for cooperation projects as well as our expertise in developing projects of various thematic areas and funding programmes. We are delighted to have co-created promising and future-oriented ideas in this highly competitive field and to be a part of their implementation in case of approval.
ZEROPOLL
ZEROPOLL (ZERO-POLLution and One Health: Aquatic predators as sentinels for early action warning) pursues a paradigm shift in the assessment and management of environmental risks, which are increasing due to the continuous exposure and accumulation of persistent and mobile chemicals (PMCs) in animals and humans. An EU-wide early warning system for the detection of pollution signals is to be set up by means of an ecosystem-oriented OneHealth risk assessment as well as EU-wide data collection of pollutant loads in aquatic predators and human cohorts. The identification and risk assessment of chemical pollutants for humans and animals derived from this, as well as the assessment of innovative approaches to bioremediation, are intended to significantly promote the reorientation of risk and hazard in line with the new EU Chemicals Strategy.
Coordinator: University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation
SURFACE
SURFACE (Synthetic Turfs in a Circular Economy Context) is dedicated to the input of microplastics and chemicals from artificial turfs into the environment. What sounds like a niche topic has a tremendous impact on soils and waters in practice. In Europe alone, there are 93.000 artificial turf pitches covering 112 square kilometres. To ensure good playing characteristics, the vast majority of these pitches are covered with so-called infills – in many cases rubber granulates made from end-of-life car tyres. According to a study by the Swedish Environmental Institute, an average playing field loses half a tonne of material per year, which ends up in the environment and thus in the material cycles. Next to microplastics, this includes PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and heavy metals. Against this background, SURFACE will develop new European value chains for artificial turf systems that are toxic-free and without microplastics, while maintaining user-friendliness and cost efficiency. With the development of circular artificial turf products for different climatic zones, SURFACE shows how production, operation, maintenance and recycling can be designed according to circular economy principles.
Coordinator: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
KARMA
In KARMA (Circular Economy in Cities & Regions for a better Future), the name says it all: do good in the present and good will happen to you in the future. KARMA brings together 24 partners from Hamburg to implement the circular economy in a spatial approach through three systemic solutions: 1) A circular business ecosystem with integrative enabling structures; 2) Circular Economy Hubs as an instrument for the local creation of a circular economy through citizen engagement and local production; and 3) a mechanism that enables companies to create material flows that feed back into the urban metabolism. The consortium, led by the Senate Chancellery of Hamburg, as well as the environmental and the economic authorities of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is composed of a large number of actors from business, civil society, and research. In addition, the consortium is supported by international partners who will contribute to the further development and replication of the three solutions, e.g. through direct integration and co-creation of the systemic solutions with the “expert cities” Brussels, Copenhagen, Glasgow and Prague.
Coordinator: City of Hamburg
We thank all partners and clients for the confidence and trust in us. All the more we cross our fingers for all our partnerships for the evaluation and approval of the projects. Together we want to make our future greener. Do you need support for your project development (Horizon Europe, Interreg, Leader, national and many other programmes) or are you looking for guidance for the upcoming funding period 2021-2027? Feel free to contact us!