This topic aims at increasing the effort for maturing technologies and generic building blocks towards both incremental and disruptive technologies for Electric Propulsion systems products up to TRL 5/6 for thruster components, electric power architecture and products, as well as fluidic management systems and components

– R&I on generic building blocks technologies for thruster components (anode configuration, magnetic nozzle, cathode, materials, alternative propellants, new manufacturing processes)

– R&I on electrical power architecture and related components (PPU, direct drive, etc.)

– R&I on fluidic management system and related components

– Strengthen the European capacity to compete worldwide in electric propulsion satellites and missions
– Technologies matured to at least TRL 5/6 at component level
– Matured industrialisation aspects for high TRL solutions
– Contribution to the preparation of the evolution of electric propulsion systems including HET, GIE, HEMPT, in four power classes (very low up to 0,3 kW; low: 0,3-1,5 kW; medium 3- 7 kW; high 12-20 kW)

Introduction

Monitoring and reporting on changes to forest carbon stocks is essential for policymakers (both national and European) in order to be informed of trends in the forest sink evolution and to develop annual approximated greenhouse gas inventories. Remote sensing data sets can be helpful in estimating or verifying forest living biomass gains and losses, forest area changes, forest health status and in identifying carbon-rich old-growth forests or natural disturbances.

Scope

– Mitigation potential of afforestation and other forest activities including their opportunity costs.

– Renewable energy targets and the needs of forest-based bioeconomy for sustainable domestically-sourced feedstock.

– Assessment of trade-offs and synergies between climate-oriented forest management, and other objectives

Objectives

– A comprehensive assessment of the climate mitigation potential of European forests and forest-based sector through modelling of different policy pathways.

– Inform public authorities on the most suitable approach to forest policy and forest bioeconomy.

– Development and improvement of robust and transparent methodologies for high-resolution monitoring and reporting of forest carbon pools and their interactions through a combination of in-situ data collection and remote sensing methods.

Introduction

A successful proposal will support the development of policies, business models and market conditions to scale up and speed up the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS)[1]. It will contribute to the wider deployment of NBS and to fully reaping their economic, employment, social and environmental benefits in order to build a competitive sustainability in Europe and to tackle climate change. NBS contribute to the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and other Green Deal priorities, by supporting biodiversity and vital ecosystem services: climate change mitigation and enhancement of carbon sinks, biomass provision, access to fresh water, clean soil, healthy diets and lifestyles and sustainable food systems. NBS deployment will also create green jobs and build resilience to climate change and natural disasters.

Scope

Developing markets for NBS has proved a continuing challenge. NBS investments are many and varied, with their benefits and costs differing by project type and context. They produce a range of benefits, many of which are public goods with limited revenue streams that may accrue to different stakeholder groups. Detailed understanding of these benefits is lacking. The same is true for potential economic benefits resulting from avoidance or reduction of costs due to NBS intervention. In addition, the variety of NBS and their context-specific nature across urban, periurban and rural realms, makes it difficult to predict reliably their commercial prospects. These features make financing of NBS projects challenging and investment from the private sector particularly so. As a result, funding of NBS has typically focused on a narrow range of public sources. Addressing knowledge gaps about the economic and financial performance of NBS investments, in combination with trialling the development of business cases and models for NBS implementation is particularly urgent in the current context where NBS need to be exponentially scaled up to meet the policy priorities of the European Green Deal. Despite growing interest in NBS, upscaling NBS investment would require better understanding of different return on investment (ROI) models while accounting for indirect revenue streams associated with NBS (e.g. lower insurance costs for local government from investment in flood defences).

Objectives

– Better understanding of the economic and financial performance of NBS, contributing to a greater promotion of investments in NBS and to an acceleration of market uptake.

– NBS markets are further developed and better structured.

– Actors involved in NBS markets are better equipped to conduct cost-benefit analysis and monetisation of NBS, and to address their funding needs, for greater implementation of NBS, including ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction approaches.

– NBS business cases are strengthened, contributing to greater adoption of NBS and awareness of their benefits.

– Regional and Europe-wide advisory services are equipped with better tools and create multi-stakeholder networks to more effectively support NBS project development and investment vehicles.

– Informing Mission Adaptation to Climate Change, the EU Adaptation Strategy and the EU Taxonomy on Sustainable Finance.

– Assess potential skill gaps and devise trainings to tackle this skill shortage

Intro

The project is expected to enhance access and usability to environmental observation information and promote pre-operational European services through global infrastructures, notably through the GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) infrastructure. Proposals should turn existing platforms into consolidated digital systems which provide analytical tools, including machine learning for large-scale analysis, improve the value of environmental observations (including in-situ data) to enrich the knowledge base needed to facilitate the reduction of anthropogenic impacts and to assure on optimal management of the transition to a climate neutral economy and a more resilient society.

Scope

Proposals should build on the relevant existing infrastructures[10] and facilitate access and exploitation of EO derived data. The tools and services developed under the proposal(s) should be made available for future integration in the common topical European open infrastructure, Destination Earth. Proposals should deliver a plan for the sustained uptake of services by the European commercial sector and leverage the tools developed for the benefit of users from a variety of different sectors (e.g. public, private, civil society, citizen science). Proposals should contribute to support the EC-ESA initiative on Earth system science[11].

Objectives

– Conversion of existing environmental platforms into fully interoperable digital ecosystems, taking advantage of the progresses made in artificial intelligence, machine learning and high performance computing;
– Enhance the FAIRness (findability, accessibility, interoperability and re-usability) of environmental observation data, for example, through annotations turning them into relevant, open and accessible knowledge and provide support to decision makers involved in implementing the objectives of the European Green Deal, the new EU climate adaptation strategy and European strategy of data;
– Improve the environmental observation knowledge at regional and local level across all European regions, leveraging existing platforms to foster the usability and practicability of digital services in support to the Horizon Europe missions and partnerships;
– Better access for European stakeholders to global environmental observation data, actionable information and knowledge, especially to the data derived from European programmes such as Copernicus, Galileo/EGNOS and INSPIRE to establish a common European Green Deal data space, fully interlinked with the common European data space for research and innovation and the European Open Science Cloud;
– Contribution to the Destination Earth initiative.

Intro

The lack of biodiversity knowledge and appropriate monitoring are critical limiting factors in the definition and implementation of measures, where the range, population size and suitable habitat area are unknown in the majority of Member States and for the majority of vulnerable marine species and ecosystems. Since biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate in Earth’s history, there is an urgent need to take conservation measures and develop holistic ecosystem-based management approaches to enable these ecosystems to be resilient to environmental changes and able to provide services for humankind and the planet’s life support system.

Scope

– Increase understanding of the dynamics of marine biodiversity and ecosystems processes and functioning
– Genomics and taxonomic technologies for the inventory and fast identification of marine species, generating reference datasets from identified voucher specimens and novel methods to improve biodiversity monitoring and inventory
– Increase understanding of how input from freshwater and estuarine systems influence coastal marine communities and their ecosystem functionality
– Use of non-invasive monitoring as an integral component of any marine ecosystem exploration and assessment
– Contribution to the Global Taxonomy Initiative

Objective

– Closing the gap in knowledge and exploration of marine and coastal biodiversity
– New theoretical frameworks of the organisation of marine biotic communities
– Ocean health prediction
– Improved detection, monitoring and impact assessment of invasive alien species on biodiversity and conservation monitoring of endangered species;
– Natural capital accounting with estimation of the value and co-benefits of services from healthy deep sea to coastal ecosystems
– Improved science-based maritime spatial planning and identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas and design of Marine Protected Areas