| Topic | HORIZON-CL5-2027-01-D1-08 |
|---|---|
| Status | Forthcoming |
| Call | HORIZON-CL5-2027-01 — CLIMATE |
| Destination | Advancing science for a fair transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society (2026-27) |
| Type of action | Research and Innovation Actions · lump sum |
| Opening | 17 November 2026 |
| Deadline | 4 March 2027 |
| Budget | around EUR 7 million per project · 2 projects expected · EUR 14 million in total |
| Part B page limit | 45 pages (standard application form; check your call) |
| Template | Work Programme 2026–2027 application form |
Expected outcomes
Projects may contribute to some of the expected outcomes; say which ones and why. The topic says: “Project results are expected to contribute to some of the following outcomes:”
- EO1 Better process understanding of past climate changes at different time scales, their variability and interactions with ecosystems, leading to improved Earth system models.
- EO2 Future climate change scenarios produced in light of past changes in the Earth system, in particular warm climates/high sea-level situations, and abrupt transitions.
- EO3 Identification of thresholds in Earth system components and better characterisation of driving mechanisms and feedbacks that may be responsible for non-linear behaviours, including indicators of abrupt changes, and early warning signals within palaeoclimate records.
- EO4 Synthesis of climate variations that can serve as fundamental basis for IPCC assessments and benchmarks for model inter-comparisons.
Expected impacts named in the destination
The wider, long-term effects the destination seeks. Your outcomes feed them; they are not project deliverables.
- EI1 Supporting climate action (both mitigation and adaptation) in Europe and globally, through advancing climate science and the knowledge base underpinning actionable solutions, to accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral, climate-resilient and prosperous society.
- EI2 Closing key knowledge gaps related to climate change, thereby contributing substantially to key European and international assessments such as IPCC, IPBES, EUCRA, and other initiatives such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) under the World Climate Research Programme.
- EI3 Strengthening the European Research Area on climate change by boosting scientific excellence and capacity in an inclusive manner across the participating countries.
- EI4 Maximising synergies between mitigation and adaptation and with other policy priorities such as biodiversity and ecosystem preservation and restoration, disaster-preparedness, digitalisation, circular economy, prosperity and competitiveness, strategic autonomy, security and resilience, just transition, and the Sustainable Development Goals by exploring co-benefits, trade-offs and potential unintended consequences of climate strategies and policy interventions.
What evaluators will look for in this topic
Expected outcomes
- Projects may contribute to some of the expected outcomes; say which ones and why.
- For each outcome (EO1 to EO4), name who will use or adopt your results (a specific group, not “industry” or “society”), how they get them, and the indicator that shows the change, with baseline, target and date.
- Use the topic's own words for each outcome, so the evaluator can tick it off.
What the scope asks for
Evaluators check the proposal against these sentences of the scope. Answer each one visibly, in the call's own words.
- “Projects should rely on palaeoclimatic data from scientific drilling or coring campaigns, sediment records, dendrochronological and other appropriate sources.”
Conditions that shape the proposal
- Part B, sections 1–3: 45 pages (standard application form). Text beyond the limit is not read; tables and figures count.
- Lump sum: the budget is fixed per work package and paid when each work package is completed. Every work package needs activities and deliverables an evaluator can verify, and the effort must match the money.
Impact pathway and traps
- The topic expects cooperation with other projects or initiatives. Reserve effort and budget for it in the work plan.
- Keep outputs, outcomes and impacts apart: what you deliver, what changes when others use it, and the long-term effect.
- For each destination impact you claim, show which of your outcomes feeds it. Destination impacts are long-term effects, not project deliverables.
- Name the barriers outside the project (regulation, markets, user behaviour) that could block uptake, and what you will do if they do.
- Section 2.3 (the summary canvas) is optional on this call; the old split into scientific, economic and societal impact is no longer required.
The scope, as published
Palaeoclimatic (including geological, biological and ice-core) records provide information on the long-term evolution of the climate, as well as the conditions and processes that can drive physical and ecological systems during warm and cold periods, deglaciations and abrupt climatic events. The challenge of the research under this topic is to provide robust information on palaeoclimate states and events outside the range of variability recorded over the past centuries that can serve as guide for the development of Earth system models. This challenge will be tackled through some of the following activities: Producing and aggregating in databases high-resolution, well-dated, interoperable palaeoclimatic records on climate variability in terms of amplitude, time (onset, duration, frequency) and space (location, extension), extending the instrumental time series to improve our understating of the proxy records and the quantification of their uncertainties; Development of Earth system models with outputs that allow a more direct comparison to palaeo data, modelling climate variability, thresholds, and impacts across timescales from years to millennia; Describing short- to long-term climate evolution and the natural climate variability using quantitative reconstructions from different proxies of past climate periods; Identification of climate-related (including ecological) tipping points and their consequences using palaeo data and model experiments. Allowing for consistent integration of large-scale and more regional/local factors to be reproduced by climate models using natural forcings. Projects should rely on palaeoclimatic data from scientific drilling or coring campaigns, sediment records, dendrochronological and other appropriate sources. Projects funded under this topic are strongly encouraged to collaborate and envisage clustering activities together and with other relevant projects in and outside of Horizon Europe.
Other topics in HORIZON-CL5-2027-01
- HORIZON-CL5-2027-01-D1-07 — Advancing understanding, modelling and prediction of extreme events in a…
- HORIZON-CL5-2027-01-D1-09 — Assessing the performance of policy instruments to inform climate change…
- HORIZON-CL5-2027-01-D1-10 — Understanding and avoiding maladaptation to climate change
- HORIZON-CL5-2027-01-D1-11 — Africa-EU CO-FUND action on climate
- HORIZON-CL5-2027-01-D1-12 — Better understanding and attribution of land and ocean carbon sources and sinks
- HORIZON-CL5-2027-01-D1-13 — Next generation scenarios for informing climate and sustainability transitions
Source and attribution
Topic text from the official topic page on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, retrieved 19 October 2026. © European Union, reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU (CC BY 4.0). Changes: the expected outcomes and impacts are split into numbered statements, long passages are shortened, and the evaluator checklist is GrantWise's own commentary. Your call and the Work Programme always win; check them before you submit. GrantWise is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the European Commission.