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HORIZON EUROPE TOPIC · Cluster 6 · Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Increasing the resilience of agriculture in water and nutrient-scarce environments through digital innovations

HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01 — the expected outcomes as checkable statements, what evaluators look for in this topic, and the conditions that shape the proposal.

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ForthcomingRIA · lump sumDeadline 23 September 2027around EUR 6 million per project

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TopicHORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01
StatusForthcoming
CallHORIZON-CL6-2027-02 — Call 02 - single stage (2027)
DestinationFair, healthy and environment-friendly food systems from primary production to consumption (2026-27)
Type of actionResearch and Innovation Actions · lump sum
Opening20 April 2027
Deadline23 September 2027
Budgetaround EUR 6 million per project · 2 projects expected · EUR 12 million in total
TRL at the endTRL 4–5
Part B page limit45 pages (standard application form; check your call)
TemplateWork Programme 2026–2027 application form

Expected outcomes

Projects should contribute to all of the expected outcomes. The topic says: “Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:”

  1. EO1 farmers have increased access to digital tools and advice to improve their resilience to water and nutrient scarcity.
  2. EO2 farmers are better prepared for the Green Transition and EU’s new plan for sustainable prosperity and competitiveness.
  3. EO3 biodiversity benefits from decreasing water, air and soil pollution while European dependency on mineral fertilisers is reduced.

Expected impacts named in the destination

The wider, long-term effects the destination seeks. Your outcomes feed them; they are not project deliverables.

  1. EI1 agriculture and food systems contribute to ensuring a secure, safe, sustainable, nutritious, and affordable supply of healthy food in Europe and beyond by fostering its long-term competitiveness, resilience, scalability and sustainability within the boundaries of our planet with the One Health approach.
  2. EI2 farmers are empowered to ensure the competitiveness, resilience and sustainability of the farming sector, through increasing knowledge, tools, innovative solutions, and advice that allow efficient productivity, working for and with nature, preserving and restoring biodiversity within agricultural ecosystems and helping to decarbonise the EU economy.
  3. EI3 sustainable fisheries and aquaculture (in marine, brackish and freshwater) contribute to fair, healthy, resilient and environment-friendly food systems in healthy aquatic ecosystems with thriving diversity of species and habitats providing ecosystem and climate services and triggering growth and jobs’ creation in coastal and rural areas.
  4. EI4 tools are provided so that citizens and communities are empowered to make the sustainable food choices and move towards safe, healthy, nutritious, accessible, affordable and sustainable diets. Insights and advances in life science and digital & data technologies are valorised to deploy solutions in practice across the EU.
  5. EI5 food businesses, including food processing industries and SMEs, are supported to increase their resilience and competitiveness, while ensuring resource efficiency and sustainability, and human, animal and ecosystem health is preserved.

What evaluators will look for in this topic

Expected outcomes

  • Projects should contribute to all of the expected outcomes.
  • For each outcome (EO1 to EO3), 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.

  • “Farmers should be able to adopt innovative solutions to increase the resilience to water and to nutrient scarcity.”
  • “Proposals should:. improve knowledge on the complex interactions between plant, soil, water, air and nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorus) in view of climate change in the EU and its impacts on crop production, farming systems (including crop protection use) and the environment, in a representative number of different pedoclimatic regions;. develop and test monitoring devices and systems that can take into account the findings on the interactions…”
  • “Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, with a consortium based on a balanced mix of actors with complementary knowledge, including farmers, researchers, advisors, technology providers and business partners.”
  • “This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.”
  • “Proposals should address various farming systems/approaches, one of which should be organic farming.”
  • “Where appropriate, proposals should use and complement capacities and infrastructures created under the Digital Europe Program (incl. European Data Spaces, EDIHs) as well as the EURO HPC and EU AI Factory infrastructures.”
  • “Proposals should also comply with existing EU framework and strategies, and build upon the concepts and solutions developed in other EU initiatives aimed to facilitate data sharing, such as the Common European Agricultural Data Space (CEADS).”
  • “Proposals are encouraged to engage in international cooperation and to build on the results of relevant projects funded under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe and ensure collaboration with relevant ongoing and forthcoming projects under the PRIMA and Agriculture of Data partnerships, the JRC and the European Soil Observatory (EUSO).”

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.
  • TRL: the topic expects TRL 4–5 by the end of the project. State where you start and the evidence for it.
  • Other Eligible Conditions: “The following additional eligibility criteria apply: the proposals must apply the multi-actor approach. See definition of the multi-actor approach in this work programme part.”

Impact pathway and traps

  • The topic asks for social sciences and humanities (SSH) expertise. Evaluators look for SSH partners with a real role in the methodology, not a token task.
  • Users or citizens are part of the scope. Show how they take part in the design and testing, not only that they are informed.
  • Standardisation is mentioned. Name the committees or bodies and the partner who engages with them.
  • International cooperation is part of the scope. Explain what the non-EU partners add and how the cooperation is organised.
  • The Joint Research Centre may take part. Decide whether its involvement helps, and say so if you include it.
  • 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

A key challenge for the agricultural sector is to provide food in a context of increasing global population, climate change and price volatility while reducing pollution and preserving natural resources and biodiversity for future generations. Farmers should be able to adopt innovative solutions to increase the resilience to water and to nutrient scarcity. Digital and data technologies offer solutions to monitor parameters (e.g. soil conditions, water and air quality, nutrients content and availability) in a cost-efficient manner while supporting decision-making on input management, adapt to climate change, contribute to cleaner air and biodiversity. Proposals should: improve knowledge on the complex interactions between plant, soil, water, air and nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorus) in view of climate change in the EU and its impacts on crop production, farming systems (including crop protection use) and the environment, in a representative number of different pedoclimatic regions; develop and test monitoring devices and systems that can take into account the findings on the interactions described in the previous point, considering their easy integration into other farm management information systems (FMIS) or decision support systems (DSS), and the affordability and accessibility to farmers (such as low connectivity in certain rural areas, digital knowledge, health impairments/disability, etc.); develop and test AI-enabled decision support systems to better monitor and assess the effects of agricultural practices and land management measures in terms of water and nutrient use taking into account different pedoclimatic zones, local conditions and farm characteristics, their impact on pollution (water, soil) and benefits for biodiversity; create sets of high-quality AI training data to support the development of DSS with the objective to improve water and nutrient resilience of different farming systems, and make them publicly available, considering legal clarity, sustainable access, transparent documentation and metadata, harmonised and standardised protocols; identify potential barriers and enablers for translation of these R&I developments into practical and commercial digital tools and for the adoption by end-users (especially related to trust and transparency, and the needs of persons with disabilities such as accessibility of the information), as well as characterise remaining knowledge, training and/or advice gaps, and needs for policy feedback. The projects under this topic are relevant to the EU policies related to the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food, the EU Action Plan for the Development of Organic Production, Europe fit for the Digital Age, the Climate Adaptation Strategy, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, the Clean Air directives, the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the European Water Resilience Strategy. Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, with a consortium based on a balanced mix of actors with complementary knowledge, including farmers, researchers, advisors, technology providers and business partners. This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities. Proposals should address various farming systems/approaches, one of which should be organic farming. Where appropriate, proposals should use and complement capacities and infrastructures created under the Digital Europe Program (incl. European Data Spaces, EDIHs) as well as the EURO HPC and EU AI Factory infrastructures. Proposals should also comply with existing EU framework and strategies, and build upon the concepts and solutions developed in other EU initiatives aimed to facilitate data sharing, such as the Common European Agricultural Data Space (CEADS). Proposals are encouraged to engage in international cooperation and to build on the results of relevant projects funded under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe and ensure collaboration with relevant ongoing and forthcoming projects under the PRIMA and Agriculture of Data partnerships, the JRC and the European Soil Observatory (EUSO).

Technology readiness, as published

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 4-5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021DC0141R%2801%29

Other topics in HORIZON-CL6-2027-02

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.