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

African Union – European Union Partnership on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA)

HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-09 — the expected outcomes as checkable statements, what evaluators look for in this topic, and the conditions that shape the proposal.

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ForthcomingCSA · lump sumDeadline 23 September 2027around EUR 6.75 million per project

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TopicHORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-09
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 actionCoordination and Support Actions · lump sum
Opening20 April 2027
Deadline23 September 2027
Budgetaround EUR 6.75 million per project · 1 project expected · EUR 6.75 million in total
Part B page limit28 pages (standard application form; check your call)
TemplateWork Programme 2026–2027 application form

Expected outcomes

The topic does not say whether all outcomes must be addressed; treat them all as relevant. The topic says: “Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:”

  1. EO1 the coordination of Research and Innovation Policies of AU and EU Members in the Working Group on FNSSA is improved.
  2. EO2 improved coordination of the portfolio of projects funded under the first priority on FNSSA of the African Union – European Union High-level Policy Dialogue across all funding instruments of the EU and the AU and its members, in particular the EU Research Framework Programme, Co-funding instruments, the DeSIRA programme and others.

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

  • The topic does not say whether all outcomes must be addressed; treat them all as relevant.
  • For each outcome (EO1 to EO2), 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.

  • “Proposals should:. implement the AU-EU roadmap by strengthening the strategic functioning and capacities of the FNSSA Working Group.”
  • “These projects must have been funded in support of the EU-AU FNSSA roadmap 2016-2026 and funded by one of the instruments of EU-AU R&I collaboration, they include African Union Research Grants, ERA-Nets (Leap-Agri, FOSC), Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe and DeSira;. complement other potential scale-up instruments of the EU Global Gateway Strategy such as the AU-EU Innovation Agenda and the EU International Partnerships such as DeSIRA+;. promote…”
  • “Proposals are encouraged to work together with the Joint Research Centre via the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre on Global Food and Nutrition Security to leverage its knowledge base on relevant topics and to expand the reach and dissemination of FNSSA activities.”

Conditions that shape the proposal

  • Part B, sections 1–3: 28 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.
  • Coordination and support action: no research is funded. Evaluators look for coordination, networking, dissemination or policy support with a clear audience.
  • Other Eligible Conditions: “If eligible for funding, legal entities established in African Union Member States may exceptionally participate in this Coordination and support action as a beneficiary or affiliated entity.”
  • Other Eligible Conditions: “The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding as a beneficiary with zero funding, or as an associated partner. The JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal - see General Annex B.”
  • Other Eligible Conditions: “Due to the scope of this topic, legal entities established in all African Union member states* are exceptionally eligible for Union funding. * "African Union member states" includes countries whose membership has been temporarily suspended.”
  • Other Eligible Conditions: “International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country are exceptionally eligible for funding.”
  • Other Eligible Conditions: “The following additional eligibility criteria apply: due to the specific challenge of this topic, in addition to the minimum number of participants set out in the General Annexes, consortia must include at least three independent legal entities established in an African Union member state*.”
  • Legal and financial set-up of the grants: “Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties (FSTP). The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 60 000.”

Impact pathway and traps

  • 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

Proposals should: implement the AU-EU roadmap by strengthening the strategic functioning and capacities of the FNSSA Working Group. Develop a toolkit of measures and provide robust scientific support, as well as practical administrative help, to enable a better-structured organisation; operationalise the International Research Consortium (IRC) as a platform to implement the roadmap on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture (FNSSA) by improving the learning environment, including communication channels, to support multi stakeholder networks and to strengthen R&I coordination and funding also by the use of Financial Support to Third Parties as well as by the use of cascading funding; provide a platform for funders and seed funding to further develop and/or scale-up technical and social innovations created by a previous HLPD-FNSSA projects. These projects must have been funded in support of the EU-AU FNSSA roadmap 2016-2026 and funded by one of the instruments of EU-AU R&I collaboration, they include African Union Research Grants, ERA-Nets (Leap-Agri, FOSC), Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe and DeSira; complement other potential scale-up instruments of the EU Global Gateway Strategy such as the AU-EU Innovation Agenda and the EU International Partnerships such as DeSIRA+; promote start-ups and other innovative SMEs by providing a space for mentoring and accelerating innovative business concepts, including social innovation and upscaling in view of African or European food business entrepreneurs with special consideration of women, young entrepreneurs and the diaspora using cascading funding opportunities. Proposals may involve financial support to third parties e.g. to academic researchers, start-ups, SMEs and other multidisciplinary actors, to, for instance, develop, test or validate approaches. Proposals are encouraged to work together with the Joint Research Centre via the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre on Global Food and Nutrition Security to leverage its knowledge base on relevant topics and to expand the reach and dissemination of FNSSA activities. HLPD-FNSSA: EU-African Union High Level Policy Dialogue on Research and Innovation and its first priority on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture.

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.