Advancing interdisciplinary, data-driven research at the biodiversity- health interface under a One Health approach

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.

• “A holistic life and environmental sciences approach that protects ecosystem, human and animal health must account for interdependencies between biodiversity and health domains.”
• “Inter- and transdisciplinary research supporting holistic approaches such as One Health and Planetary Health faces persistent barriers related to data quality, fragmentation, accessibility and interoperability, which should be addressed according to the FAIR principles.”
• “This topic is expected to support the objectives of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, the implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation, the European Data Union Strategy, the Strategy for European Life Sciences, the EU Global Health Strategy, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the EU One Health Approach and the global One Health agenda.”
• “Proposals under this topic should focus on the development of use cases that will tackle the main barriers to the operationalisation of interdisciplinary research and research results at the interface of wildlife and ecosystem health, husbandry, animal, plant and human health.”
• “Proposals should cover all the following aspects (use cases, data sharing and interoperability, proof of concept) and most of the interconnected activities:.”
• “Taken together, the six complementary use cases should collectively address the most significant drivers (including their possible interactions) of biodiversity loss (land and sea use change, direct exploitation, climate change, pollution to air, water and soil, invasive alien and proliferating species) and their impacts on health.”
• “Health outcomes should include -but not be limited to- human health (infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases including mental health).”
• “Use cases including infectious diseases should consider the wildlife-domesticated animals interface, including multi-host pathogens and spillover.”
• “Use cases should be explicitly grounded in biodiversity and ecosystem health and designed to support inter- and transdisciplinary analysis across relevant thematic domains, including a mandatory link to human health.”
• “Use cases should cover, considered together, at least three different ecosystem types across terrestrial, freshwater and marine realms and different biogeographical regions.”
• “Proposals are encouraged to leverage the use of EOSC and/or other Common European Data Spaces for the development of digital services and analytical tools, as well as for the usage and enhancement of their infrastructures and datasets, ensuring robust, validated, and high-quality data that support sustainability, interoperability and cross-domain integration.”
• “Proposals are encouraged to apply a multi-actor approach, including data providers and Social Sciences and Humanities disciplines, to support the above-mentioned systemic One Health-biodiversity integration and evidence-based decision-making and produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.”

Conditions that shape the proposal

• Part B, sections 1–3: 40 pages (standard application form). Text beyond the limit is not read; tables and figures count.
• Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout: “The page limit of the application is 70 pages.”
• Other Eligibility Conditions: “The consortium must include, as beneficiaries, at least seven legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows: at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and”
• Other Eligibility Conditions: “at least six other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.”
• Other Eligibility Conditions: “ECDC[[European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control]] and/or EFSA[[European Food Safety Authority]] and/or EEA[[European Environment Agency]] and/or any other relevant decentralised EU agency responsible for human, animal and environmental risk assessment may participate as member(s) of the consortium selected…”
• Other Eligibility 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.”
• Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes: “The thresholds for each criterion will be 4 (Excellence), 4 (Impact) and 4 (Implementation). The cumulative threshold will be 12.”

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.
• The scope expects pilots or demonstration. Name the sites, the partners who run them and what is measured there.
• 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.
• Open science or data practices are named. Make the data management plan concrete: which data, which repository, when.
• Policy or regulation is in scope. Name the policy owners you will reach and what you will give them.
• Keep outputs, outcomes and impacts apart: what you deliver, what changes when others use it, and the long-term effect.
• Link your outcomes to the destination's expected impacts in the Work Programme. 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.