General conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System

2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes

The following additional eligibility criteria apply:

This topic requires the active involvement, as beneficiaries, of at least 2 first responders’ organisations or agencies, and 1 representative of local or regional authorities in charge of managing NaTech events, from at least 3 different EU Member States or Associated Countries. For participants with practitioner status, applicants must fill in the table “Information about security practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, following the template provided in the submission IT tool.

If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes

5. Evaluation and award:

• Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes

• Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual

• Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes

Specific conditions

7. Specific conditions: described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]

Documents

Call documents:

Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System

Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)

Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations

Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)

MGA

HE General MGA v1.0

Call-specific instructions:

Template for Security & eligibility conditions in Horizon Europe

Additional documents:

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 6. Civil Security for Society

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes

HE Programme Guide

HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695

HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764

EU Financial Regulation

Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment

EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement

Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual

Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions

Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Projects’ results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:

• Development of a holistic vision of crisis management after telluric (e.g. volcanic, seismic, tsunami, landslide) or extreme climate events (e.g. floods, storms, storm surges, fires, droughts) producing impacts on critical assets (e.g. infrastructures, industries) and creation of new management framework for handling NaTech crises;
• Enhanced existing crisis management tools to develop a common platform (shared among public and private operators) allowing cross-border exchanges and decision-making, while respecting legal frameworks and responsibilities;
• Demonstrated operational protocols and development of standard operating procedures able to respond to NaTech crises in cross-border configurations, including comprehensive risk modelling of worst-case scenarios taking into account cascading effects and future impacts of climate change, and taking into consideration spatial information and data;
• Improvement of our understanding and capabilities to identify and mitigate risks associated with interdependencies across infrastructures and other human (social and economic) systems.

The confluence of incidents in recent years has brought renewed concerns over our systemic resilience to external shocks arising from natural-technological (NaTech) disasters. This is particularly acute in the event of disruption in the transport, power, water supply and communication sectors in highly populated and industrialised areas, or when such events raise the likelihood of cascading effects with severe impacts on communities and the economy that are hard or impossible to predict. The main focus on NaTech risks lies on a thorough understanding of the vulnerability of industrial sites and critical infrastructure, and the potential impact natural hazards can have on such technological resources. This entails the identification of both physical (safety of building facilities and structures) and operational vulnerabilities, often addressing multi-hazard conditions. Innovative methods are required for analysing worst-case scenarios, and informing decision-makers about the crosscutting and shared responses to different crises given available resources.

Research involving multiple fields of expertise, including spatial information (to be specified), is also required to improve hi-tech capacities for operational response systems to better cope with natural and/or technological disasters occurring in Europe (and in overseas territories) in an integrated manner. This will rely on a knowledge sharing among natural and technological risks communities to develop a holistic vision for an integrated operational crisis management of NaTech disasters.

This topic is part of a coordination initiative between ESA and the EC on Earth System Science. Under the EC-ESA Earth System Science Initiative both institutions aim at coordinating efforts to support complementary collaborative projects, funded on the EC side through Horizon Europe and on the ESA side through the ESA FutureEO programme. Proposals should include a work package, means and resources for coordination with complementary projects funded under the ESA FutureEO initiative.

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/innovation activities.

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is encouraged. The action should take due consideration to EU policies, in particular the SevesoIII and CER Directives, and ensure close synergies with international conventions such as the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents (TEIA) / Implementation of natural hazard-triggered technological accident principles, and the Sendai Framework for Action.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 5-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.