Environmental impacts and trade-offs of alternative fertilising products at global/local scale

Call Updates

Feb 21, 2022 11:29:00 AM

CALL UPDATE: FLASH EVALUATION RESULTS

EVALUATION results

Published: 21 June 2021

Deadline: 06 October 2021

Budget per topic with separate ‘call-budget-split’:

The results of the evaluation are as follows:

We recently informed the applicants about the evaluation results for their proposals.

For questions, please contact the Research Enquiry Service.

https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation_en

Oct 12, 2021 12:19:28 PM

PROPOSAL NUMBERS

Call HORIZON-CL6-2021-ZEROPOLLUTION-01 has closed on the 06 October 2021. 64 proposals have been submitted.

The breakdown per topic is: 

• HORIZON-CL6-2021-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-09: 3

Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in March 2022.

Jun 22, 2021 5:12:41 PM

The submission session is now available for: HORIZON-CL6-2021-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-09(HORIZON-CSA)

Environmental impacts and trade-offs of alternative fertilising products at global/local scale.

TOPIC ID: HORIZON-CL6-2021-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-09

Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Call: Clean environment and zero pollution (HORIZON-CL6-2021-ZEROPOLLUTION-01)
Type of action: HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions
Type of MGA: HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]
Deadline model: single-stage
Planned opening date: 22 June 2021
Deadline date: 06 October 2021 17:00:00 Brussels time

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

The successful proposals will support awareness of environmental performances of alternative fertilising products and their uptake by stakeholders and local administrators, in line with the zero pollution ambition. Projects outcomes will contribute to maintaining nitrogen and phosphorus flows well within safe ecological boundaries at the EU, regional and local scale and to restoring ecosystems.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Orienting the production and the application of alternative fertilising products according with the best environmental performances and practices.
• Local administrations formulate policies to support the development of sustainable local value chains deploying alternative fertilising products.

Scope:

The scope of this topic is the assessment of environmental impacts and trade-offs of the production and application of a range of fertilising products derived from secondary raw materials which could replace nitrogen- and phosphorus-based fertilisers produced from conventional processes (including mining and fossil-based processes) in a life cycle perspective. Examples of alternative fertilising products within the scope include products made from secondary raw materials such as, for example: recycled nutrients from urban and industrial waste water and sewage sludge, organic fertilising products from bio-waste, from any biological residue or by-products, from digestate and from treated manure.

Proposals should:

• Collect all relevant data and figures on a range of fertilising products derived from secondary raw materials. Information should include all phases of their life cycle: production, distribution/trade, storage, application on lands and consequent transformation/diffusion into the different environments. The range of alternative fertilising products should be selected in order to cover at least one product from each main waste/residue raw material, i.e. at least one from each of: urban waste water, industrial waste water, sewage sludge, bio-waste, biological by-products, digestate and treated manure;
• Apply and/or improve existing methodologies to assess the environmental impacts and trade-offs of the alternative fertilising products selected at point a) on a life cycle base, building on and complementing existing assessment results published by European Commission (project SAFEMANURE[1]). In particular, methodology and assessment should include the territorial and practical factors in terms of local vs global production and trade, local management procedures (storage, spreading on soils) also depending on specific agricultural applications and practices (e.g. agro-ecological vs traditional approach, current legislation at national level, within the consortium). Impacts and trade-offs should include categories on: climate change mitigation, including in terms of restoring the carbon sink capacity of soils, biodiversity and ecosystems protection, including soil biodiversity and below-ground ecosystems, land use and land use change, water consumption, energy use, nitrogen and phosphorus flows into the environment and any other pollutants’ emission that affect air/water/soil, including microplastics. Methodology and assessment should rely on existing procedures, e.g. Product Environmental Footprint method[2]and other validated/certified modelling and objective techniques, experimental tests, consultation of peer-reviewed scientific literature;
• Relevant data may feed into the European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment[3] if feasible;
• Analyse technical aspects of the environmental impacts prevention and control operations during all phases of life cycle of the selected alternative fertilising products and their effectiveness. Include preliminary assessment of costs of installation/maintenance and social benefits of such operations. Alternative fertilising products under this proposal seeking market regulatory approval, should consider relevant regulatory requirements.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

Activities should include a thorough analysis of past research projects and studies developed under the EU funding programmes. Proposals should include a task dedicated to sharing methodologies and findings with projects funded within this topic. Proposals’ consortia should include stakeholders from the whole value chain such as producers of fertilisers and farmers, as well as scientists and experts in the analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural products.

[1]https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/technical-proposals-safe-use-processed-manure-above-threshold-established-nitrate-vulnerable

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/dev_methods.htm

[3] https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/