Multilevel governance in times of digital and climate transitions

Call updates

Jun 14, 2024 3:58:06 PM

FLASH EVALUATION results

HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01

Published: 07/12/2022

Opened: 04/10/2023

Deadline: 07/02/2024

The total budget for the call was EUR 95.000.000.

The results of the evaluations per topic are as follows:

HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-02

Budget for the topic: EUR 9.000.000

Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 21

Number of inadmissible proposals: 0

Number of ineligible proposals: 0

Number of above-threshold proposals: 16

Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: EUR 47294011,75

Number of proposals retained for funding: 3

Number of proposals in the reserve list: 2

Funding threshold: 12,5

(Proposals with the same score were ranked according to the priority order procedure set out in the call conditions (see in the General Annexes to the Work Programme or specific arrangements in the specific call/topic conditions).

Ranking distribution:

Number of proposals with scores lower or equal to 15 and higher or equal to 14: 0

Number of proposals with scores lower than 14 and higher or equal to 13: 1

Number of proposals with scores lower than 13 and higher or equal to 10: 15

Summary of observer report:

The independent observer was appointed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) to observe the evaluation process of the single stage calls:

• HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01

• HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01

• HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01.

The same independent observer reviewed the evaluation of the three calls. This enabled the observer to follow the entire process, to identify strengths and areas for possible improvements specific to the single stage evaluation, and to compare procedures and practices of a fully online evaluation with online consensus meetings and online discussions.

REA staff ensured that for the topics associated to these 3 calls, all actors involved were fully informed about the background guidance and legal documents, procedures and standards of quality. The organization and management were very challenging because of the large number of topics and proposals. Interdisciplinarity embedded in the call texts added layers to the overall complexity.

The overall evaluation process was executed in full compliance with the procedures, code of conduct, and guiding principles of fairness, transparency and equal treatment of proposals. The rules and guiding principles for the procedures concerning each evaluation step were known in advance to the applicants, the evaluators and all the persons involved in the evaluations. The briefing materials made available to the external experts were of the highest quality as they provided all the relevant information in a clear and comprehensive way. Experts were asked to declare any potential conflict of interest and to ensure confidentiality of all information. The evaluation process was robust. No preferential treatment of any proposal was observed by the observer or reported by any expert. The discussions were fair and consistent with open and detailed online deliberations covering all the criteria and sub criteria to ensure clarity of issues (both in remote discussion meetings and/or in written communications within the evaluation system) arising and providing impartial feedback to applicants. REA continues putting significant effort into assigning proposals to evaluation groups that cover all the key disciplines relevant to the topic and provides structured training to moderators on how to help experts bridge barriers between disciplines through informed discussions that leave sufficient space for each discipline.

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

For questions, please contact the Research Enquiry Service.

Feb 8, 2024 6:50:25 PM

PROPOSAL NUMBERS

The call HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01 has closed on 07.02.2024.

287 proposals have been submitted.

The breakdown per topic is:

HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-02: 21 proposals

Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in June 2024.

Oct 4, 2023 12:00:06 AM

The submission session is now available for: HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-02(HORIZON-RIA)

Multilevel governance in times of digital and climate transitions

TOPIC ID: HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-02

Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Call: Past, present and future of democracies (HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01)
Type of action: HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Type of MGA: HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]
Deadline model: single-stage
Planned opening date: 04 October 2023
Deadline date: 07 February 2024 17:00:00 Brussels time

ExpectedOutcome:
Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

Encourage international cooperation through better understanding of the articulation between local, regional, international and transnational governance.
Encourage the development and implementation of policy in two areas of transnational and multi-level importance: the digital and climate transitions, also taking into account how does the division of policy ownership in multi-level governance systems impact the effectiveness of policymaking in these two policy areas.
Lead to better-informed decision-making and policy implementation at national and EU levels, based on the identification of where the tensions and the opportunities are in top-down and bottom-up policymaking. The development of community-based innovations in the field of democratic governance and processes, notably at the level of cities and regions, and evaluation of their implications for social development, cohesion and inclusion.
Provide policy recommendations on improvements and alternative pathways for the national and local implementation of EU law that are endorsed by the targeted public administrations, including through experimentation in deliberative processes.
Scope:
The threat of climate change will require changes in the ways in which we organise our societies, action at all levels of government, and coordination between these levels so that actions are taken at the most appropriate one and complement each other effectively. Optimising complementarity will also be important to face the challenge of staff shortage to tackle the climate transition.

The digital transition is also at the heart of the question of multi-level governance of major transitions: for instance, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed practices, and shown that further paths can be followed in order for digitalisation to be moulded to benefit the climate, and society.

The EU Green Deal and digital strategy, and their national and local implementation strategies, are the policy roadmaps to be examined under this topic.

Proposals should analyse how different levels of government in the EU work in developing and implementing policy on the digital and climate transitions. Where is collaboration and collective agenda-setting most effective, in order for climate and digital roadmap goals to be met? How does the division of policy ownership in multi-level governance systems impact the effectiveness of policymaking in these two policy areas: where are the gaps, and where are the duplications? Questions of responsiveness and legitimacy might also be considered.

Proposals should also analyse the development of community-based innovations in the field of democratic governance and processes, notably at the level of cities and regions, and evaluation of their implications for social development, cohesion and inclusion.

Given the very particular situation of border regions, proposals could analyse innovative legal instruments, organisational set-ups, cross-border democratic processes that strengthen cross-border cooperation and ultimately the resilience of cross-border territories.

As the innovation part of this action, proposals should experiment with community-led innovations in one or both policy areas, such as through deliberative processes, or engaging social innovation partners and citizens representatives.

Based on this analysis, proposals should suggest pathways for better-informed decision-making at national and EU levels based on the identification of where the tensions the opportunities are in top-down and bottom-up policymaking, and policy implementation.

Proposals should form partnerships with government authorities at the relevant levels, in order for their policy recommendations on improvements and alternative pathways for the national and local implementation of EU law to be more likely to be endorsed by the targeted public administrations.

Proposals are encouraged to collaborate with the JRC Competence Centre on Participatory and Deliberative Democracy[1], which provides expertise in particular with respect to experimentation with community-led innovations through deliberative and other participatory processes and approaches.

[1]https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/participatory-democracy_en