Life sciences and their convergence with digital technologies for prospecting, understanding and sustainably using biological resources

Call Updates

Feb 8, 2023 8:04:41 PM

CALL UPDATE: FLASH EVALUATION RESULTS

EVALUATION results

Published: 16 June 2021

Deadline: 01 September 2022

Available budget:

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.

May 25, 2022 3:34:02 PM

CALL UPDATE: GENERALISED FEEDBACK AFTER STAGE 1

GENERALISED FEEDBACK for successful applicants after STAGE 1

In order to best ensure equal treatment, successful stage 1 applicants do not receive the evaluation summary reports (ESRs) for their proposals, but this generalised feedback with information and tips for preparing the full proposal. 

Information & tips

Main shortcomings found in the stage 1 evaluation of HORIZON-CL6-2022-CircBio-02-05-two-stage:

• Some proposals insufficiently explain how the approach developed can impact the sustainability, competitiveness, and resource independence of European industry.
• Some proposals do not sufficiently describe how they set out a credible pathway for the development of the circular economy and bioeconomy to achieve sustainable and circular management and use of natural resources, pollution prevention, and elimination, as well as to unlock the full potential and benefits of the circular economy and bioeconomy.
• Proposals do not always address in sufficient details the scale and significance of the proposal’s contribution to each expected outcomes (topic level) and targeted expected impacts (at the level of the destination).
• For some proposals that include artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and/or Machine Learning methods (ML) it is unclear which AI algorithms will be used or developed to exploit the information collected in the project and how the different AI/ML methods will be integrated into the framework. Risks and mitigation measures related to AI/ML are not always sufficiently described.
• Potential barriers to achieve the expected outcomes and impacts are not always addressed specifically enough. In particular most proposals insufficiently considers beforehand the barriers related to GMO's risk posed to the environment, biodiversity conservation, ethics and human health and their necessary legal authorization.

In your stage 2 proposal, you have a chance to address or clarify these issues.

Please bear in mind that your full proposal will now be evaluated more in-depth and possibly by a new group of outside experts.

Please make sure that your full proposal is consistent with your short outline proposal. It may NOT differ substantially. The project must stay the same.

May 20, 2022 10:45:41 AM

CALL UPDATE: FLASH EVALUATION RESULTS

EVALUATION results

Published: 06 October 2021

Deadline: 15 February 2022

Available budget:

• HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-05-two-stage : €12.000.000,00

In accordance with General Annex F of the Work Programme, the evaluation of the first-stage proposals was made looking only at the criteria ‘Excellence’ and ‘Impact’. The threshold for both criteria was 4. The overall threshold (applying to the sum of the two individual scores) was set for each topic/type of action with separate call-budget-split at a level that allowed the total requested budget of proposals admitted to stage 2 be as close as possible to 3 times the available budget (and not below 2.5 times the budget):

• HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-05-two-stage (Life sciences and their convergence with digital technologies for prospecting, understanding and sustainably using biological resources): 8 points

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

Feb 25, 2022 9:43:04 AM

PROPOSAL NUMBERS

Call HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-two-stage_stage1 has closed on the 15th of February 2022.

98 proposals have been submitted.                                                                                                   

The breakdown per topic is:

• HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-05-two-stage: 5

Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in May 2022.

Oct 28, 2021 12:00:03 AM

The submission session is now available for: HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-05-two-stage(HORIZON-RIA)

Life sciences and their convergence with digital technologies for prospecting, understanding and sustainably using biological resources

TOPIC ID: HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-05-two-stage

Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Call: Circular economy and bioeconomy sectors (HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-two-stage)
Type of action: HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Type of MGA: HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]
Deadline model: two-stage
Planned opening date: 28 October 2021
Deadline dates:
15 February 2022 17:00:00 Brussels time
01 September 2022 17:00:00 Brussels time

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

In line with the European Green Deal and other European initiatives such as the circular economy action plan, the industrial strategy, the bioeconomy strategy and the biodiversity strategy, the successful proposal should support the uptake of bio-based innovation, to improve European industrial[1] sustainability, competitiveness and resource independence. They should develop innovative bio-based products using the full benefits of artificial intelligence and other digital technology innovation. They should engage all stakeholders and improve their knowledge and understanding of science, notably biotechnology-based value chains, and improve benefits for consumers.

Project results tshould contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Use the full potential of artificial intelligence applications for prospecting, understanding and sustainably using biological resources within safe planetary boundaries.
• Digital tools, sensors and methods for improved efficiency, climate change adaptation and sustainability of industrial processes in the bio-based sectors considering the needs of stakeholders are integrated in innovative engineering solutions.
• Enhanced monitoring, reporting and management of natural resources using artificial intelligence and other digital technology applications.

Scope:

Engineering biology applications have grown beyond chemical production to include the generation of biosensor organisms for the lab, animal, and field, modification of agricultural organisms for nutrition and pest/environmental resilience, production of organisms for bioremediation, and live cell and gene/viral therapies. The rapid expansion of the field has resulted in new tools and new approaches. However, we are still challenged by the need for novel and more robust and interoperable computational tools and models for engineering biology. For example, improved models of synthetic systems (synthetic biology) and of their interaction with their host organisms could help enable more successful engineering.

This information infrastructure for biological design is at an early stage compared to engineering disciplines such as mechanical and electrical engineering, as the biomanufacturing field has emerged only recently. A critical bottleneck is a lack of established “design rules,” core aspects of biological and biomolecular function that apply to diverse systems and applications. Furthermore, technologies for the utilization, manufacture, and deployment of innovative bio-based systems are still under development. These roadblocks have hampered the development of standard computational frameworks to represent, process and store information on biological components, predict system behaviour, and diagnose failures. Therefore, widespread automation in the bio-based sectors remains out of reach.

A mature computational infrastructure for biodesign requires powerful access to information on biological parts and systems, their environments, their manufacturing processes, and their operations in and beyond the laboratory in which they are created. This in turn requires findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable data that enable effective aggregation information on bio-based systems, their environments, and their processes of manufacture, and the establishment of standard models of data processing and analysis, including bioinformatics, biosensors, bioindicators, ‘-omics’ technologies that allow open-development and scalable execution in the bio-based sectors.

The topic aims to prevent pollution and sustainably manage and use natural resources within safe planetary boundaries, including in the deployment of the bioeconomy and the bio-based sectors. The topic focuses on bioinformatics, “cheminformatics” and artificial intelligence as approaches and tools to transform available information into biologically or biotechnologically applicable knowledge. It also aims to efficiently integrate digital technologies into bio-based operations to optimise value chains from a technical, economic, social and environmental point of view.

Proposals should:

Enable prospecting, understanding and sustainable use of biological resources based on their convergence with digital technologies that lead to optimised and more efficient bio-based operations.
Identify and characterise advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, and their benefits for the utilisation, manufacture, and deployment of innovative bio-based systems.
Develop integrated biological designs and data models for improved prospecting, understanding and deployment of higher efficiency and sustainability of biological resources and industrial bio-based operations (e.g. bioinformatics, biosensors, bioindicators, data analysis, ‘-omics’ technologies).
Improve the economic and environmental sustainability of bio-based operations.
Focus on the integration of -omics and machine learning techniques such as active learning for the design-build-test-learn (DBTL) cycle.
Develop improved models and model standards of synthetic systems (synthetic biology) and of their interaction with their host organisms to facilitate more successful engineering and broader application in the bio-based sectors.
Establish bio computer-aided design (BioCAD) tools and design-of-experiment (DoE) approaches.
Reinforce and maintain scientific infrastructures to integrate existing biodiversity information (species, habitats and environmental processes).
Consider contributing data and results to the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy hosted by the JRC.