Mutual Aid General Fund

Understanding and tackling the decline of insects is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: researchers better understand the status and population trends of insect species and the drivers of their decline; competent authorities in charge of biodiversity policies at all levels are capable of taking informed decisions, based on better understanding and valuation of socioeconomic benefits and ecological importance of insects, including for climate action; society and relevant land managers are better informed and equipped to tackle the drivers of the decline of insects. Scope: Insects play a vital role contributing to ecosystem functions in addition to pollination, such as decomposition and nutrient cycles, soil formation (including carbon sequestration) and pest control, control functions essential for maintaining ecosystem complexity, and are an indispensable part of the food chain. Those functions are key for climate change mitigation and allow the provision of ecosystem services which have economic benefits and support human well-being. Additionally, insects play a key role in other socioeconomic areas such as medical and pharmaceutical applications (e.g. antimicrobial peptides), forensic science or biotechnology. The dramatic decline of insects, estimated around 75% in the last three decades, is raising increasing concern among scientists and in the public, since it could have far-reaching implications. In order to be able to tackle this decline, there is a need to improve our understanding of the drivers of loss and how they interplay. A better knowledge of insects themselves is necessary. With targets 4 and 5 of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, the EU took, among others, the commitment that by 2030 habitats and species show no deterioration in conservation trend and status, at least 30% reach favourable conservation status or at least show a positive trend, and that the decline of pollinators is reversed. According to the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, Member States shall put in place appropriate and effective measures to improve pollinator diversity and reverse the decline of pollinators by 2030. This is reflected in target 4 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The European Climate Law requires Member States to adopt and implement national adaptation strategies and plans in which they should promote Nature-based Solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation. These policies and legislations have reached the implementation stage in the EU and worldwide. Successful proposals are expected to: improve understanding and identification of insects’ diversity, including through genomic approaches; focus on less known insect groups. In particular a solid knowledge has already been generated regarding pollination and pollinating insects through past and ongoing projects, therefore they are not expected to be subject to new research under this topic; assess the status and trends of insects and analyse multiple drivers affecting them, as well as the ecosystem services that insects provide, at different spatial scales. A comprehensive integrative taxonomy approach should be adopted, incorporating a multidisciplinary framework, including ecology and ecotoxicology, and integrating methods that address the diverse needs of insects across their entire lifecycle, ensuring the identification of essential habitat resources at each stage of development. To assess the status and trends of insects and the effectiveness of strategies, proposals should develop and test approaches for long-term monitoring schemes for insects, possibly building on existing national or EU biodiversity monitoring schemes and pilots developed by Biodiversa+; devise, test and promote effective strategies to mitigate the major drivers of insects’ decline. Analyse the ecosystem functions underpinned by insects and undertake qualitative and quantitative valuation of ecosystem services emanating from those functions; explore how to implem Programme areas: Horizon Europe (HORIZON), Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment, Biodiversity and Natural Resources Keywords: Biodiversity conservation, Biodiversity, conservation biology, conservation genetics, Conservation biology, ecology, genetics, Environmental Conservation, Environmental protection, Environmental stressors, Environmental toxicology at the population and ecosystems level, Habitat Systems, Habitat and species restoration and rehabilitation, Natural resources and environmental economics, Nature conservation, Protection of environment (before, during and after), Species interactions (e.g. food-webs, symbiosis, parasitism, mutualism, bio-invasion), Insects, biodiversity, climate change, conservation, decline, ecology, ecosystem, habitat, pollinator, species

Supporting sustainable and smart urban mobility in Europe (CIVITAS) is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes: Valorisation, cross-fertilisation and dissemination of innovative solutions for sustainable urban mobility, from EU and national projects through the CIVITAS initiative; Contribution to the accelerated deployment of innovative urban mobility solutions, increasing competitiveness of European urban mobility actors while achieving European mobility policy objectives. Cities are equipped with a relevant knowledge, necessary soft and technical skills to successfully deploy smart and sustainable mobility solutions, for passenger and freight. A vibrant community of urban innovative mobility stakeholders is maintained and strengthened. Scope: Effective and efficient urban mobility systems are the backbone of competitive cities, without them the economy comes to a standstill. While cities are going through a rapid digital, green and social transformation, local and regional authorities play bigger roles and take on greater responsibilities in contributing to the prosperity, climate-neutrality and competitiveness of the European Union. However, the deployment of innovative sustainable mobility solutions has been hampered by fragmentation of the support to cities at regional, national and EU level, lack of resources for experimentation with new approaches, insufficient knowledge on research results and innovative solutions, and difficulties for urban stakeholders to exchange knowledge, experiences and lessons learned, including providing feedback to policy makers and the research community. The aim of this coordination and support action is to address the barriers to the deployment of innovative urban mobility projects’ results through a comprehensive and collaborative approach, while further strengthening the European urban mobility innovation ecosystem. Taking into account the previous CIVITAS coordination and support action [1] , in collaboration with, and avoiding overlaps with, the Cities Mission Platform [2] and other relevant initiatives, the action is expected to address - in a clear and streamlined approach - all of the following aspects: Harvesting and spreading innovative urban mobility solutions, and speeding up the take-up of the related projects results by European cities by: setting up capacity building and a replication programme, to facilitate twinning, mutual learning and peer-to-peer exchanges, which should include cooperation with industry, SMEs and start-ups, while ensuring a feedback to policy loop; optimising the common, user-friendly CIVITAS project evaluation framework, with dedicated support for its implementation by the projects that are part of the CIVITAS initiative; optimising and promoting the CIVITAS website as the main knowledge and exchange platform for the European urban mobility community by means of digital tools and structured management approaches to disseminate information about the EU’s urban mobility research and innovation developments and results. Developing and strengthening the urban mobility community in the EU and Associated Countries and actively engaging stakeholders across sectors and governance levels to facilitate common learning and exchange by: facilitating and supporting the Educational and Youth network, facilitating and optimising the support to national CIVITAS networks (CIVINETS), supporting R&I projects’ clustering, and the coordination of living lab activities, organising the CIVITAS Forum, and supporting the organisation of the Urban Mobility Days, under guidance of the Commission services, organising the CIVITAS Politicians Exchange Forum, facilitating the exchange between cities, urban public transport authorities and the industry, SMEs and start-ups, enlarging the CIVITAS network. Since 2002 CIVITAS acts as an open platform that facilitates research, the uptake of innovative solutions, the validation of research results, the exchange of knowledge and best practices, and commo Programme areas: Horizon Europe (HORIZON), Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Climate, Energy and Mobility, Industrial Competitiveness in Transport, Clean, Safe and Accessible Transport and Mobility, Smart Mobility