European Commission Enables Citizens towards Sustainable Growth
Deadline: 26-Jan-21
The active role of citizens and their direct involvement is essential to address climate change and other human actions harming the environment on land, air and sea. The European Commission now Enables citizens to act on climate change, for sustainable development and environmental protection through education, citizen science, observation initiatives, and civic engagement. It is essential to directly involve citizens and communities in contributing to climate action and protecting the environment, thereby encouraging them to change their personal behaviour and their mindsets, reducing their carbon and environmental footprint and taking action at the individual and collective level. This would lead to a more sustainable lifestyle and relationship to the environment.
Seed Grants
Actions under this topic should address one the following two subtopics:
Subtopic 1: Enabling citizens to act on climate change and for sustainable development through education: Based on the recommendations of the European Green Deal Communication, actions will foster the development and implementation of a multidisciplinary European competence framework within the context of lifelong learning for the development and assessment of knowledge, skills and attitudes of citizens and in particular young people on climate change and sustainable development.
Subtopic 2: Enabling citizens to act on climate change and for sustainable development through better monitoring and observing of the environment and their environmental impacts: Actions in this subtopic will target the involvement of citizens in climate- and environment-related issues and domains, such as biodiversity, marine and freshwater pollution, water scarcity and sustainable transport and food production. They will focus on the active participation of citizens through citizen science, environmental observation and civic consortia. Projects should be conducted on a broad scale, i.e. in cooperation with businesses, civil society organisations, public authorities and existing initiatives (such as the Climate Adapt platform and the Covenant of Mayors), to ensure that these actions will lead to examples on how to engage the wider community in the effective behavioural changes and changes in social practices needed for a successful and just transition.
Funding Information
Subtopic 1: The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the European Union in the range of EUR 3 to 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Subtopic 2: The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the European Union in the range of EUR 3 to 5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected Impact
The project results are expected to contribute to:
Subtopic 1:
a multidisciplinary European competence framework within the context of lifelong learning that will serve as a reference tool for the Member States, the public and private sector, stakeholders, and NGOs to help citizens to become engaged actors in the green transformation of society;
The ability to assess the knowledge, skills and attitudes of citizens and in particular young people on climate change, sustainable development and environmental protection;
specific educational programmes, school curricula, trainings, networking activities and exchange of good practices in the area of climate change and education for sustainable development;
enhanced engagement of the wider community, including with the use of digital media, to make the behavioural changes needed for a successful transition by undertaking consultations, testing and implementation of this framework in schools, universities, training institutions, municipalities, public authorities in cooperation with the private sector, teachers, trainers, students, pupils, parents;
the large participation of pupils and students, supported by scientists, educators and practitioners, in intergenerational dialogues and exchanges on climate action, environmental protection and behavioural changes for sustainable development;
the broad testing, dissemination and use of the European competence framework at concrete demonstration sites (e.g. in schools, universities and identified education communities) and in innovative activities (e.g. incubators for citizen participation, informal youth city councils, use of social media and digital tools…).
Subtopic 2:
the development or strengthening of citizen science initiatives to engage citizens in the active collection of environmental and socio-economic data through individual new or improved devices;
the provision of personalized information to citizens and consumers about their environmental impact;
a better monitoring of the environment (land, sea, air, etc.);
behavioural change processes on the part of citizens, consumers and communities towards more sustainable patterns in reducing their carbon and environmental footprint, changing their consumption and lifestyle choices to achieve goals of a climate-neutral, sustainable Europe through concrete and targeted advice.
Eligibility Criteria
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 2020 projects.
To be considered admissible, a proposal/application must be:
submitted in the electronic submission system before the deadline given in the call conditions or rules of contest;
readable, accessible and printable;
complete and include the requested administrative data, the proposal description, and any obligatory supporting documents specified in the call/contest;
include a draft plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results, unless otherwise specified in the call conditions. The draft plan is not required for proposals at the first stage of two-stage procedures.
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