Description
This call forms part of an overall focus on investing in innovation for a green economy. The multi-disciplinary research and innovation required to effectively tackle this challenge in a sustainable way entails pooling complementary knowledge and resources, including the active involvement of socio-economic disciplines. The dissemination and uptake of research and innovation results by policy-makers, businesses and society at large is encouraged to empower actors at all levels of society to actively participate in this process.
Actions under this call aim to support businesses in developing and bringing to the market eco-innovative solutions and to encourage their take-up by public authorities in their procurement practices. They will also help move towards a new era of climate information systems and services, which can provide accessible, high quality and ultimately useful data for the public sector, business and society.
Budget
Total budget of the call: EUR 50.000.000.
Topic: SC5-04-2015- Improving the air quality and reducing the carbon footprint of European cities
Specific challenge: The majority of the European population lives in urban environments where citizens are frequently exposed to levels of air pollutants exceeding the limit values established by the European directives. The sources of pollution in cities are mainly linked to urban activities such as transport and heating. Other activities such as energy production, industrial activity, agriculture and trans-boundary pollution play an important role. Air pollution and climate change are strongly connected and there is therefore a need to consider both environmental and climate considerations when designing emission abatement strategies. Integrated approaches are needed to find long-term, sustainable solutions in the EU. (link)
Topic: SC5-07-2015- More effective ecosystem restoration in the EU
Specific Challenge: Ecosystem restoration is frequently an expensive and almost always a lengthy process but it is capable of delivering extensive benefits in a cost-effective manner while also conserving and enhancing Europe's natural capital. The restoration sector has accumulated a lot of expertise but knowledge, technologies and capacity will need to grow rapidly (and be shared) if the full potential offered by restoration is to be achieved. (link)
Topic: SC5-17-2015- Demonstrating the concept of 'Citizen Observatories'
Specific challenge: New in-situ observatories ('Citizen Observatories') based on citizens' own devices (e.g. smart phones, tablets, laptops, and other social media) used together with innovative technologies can strengthen environmental monitoring capabilities, have the potential to generate new and original applications to reduce investment and running costs of in-situ observations and monitoring applications and solutions, and involve novel partnerships between the private sector, public bodies, NGOs and citizens. However, achieving this depends on further development and testing in real conditions, wider deployment and commercialisation by the private sector and greater user acceptance. This requires leveraging emerging technologies, data and information sharing, developing services and actively engaging in governance at all levels and scales in the domain of environment. It also calls for innovative approaches and tools to handle complexity, interactions and interfaces and to facilitate knowledge transfer, assessment, valuation, uptake and exploitation of data and results for policy, industry and society at large. (link)
Deadline: 08 September 2015
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