Horizon Europe: Horizontal Activities – Transformative Change Towards a Nature-Positive Economy and Society

An Horizon Europe horizontal call to accelerate the market deployment of cutting-edge clean technologies and decarbonised industry solutions, with a focus on both technological excellence and market readiness.

Horizon Europe is the ninth European Research and Innovation Framework programme (2021-2027). It is one of the key instruments of the European Union’s efforts to steer and accelerate Europe’s recovery, preparedness and resilience. In the context of a new European Research Area for research and innovation, it aims to strengthen Europe’s knowledge base through frontier research, spur breakthrough innovation and support the development and demonstration of innovative solutions, and help restore industrial leadership and open strategic autonomy.

Activity under Horizon Europe is primarily organised under three ‘pillars’:

• Pillar I – Excellent Science.
• Pillar II – Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness.
• Pillar III – Innovative Europe.

In the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-27, the European Commission introduced horizontal calls (under WP 14. Horizontal Activities), which are designed to connect different parts of Horizon Europe in support of key strategic areas. By combining efforts and pooling resources, they aim to create critical mass and deliver greater impact. These topics are intentionally non-prescriptive, giving applicants the flexibility to propose different approaches for achieving the expected outcomes.

The ‘Transformative Change Towards a Nature-Positive Economy and Society’ call aims to increase the biodiversity spending in Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027 by supporting additional R&I activities dedicated to biodiversity across pillar II of Horizon Europe. R&I activities are expected to develop knowledge and innovation supporting the objectives of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the EU vision for 2050 outlined in the 8th environment action programme.

The call will contribute to mainstream biodiversity action in the Union’s policies. Project results will inform deliberations on the EU biodiversity policy after 2030 and supports the EU Commission priorities ‘Sustaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature‘ and ‘A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness‘.

Protecting and restoring nature is the basis to build up Europe’s resilience, economic risk reduction and strategic autonomy, preventing natural disasters and reducing risks to food security. The call addresses the need for sustained effort to maintain and restore healthy ecosystems with activities to support the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, using living labs as open innovation ecosystems designed for real‑world co‑creation, involving researchers, innovators, companies, end-users including farmers and foresters, citizens, civil society and public authorities.