Submit your Proposal

General information

1. Title of the proposal + acronym: The title should be concise and informative.
2. Start of the project / End of the project.
   Earliest starting date of January 1st 2024, latest ending of October 31st 2025. Minimum duration of 6 months, maximum duration of 22 months.
3. Location of the project
   Country. Description of the local node, biodiversity hot-spot, protected area or taxonomy knowledge centre on which the project is focused. max 150 words
4. Summary
   The summary should provide a brief overview of the proposed project, its objectives, methodology, and expected outcomes. max 150 words
5. Major topic – please select:
   A project may touch on many different topics, but, from the seven topics listed below, applicants must select ONLY ONE as the MAJOR focus for their project.

• Topic 1. Species-level indexing of pollinator collections (Annex 1).
• Topic 2. Improving access to local taxon lists and taxon-related scientific data through pragmatic name-mapping workflows (Annex 2).
• Topic 3. The co-development of AI-based image recognition for European terrestrial molluscs (AnneX 3)
• Topic 4. The co-development of AI-based sound recognition of European grasshoppers (Annex 4).
• Topic 5. Innovative molecular techniques for taxonomy: integrating genomic tools for the development of cost-efficient genetic markers for species identification and delimitation (Annex 5)
• Topic 6. The development of training programs for taxonomic research (Annex 6)
• Topic 7. Innovative cross-disciplinary projects focused on involvement of citizen scientists in monitoring biodiversity hotspots (Annex 7).

6. Information about the main applicant and partners
The applicant describes information and background (information of the (A) co-ordinator and (B1, B2., …) potential partners.

Quality and efficiency of the implementation 

13. Work plan
Description of the different tasks (3-7 tasks), their descriptions, activities, and the timeframe of the tasks. Please fill out the tables below and provide a Gantt Chart presenting the timelines of the tasks in the project.  Outputs will be described following specific instructions described in Topics 1-7 (Annex 1-7). 

In case of larger projects it is compulsory to include a Project Management task. Larger projects are seen as projects with >3 partners, budget >€100k and/or longer than 12 months.

14. Requested budget 
The budget should fall between 50,000 euros and 200,000 euros.

The applicant has to identify the budget distribution among the main applicants and each partner if the proposer is a group of entities. 

Please read the rules about the eligibility of budget costs in the part “Application guidelines for the proposals for the Call for 3PPs”.

15. Budget Justification The applicant has to justify the project proposal and explain the costs of budget items per partner. One part of the evaluation of projects will be based on the cost-effectiveness of the budget and the justification is necessary. Without justification of the budget, evaluation of the project will not be possible and the project will be rejected.

Annex 1. Ethics

General requirements

Proposals need to comply with:

2. HORIZON EUROPE Ethics principles (Charter of EU Fundamental Rights)
3. The General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679), protecting citizens’ privacy and increasing the responsibility when processing personal data 
4. The National legal, ethics requirements and codes of conduct. 

Compliance to ethics principles is one of the evaluation criteria of submitted proposals
Proposals need to:

1°  identify the ethics issues raised by the proposal, and 

2°  explain his/her approach to manage these issue(s).

Please note that an interesting research project will often raise ethics issues. What is important for the evaluation is to explain how each of those issues will be addressed and managed in the project.

Main Ethics issues: summary

• HUMANS: Define Informed Consent procedures and participants recruitment  criteria (in training , co-creation, use cases, tool validation,…).
• PERSONAL DATA: Build General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliancet procedures (when collecting/processing personal data from team members and external stakeholders).
• ENVIRONMENT: Ensure safe handling of endangered flora and fauna (local protocols).
• NON-EU countries: Ensure local legislation is respected and demonstrate capacity building for local communities/researchers.
• ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Ensure the chosen AI techniques are trustworthy,  do not integrate features discriminating /stigmatizing people.

Ethics issues table 

• Ethics issues Table: to be filled by each proposal (Horizon Europe template) and a free text section allowing the proposer to include comments/explanations. Link to template
• Supporting material : Horizon Europe Guidance note about filling the Ethics issues table - Link to the guidance note

Ethics

For any question

Please contact: Carole Paleco, at cpaleco@naturalsciences.be