Horizon Europe - Work Programme 2021-2022

Climate, Energy and Mobility

HORIZON-CL5-2021-D6-01-09: Climate resilient and environmentally sustainable

transport infrastructure, with a focus on inland waterways

Specific conditions

Expected EU The Commission estimates that an EU contribution of around EUR 7.50

contribution per million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately.
project Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of a
proposal requesting different amounts.

Indicative budget The total indicative budget for the topic is EUR 23.00 million.

Type of Action Innovation Actions

Admissibility The conditions are described in General Annex A. The following

conditions exceptions apply:
The page limit of the application is 70 pages.

Eligibility The conditions are described in General Annex B. The following

conditions exceptions apply:
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation
and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of
Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may
additionally be used).

Technology Activities are expected to achieve at least TRL 7 by the end of the
Readiness Level project – see General Annex B.

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected
outcomes:

 Ensure navigability for inland waterways by assuring at least 50% capacity during
extreme weather events.

 Enhance land/sea/infrastructure resilience to extreme weather and human caused events

by assuring at least 80% capacity at network level during the disruptions.

 Contribute with at least a 20% increase in modal shift to the sustainability of transport
systems.

 Ensure resilience and smooth functioning of passenger mobility as well as freight

transport and logistics networks operating on these infrastructures.

 Increase the use of recycled materials within or across transport modes by at least 30%.

 Reduce environmental impact (emissions, soil/water pollution, degradation of

ecosystems and fragmentation of habitats) during construction, maintenance, operation
and decommissioning of the infrastructure in line with the EU environmental legislation.

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Climate, Energy and Mobility

Scope: Transport infrastructure is vulnerable to climate change and other natural or human
caused disruptions. Maintaining an elevated infrastructure reliability and performance is
crucial for increasing the resilience of the transport system. For example, low or excessive
precipitations and extreme temperatures put a strain on transport infrastructure, lowering its
performance and capacity, exacerbating its vulnerabilities and raising safety concerns. At the
same time when focusing at a resilient and performing transport infrastructure its
environmental footprint, resource and material consumption and habitat fragmentation and
biodiversity degradation should be reduced to a minimum. The goal is smart, green,
sustainable, climate-resilient and biodiversity friendly infrastructure.

Research is needed in order to limit transport infrastructure vulnerability to climate change

and other natural or human caused disruptions. Making infrastructures more resilient to
climate change should focus on improving the ability of the transport infrastructure network
to withstand disruption, adapt to changing conditions under extreme circumstances while
maintaining its performance. The goal is to strengthen infrastructure reliability, improve its
performance and increase the resilience of the whole transport system, creating a climate
resilient infrastructure system. The proposals will develop and validate new solutions to
increase efficiency, inter-modality, resilience, safety and security of the transport system, for
passengers and freight. Proposals should address all of the following aspects with particular
attention to inland waterways:

 Solutions for ensuring the performance of inland waterways during periods of low or
high water levels (as they are primary reasons blocking smooth functioning of this type
of transport infrastructures).

 Solutions for ensuring the performance and safety of land transport infrastructure and
ports during extreme weather and man-made events. Development of strategies for
increasing the capacity of resilient infrastructures during disruptive events.
Interconnection of infrastructure health monitoring, traffic management and emergency
management systems to support informed decision making during and after these events,
also supporting possible redistribution of passenger and freight flows to complementary
infrastructures.

 Building on state-of-the-art solutions for surveillance and prediction of climate change

effects, and identification of infrastructure points vulnerable to climate change, proposals
should develop cross-modal strategies to upgrade (including physical upgrade) existing
infrastructures and reduce their vulnerability, while using sustainable materials and
construction techniques.

 Design of standard, modular infrastructure elements for rapid deployment after

disruptive events in order to increase the capacity of the transport network or create new
provisional links as a temporary measure until the transport network recovers its normal
capacity. Both mode-specific and multi-modal solutions can be considered.

 Development of new governance models that enable cooperation across institutional,

modal and national boundaries. Together with stakeholders and end users at various

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 Horizon Europe - Work Programme 2021-2022
Climate, Energy and Mobility

levels, develop and demonstrate innovative concepts and solutions to make operations
for passenger mobility, freight transport and logistics supply chains more resilient to
large-scale shocks and disruptions by enhanced planning, management and flow
redistribution (considering also shifting to less carbon-intensive transport modes).
Development of standard models and procedures to foster the implementation of resilient
methodologies from design and construction and throughout the life-cycle of the
infrastructure.

Innovative infrastructure solutions should contribute to lowering the environmental footprint,

resources and material consumption. Exploring Nature-based solutions (NBS) is an
opportunity for creating sustainable, climate-resilient EU transport infrastructure in a cost-
effective manner, while producing substantial social, economic, and environmental co-
benefits. The goal is smart, green, sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure, planned in a
way that maximises positive impact on economic growth and minimises the negative impact
on the environment and, significant and lasting degradation of ecosystems and fragmentation
of habitats, promoting environmentally friendly modes of transport and leading to the
reduction of transport emissions.

Proposals need to include at least two pilot demonstrations in operational environment

(minimum at TRL7) in CEF corridors, one specific for inland waterways and a second one for
integrated with waterways hinterland infrastructure. Proposals should also consider results
from previous calls on infrastructure resilience 257 and sustainable construction and should
uptake relevant EU guidance on development and management of EU transport infrastructures
and be compatible with EU environmental legislation258.

Safety and resilience - per mode and across all transport modes

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

HORIZON-CL5-2021-D6-01-10: Testing safe lightweight vehicles and improved safe

human-technology interaction in the future traffic system

Specific conditions

Expected EU The Commission estimates that an EU contribution of between EUR 3.50

contribution per and 4.00 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed
project appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and

257
EU funded projects such as RESIST, FORESEE, SAFEWAY, PANOPTIS
258
Guidance on Inland waterway transport and Natura 2000 Sustainable inland waterway development and
management
Water Framework Directive : Directive 2000/60/EC
Habitats Directives : Directive 92/43/EEC
Birds Directive : Directive 2009/147/EC
Environmental Impact Assessment Directive : Directive 2011/92/EU amended by Directive
2014/52/EU
Strategic Environmental Assessment : Directive 2001/42/EC
Floods Directive : Directive 2007/60/EC

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