Horizon Europe 2025 EU Missions: Adaptation to Climate Change
Funding available through Horizon Europe for Adaptation to Climate Change, with up to €25m for the largest projects.
Opportunity Details
When
Registration Opens
06/05/2025
Registration Closes
24/09/2025
Award
Up to €25m per project, which can fund up to 100% of project costs depending on call type.
Organisation
Horizon Europe
In February 2021, the European Commission adopted an EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change that sets out how the EU can adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change and become climate resilient by 2050. Pushing further on the belief that we must adjust now to tomorrow’s climate, the EU has launched, in the same year, the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change to support at least 150 regions and local authorities to become climate-resilient by 2030.
The goal of the 2025 call is to consolidate the building blocks of the mission, address challenges identified, and increase concrete support to regions and local authorities, to match the oversubscription to the Mission by the Charter signatories and interested parties. The actions presented in this call are going to:
- Provide support to regional and local authorities for them to understand better their current and future climate risks and to design more robust adaptation plans.
- Test and demonstrate innovative climate adaptation solutions that will be made available for regional and local authorities, especially for those in hotspots regions. This will enlarge the portfolio of solutions already made available by the previous Mission’s calls.
- Develop new knowledge on how to unlock investment from the private sector in adaptation solutions.
Finally, in 2025, the Adaptation Mission is also co-financing the Climate City Capital Hub, which is listed under “Specific Grant Agreement to the FPA to reinforce the operations of the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission Platform” in the Work Programme Part of the Cities Mission. This action will reinforce synergies between the Adaptation and Cities Missions supporting cities in finding financing solutions for both mitigation as well as adaptation projects.
Potential applicants are invited to sign up for the EU Missions Info Days on 22-23 May and the related Brokerage Events on 26-27 May.
UK organisations and businesses can apply for Horizon Europe funding, working as part of a three-country consortium with at least one member from within the EU (see “Who can apply?” below). If you are interested in one of the calls and would like to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s European Programmes team.
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In line with Horizon Europe, all the actions supported by this call are open to actors from EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries. However, regional and local authorities already engaged in the Mission activities (e.g. Charter Signatories, Community of Practice) have already proven their commitment and motivation to work towards the objectives of the mission and, as such, they provide ideal sites where the testing and demonstration of innovative approaches could take place.
Unless otherwise provided for in the specific call/topic conditions, only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in Horizon Europe actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:
- at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State;
- and at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries (this includes the UK).
Our European team can help you find eligible partners to form a consortium.
There may be further eligibility conditions for specific topics. Please check the Work Programme and contact our team to ensure your eligibility before applying.
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Potential applicants are invited to sign up for the EU Missions Info Days on 22 May (8.30am-5pm CET / 7.30am-4pm GMT) and 23 May (8.30am-3pm CET / 7.30am-2pm GMT), and the related Brokerage Events on 26-27 May.
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All of these topics are single-stage calls with a closing date of 24 Sep 2025.
- Supporting regions and local authorities in assessing climate risks – €17.65m for a single project
- Supporting regional and local authorities in developing their Action Plans towards climate resilience – €25m for a single project
- Demonstrating solutions to help hotspots in coastal regions to adapt to climate change – €30m total budget, c.€10m per project
- Testing and demonstrating innovative solutions to improve resilience to extreme heat, including addressing health impacts – €30m total budget, c.€10m per project
- Better understanding incentives for private sector financing of adaptation solutions – €6m total budget, c.€3m per project
- Pre-commercial procurement of breakthrough solutions for climate proofing of public buildings – €5m for a single project
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These will open to applications in 2025, date tbc:
- Sustaining the Mission Implementation Platform for the Adaptation to Climate Change Mission – procurement, indicate budget of €6m
- Studies, conferences, events and outreach activities – procurement, indicative budget of €0.14m
- Support regional and local authorities in their efforts to conduct climate risks assessments – provision of technical/scientific services by the Joint Research Centre, indicative budget of €0.5m.
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The following cross-cutting actions will also be funded, opening in Dec 2025 with a closing date of 31 Mar 2026:
- Strengthening skills and capacity for the deployment of EU Missions – c.€1m for a single project
- Understanding and overcoming barriers to the scale-up of innovations supporting EU Missions – c.€2m for a single project
- Advancing lead markets and proof-of-concept for deep tech solutions contributing to EU Missions – total budget €8m, c.€4m per project
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