Unlocking a safe operating space for Antarctica and the Southern Ocean

Overview This grant funds research projects aimed at improving scientific understanding of the Southern Ocean, Antarctica, and their interactions with global climate systems, biodiversity, and cryosphere dynamics. It targets multidisciplinary teams contributing to long-term monitoring, modeling, and policy-relevant insights for environmental conservation and climate resilience.

Who Can Apply

Consortia including research organizations, universities, international organizations, and entities from eligible countries. Exceptionally, all international organizations are eligible for funding.

Funding Details

Maximum grant amount: 11,000,000 EUR.

What Is Funded

Projects addressing:

• Multidisciplinary scientific understanding of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic cryosphere, including ecosystem dynamics and climate interactions across near-term (∼2030), mid-term (2050–2060), and long-term (after ∼2060) horizons.
• Uncertainties in projections of regional and global climate systems, sea-level rise, ocean circulation, and carbon budgets, with focus on abrupt, irreversible changes and tipping elements.
• Interactions between ocean, atmosphere, sea ice, ice shelves, and land ice, particularly in rapidly changing Antarctic continental shelves and bottom water formation regions.
• Southern Ocean and sea ice dynamics, including extreme events and impacts on mid-latitude weather systems.
• Vulnerability of Southern Ocean ecosystems to climate change, pollution, and anthropogenic activities, including biodiversity monitoring and functional diversity.
• Development of long-term monitoring systems for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, in synergy with existing observation infrastructures.
• Mechanisms to distinguish human-induced environmental changes from natural variability and strategies for environmental protection.
• Improvement of key ocean, cryosphere, climate, and biodiversity monitoring indicators, and representation of multi-scale interactions in Earth System Models (ESMs).
• Policy recommendations for sustainable management and prevention of irreversible environmental changes.
• Contributions to the EU Digital Twin of the Ocean, Destination Earth, and the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS).

Technology / Maturity Requirements

Projects must operate at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 4 to 6.

Key Dates

Application deadline: 2027-09-22T22:00:00.000000Z.

Application Process (High-Level)

Single-stage application process. Proposals must be submitted via the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Post-Award Obligations

• All in-situ data must follow INSPIRE principles and be available through open access repositories (e.g., Copernicus, EMODnet).
• Data must be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable).
• Projects must coordinate with relevant ESA Polar Science Cluster initiatives and contribute to global scientific assessments (e.g., IPCC, IPBES, WOA).
• Reporting and dissemination obligations as outlined in the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement.

Geographic Scope & Language

Eligible countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, United Kingdom, Switzerland. Application language: English.

Notes

• Projects must use Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS for satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation, and timing data if applicable.
• International cooperation, particularly with All-Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance (AAORIA) partner countries, is strongly encouraged.
• Proposals should leverage European research infrastructures and related projects (e.g., POLARIN).
• Synergies with the European Polar Coordination Office (EPCO) and alignment with the Antarctica InSync programme, International Polar Year, and UN Decades of Action are expected.