The Horizon Europe Cluster 6 Work Programme 2026 requires every funded project to meet the standard Horizon Europe open-research-data baseline — a FAIR-compliant Data Management Plan and immediate open access to publications — plus a Cluster 6-only layer: biodiversity and genetic-resource data must go through recognised repositories, follow Darwin Core-style standards, and satisfy the EU’s Nagoya Protocol access-and-benefit-sharing rules. Research offices supporting Cluster 6 applicants need to track both layers separately, because the biodiversity-specific obligations do not appear in the general Horizon Europe Annotated Grant Agreement text that administrators may already know from other clusters.
Cluster 6 is the Horizon Europe pillar funding research and innovation on “Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment”, organised into seven policy destinations under the European Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Farm to Fork strategy.
- What open data rules apply across all Horizon Europe clusters?
- What extra biodiversity data-sharing duties does Cluster 6 add?
- How does Cluster 6 compare with Clusters 4 and 5 on data requirements?
- Which 2026 Cluster 6 calls are open now, and what are the deadlines?
- Cluster 6 open data: frequently asked questions
- What this means for research offices supporting Cluster 6 applicants
What open data rules apply across all Horizon Europe clusters?
Every Horizon Europe grant, regardless of cluster, operates under the Commission’s stated principle of making research data “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”. This baseline applies identically to Clusters 1 through 6 and is not something Cluster 6 changes or adds to.
Three obligations sit inside this baseline. First, a living Data Management Plan is due within the first six months of the project and must be updated as the work progresses. Second, research data must be handled according to the FAIR principles — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. Third, all peer-reviewed publications arising from the grant must be made immediately open access, either via an open-access journal or by depositing the accepted manuscript in a trusted repository with no embargo.
According to the Horizon Europe Annotated Grant Agreement, beneficiaries must deposit machine-readable data and metadata in a trusted repository. None of this is Cluster 6-specific — it is the floor every applicant, in every cluster, must clear.
What extra biodiversity data-sharing duties does Cluster 6 add?
Cluster 6’s thematic link to the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 brings a second, additional layer that does not appear in the general programme text. This is the part administrators most often miss, because it is scattered across topic-level annexes rather than stated once in the core rules.
- Recognised repositories: biodiversity and species-occurrence data generated under Cluster 6 topics is expected to flow into internationally recognised infrastructures, most commonly the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), using the Darwin Core data standard maintained by the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) community.
- Research infrastructure alignment: proposals are expected to draw on established European research infrastructures for biodiversity and life-science data, including LifeWatch ERIC and ELIXIR, rather than building bespoke, one-off data platforms.
- Access and benefit-sharing (ABS): where a project accesses genetic resources — for example in agrobiodiversity, microbiome or bioeconomy topics — applicants must comply with Regulation (EU) No 511/2014, the EU’s implementing legislation for the Nagoya Protocol, including due-diligence declarations at key project checkpoints.
- Global Biodiversity Framework alignment: the draft and adopted 2026-2027 destinations reference the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted at CBD COP15 in December 2022, whose Target 21 specifically calls for improved availability of biodiversity data to decision-makers.
None of these four points is a restatement of the general FAIR/DMP baseline. They are additive obligations that only attach to Cluster 6 — and, in the case of Nagoya Protocol compliance, to any topic across any cluster that touches genetic resources, but they surface most frequently in Cluster 6’s Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and Circular Economy and Bioeconomy Sectors destinations.
How does Cluster 6 compare with Clusters 4 and 5 on data requirements?
Administrators who support applicants across multiple clusters sometimes assume the extra biodiversity layer is programme-wide. It is not. Clusters 4 and 5 remain governed by the general Horizon Europe open-data baseline described above, with no equivalent dedicated data-sharing regime published in their 2026-2027 work programmes.
| Cluster | Domain | Cluster-specific data-sharing regime beyond the Horizon Europe baseline? |
|---|---|---|
| Cluster 4 | Digital, Industry and Space | No dedicated cluster-wide regime; individual topics may reference EU common data spaces |
| Cluster 5 | Climate, Energy and Mobility | No dedicated cluster-wide regime; individual topics may reference Copernicus and Destination Earth datasets |
| Cluster 6 | Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment | Yes — biodiversity/genetic-resource data via GBIF-compatible standards and Nagoya Protocol ABS compliance |
This distinction matters for institutional research offices: a Data Management Plan template built for a Cluster 4 or Cluster 5 grant will not, by default, cover the ABS due-diligence declarations or repository-mapping steps a Cluster 6 biodiversity topic requires.
Which 2026 Cluster 6 calls are open now, and what are the deadlines?
The Cluster 6 Work Programme 2026-2027 groups more than 58 topics into seven calls across seven destinations, following Info Days held in Brussels on 22-23 January 2026. As of July 2026, several calls have already closed their first round while others remain open or are still to launch.
| Call | Destinations covered | Opened | Deadline(s) | Status (July 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HORIZON-CL6-2026-01 | Biodiversity; Circular economy and bioeconomy; Zero pollution | 17 Apr 2026 | 17 Sep 2026 | Open |
| HORIZON-CL6-2026-02 | Farm to Fork; Climate action; Communities | 14 Jan 2026 | 14 Apr 2026 | Closed |
| HORIZON-CL6-2026-03 | Governance and digital solutions | 14 Jan 2026 | 15 Apr 2026 | Closed |
| HORIZON-CL6-2026-04 (COFUND) | Governance — Partnership on Agriculture of Data | 25 Aug 2026 | 26 Nov 2026 | Not yet open |
| HORIZON-CL6-2026-01-two-stage | Biodiversity; Circular economy; Zero pollution | 12 Feb 2026 | Stage 1: 16 Apr 2026 / Stage 2: 23 Sep 2026 | Stage 2 pending |
| HORIZON-CL6-2026-02-two-stage | Farm to Fork | 12 Feb 2026 | Stage 1: 14 Apr 2026 / Stage 2: 15 Sep 2026 | Stage 2 pending |
| HORIZON-CL6-2026-03-two-stage | Governance | 12 Feb 2026 | Stage 1: 15 Apr 2026 / Stage 2: 30 Sep 2026 | Stage 2 pending |
Research offices with Stage 1 applicants who passed through in April should now be finalising the ABS due-diligence and repository-mapping annexes ahead of the September Stage 2 deadlines — this is precisely where the biodiversity-specific obligations from the previous section get tested in a live submission.
Cluster 6 open data: frequently asked questions
What is the 2026 Work Programme of Horizon Europe?
The 2026 Work Programme is the European Commission’s annually detailed set of funding calls implementing Horizon Europe’s 2025-2027 Strategic Plan. It is published per cluster, sets topic-level budgets, deadlines and eligibility conditions, and forms the legal basis on which applicants submit proposals through the Funding and Tenders Portal.
What is the Cluster 6 Horizon Work Programme?
Cluster 6 is the Horizon Europe funding stream for Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment. Its 2026-2027 edition funds over 58 topics across seven destinations, combining Research and Innovation Actions, Innovation Actions and Coordination and Support Actions with a combined 2026 budget exceeding €580 million.
What is the 6 cluster Horizon Europe?
Cluster 6 targets environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and unsustainable resource use by funding transformative research across food systems, the circular bioeconomy, pollution control and climate-resilient land and ocean management. It sits within Pillar II of Horizon Europe, alongside Clusters 1 to 5.
What are the topics of Cluster 6?
Cluster 6 topics span seven destinations: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Circular Economy and Bioeconomy Sectors, Clean Environment and Zero Pollution, Fair, Healthy and Environment-Friendly Food Systems, Land, Ocean and Water for Climate Action, Communities, and Governance, Observations and Digital Solutions.
What this means for research offices supporting Cluster 6 applicants
Institutional research offices that reuse a single, cluster-agnostic Data Management Plan template risk under-serving Cluster 6 applicants. The template needs a supplementary checklist covering repository selection against GBIF or Darwin Core compatibility, an ABS screening question for any genetic-resource sampling, and a named contact for Nagoya Protocol due-diligence sign-off.
This is also useful evidence for funder-liaison teams explaining why a Cluster 6 proposal’s data section takes longer to clear internal review than a Cluster 4 or Cluster 5 submission — it carries more compliance surface, not administrative overcaution.
Administrators tracking related programme rules — including broader research administration compliance requirements — should treat the biodiversity-data layer as a standing item on Cluster 6 proposal-development checklists through the remainder of the 2026-2027 work programme, since the underlying Nagoya Protocol and GBIF-alignment expectations are set to persist across subsequent Cluster 6 call rounds.
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