CASRAI Dictionary

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  • European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity: What It Says and Who Must Follow It

    The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity is a framework for self-regulation, published by ALLEA (All European Academies), that sets out four principles — reliability, honesty, respect, and accountability — and translates them into good research practices for every scientific and scholarly discipline.

    The Code is not a law. It is a reference document: the European Commission recognises it as the standard for research integrity across Horizon Europe-funded projects, and it increasingly functions as the template that national bodies, universities, funders, and publishers draw on when they write their own rules.

    What Does the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity Say?

    The Code was first issued in 2011 by the European Science Foundation and ALLEA, revised in 2017, and substantially updated in the 2023 Revised Edition, published on 23 June 2023. Each revision has widened its scope: the 2023 text adds provisions on open science, data management under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), equity and inclusion, and — for the first time — the responsible use of generative AI in research.

    Structurally, the Code separates good research practices from research misconduct. It sets out expectations for the research environment, training and supervision, research procedures, data management, collaborative working, publication and dissemination, and reviewing, evaluating, and editing. It then defines violations — fabrication, falsification, plagiarism — and distinguishes these from lesser questionable research practices.

    Two Horizon Europe-funded initiatives illustrate how the Code operates in practice rather than as an abstract statement: the ROSiE project built its guidelines for responsible Open Science directly on the Code’s principles, and the European Research Area Forum’s living guidelines on generative AI use the same four-principle structure as their foundation.

    The Four Principles: Reliability, Honesty, Respect, Accountability

    The Code is organised around four principles, commonly abbreviated RHRA:

    • Reliability — ensuring the quality of research through sound design, methodology, analysis, and use of resources.
    • Honesty — developing, undertaking, reviewing, reporting, and communicating research transparently, fairly, and without bias.
    • Respect — for colleagues, research participants, society, ecosystems, cultural heritage, and the environment.
    • Accountability — taking responsibility for the research process, from idea to publication, its management and organisation, training, supervision, and mentoring, and its wider societal impact.

    These four principles are the load-bearing structure of the entire document: every good practice and every misconduct definition traces back to one or more of them. Institutions building their own research integrity policy typically map local commitments against RHRA rather than inventing a parallel taxonomy.

    Who Should Follow the European Code of Conduct?

    ALLEA addresses the Code to the entire research community, not to any single actor. In practice this means:

    Stakeholder Expected role under the Code
    Researchers (all career stages) Apply RHRA principles in daily research conduct, data handling, and authorship decisions
    Universities and research institutions Provide training, embed the Code in institutional policy, and investigate alleged misconduct
    Funding agencies Require compliance as a grant condition (as the European Commission does for Horizon Europe)
    Publishers and editors Apply the Code’s publication-ethics provisions during peer review and post-publication correction
    Academies and learned societies Promote the Code within discipline-specific guidance and national adaptations

    Compliance is not enforced by ALLEA itself. Enforcement sits with the institution, funder, or publisher that has adopted the Code as a condition of employment, funding, or publication — which is why national and institutional codes exist alongside it rather than instead of it.

    How the Code Relates to the Netherlands Code and the UK Concordat

    The European Code positions itself explicitly as a model, not a substitute, for national frameworks. Two of the most-cited national instruments illustrate how that works in practice.

    The Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (Nederlandse gedragscode wetenschappelijke integriteit) was developed by the Dutch universities’ association (now Universities of the Netherlands), the Federation of Dutch University Medical Centres, KNAW, NWO, and the TO2 federation, and took effect on 1 October 2018. It uses five principles — honesty, scrupulousness, transparency, independence, and responsibility — that map closely onto RHRA but split “reliability” into scrupulousness and independence.

    The UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity, first published by Universities UK in 2012 and revised in 2019, is organised around five commitments covering rigour, transparent governance, supportive research environments, addressing misconduct, and openness. The UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) treats the European Code as a reference document that informs, rather than replaces, UK sector guidance.

    Framework Publisher / steward Current edition Structure Binding status
    European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity ALLEA 2023 Revised Edition 4 principles (RHRA) Non-binding; mandatory for Horizon Europe grants
    Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity Universities of the Netherlands, NFU, KNAW, NWO, TO2 2018, in force since 1 October 2018 5 principles Binding on signatory institutions
    UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity Universities UK 2019 revision 5 commitments Non-binding; signed by most UK universities

    The pattern is consistent: national codes narrow and operationalise the European Code’s four principles into locally enforceable commitments, while keeping the underlying definitions of misconduct — fabrication, falsification, plagiarism — aligned with the European text. This is also why institutions outside the EU, including in North America, Australia, and Asia, increasingly cite the European Code as a baseline reference when no comparable domestic framework exists: it offers a discipline-neutral, internationally vetted starting point rather than a jurisdiction-specific rulebook.

    Answer-First Q&A

    What Is the European Code of Research Integrity?

    The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity is a self-regulatory framework published by ALLEA that defines good research practice across all scientific and scholarly disciplines. First issued in 2011 and most recently revised in 2023, it is recognised by the European Commission as the reference standard for Horizon Europe-funded research.

    What Are the 5 Principles of Research Integrity?

    This is a common mix-up: ALLEA’s European Code itself sets out four principles — reliability, honesty, respect, accountability — not five. The “five principles” phrasing usually refers to a national adaptation, such as the Netherlands Code of Conduct‘s five principles (honesty, scrupulousness, transparency, independence, responsibility), which subdivides the European Code’s reliability principle.

    What Are the 4 Principles of Integrity?

    Under the European Code, the four principles of integrity are reliability (sound methodology), honesty (transparent, unbiased reporting), respect (for participants, colleagues, and the environment), and accountability (responsibility across the research lifecycle). Together they form the basis for every good practice and misconduct definition in the document.

    What Are the 7 Ethical Standards in Research?

    The “seven ethical standards” typically refers to a separate human-subjects research ethics framework (associated with Emanuel et al.), covering value, scientific validity, fair subject selection, favourable risk-benefit ratio, independent review, informed consent, and respect for participants. It is distinct from — though compatible with — the European Code’s integrity-focused RHRA structure, which governs conduct rather than human-subjects protection specifically.

    Implications for Research Administrators

    For research administrators, the practical takeaway is that the European Code functions as a compliance anchor even outside its formal EU jurisdiction. Institutional research integrity policies that cite the Code’s four principles by name are easier to defend during Horizon Europe audits, easier to cross-reference against national codes, and easier to explain to international collaborators who may not recognise a purely domestic framework.

    Grant offices, integrity officers, and research administration teams reviewing or drafting institutional policy should treat the 2023 revision — not the superseded 2017 edition — as the current baseline, since the generative AI and open science provisions did not exist before 2023.

    Looking ahead, the trend toward citing the European Code as a default reference is likely to continue as more funders outside Europe adopt open science and research-integrity conditions modelled on Horizon Europe’s approach, reinforcing the Code’s role as a de facto international baseline rather than a purely regional instrument.

  • What Is Horizon Europe? An RA’s Guide to FP9

    What is Horizon Europe? It is the European Union’s flagship research and innovation funding programme, running 2021–2027 with a budget of €95.5 billion. It succeeds Horizon 2020 as the ninth EU Framework Programme (FP9), funds work through three pillars, and requires participants to follow an open-science mandate covering open-access publishing, FAIR data management, and persistent identifiers.

    For research administrators (RAs) and principal investigators (PIs) new to EU funding, understanding the programme’s structure, eligibility routes, and compliance obligations is the first step toward a fundable proposal.

    What Is Horizon Europe?

    Horizon Europe is the European Union’s key funding programme for research and innovation, running from 2021 to 2027 with a total budget of €95.5 billion. It is the EU’s largest research and innovation programme to date and is formally the ninth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP9), following on from Horizon 2020 (2014–2020, FP8). It funds everything from frontier basic research to near-market innovation, administered principally through the European Commission’s Funding & Tenders Portal, where calls, work programmes, and proposal templates are published.

    • Duration: 2021–2027 (seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework cycle)
    • Budget: €95.5 billion (European Commission, current programme figure)
    • Predecessor: Horizon 2020, €77 billion, 2014–2020
    • Administering body: European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

    How Does Horizon Europe Differ from Horizon 2020 (FP8)?

    Horizon Europe increased the overall research budget by roughly 24% over Horizon 2020 and introduced structural changes that RAs need to plan around: a stronger open-science mandate, five measurable “Missions,” a new European Innovation Council, and a widening-participation strand aimed at strengthening the European Research Area across less research-intensive member states.

    Feature Horizon 2020 (FP8, 2014–2020) Horizon Europe (FP9, 2021–2027)
    Budget €77 billion €95.5 billion
    Structure Three priorities Three pillars + widening participation strand
    Missions Not used Five thematic Missions with 2030 targets
    Innovation body No dedicated council European Innovation Council (EIC), Pillar III
    Open access Encouraged, embargoes permitted Mandatory, immediate open access under the Model Grant Agreement
    UK status Full EU member state Associated country (from 1 January 2024)

    What Are Horizon Europe’s Three Pillars?

    Horizon Europe organises its budget into three pillars, each supporting a different stage of the research-to-innovation pipeline, plus a horizontal strand for widening participation.

    • Pillar I — Excellent Science: funds frontier research through the European Research Council (ERC), researcher mobility and training through Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), and shared research infrastructures.
    • Pillar II — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness: the largest pillar, organised into six clusters — Health; Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society; Civil Security for Society; Digital, Industry and Space; Climate, Energy and Mobility; and Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment. This pillar also houses the five Missions and the Joint Research Centre’s scientific support.
    • Pillar III — Innovative Europe: supports market-creating innovation through the European Innovation Council (EIC), European innovation ecosystems, and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

    Pillar II’s five Missions set time-bound 2030 targets: climate-change adaptation for at least 150 regions, improving outcomes for 3 million people affected by cancer, restoring ocean and water health, delivering 100 climate-neutral and smart cities, and a “Soil Deal for Europe” spanning 100 living labs.

    Who Can Apply for Horizon Europe? (Including UK Status)

    Eligibility depends on an applicant’s country status rather than institution type. Universities, research organisations, businesses (including SMEs), and public bodies are all eligible legal-entity types, but where they are established determines whether they can lead a proposal or receive direct EU funding.

    Route Who it covers Funding access
    EU member state All 27 member states Full, automatic eligibility for all calls
    Associated country Non-EU states that pay into the Horizon Europe budget, e.g. Norway, Iceland, Israel, South Korea (associated January 2025), Switzerland (re-associated 10 November 2025), and the UK Same rights and obligations as member states, for the associated scope
    Non-associated third country (funded) Low- and middle-income countries eligible under specific Horizon Europe rules Automatic EU funding for named calls
    Non-associated third country (self-funded) All other third countries Can join consortia but must generally self-fund participation

    The UK associated to Horizon Europe on 1 January 2024, following a political agreement signed with the European Commission on 7 September 2023. UK-based researchers and organisations can lead consortia and receive Horizon Europe funding directly from the European Commission, with the sole exception of the EIC Fund’s equity component. UKRI confirms that Work Programme 2024 calls onward are covered by full association, following an earlier guarantee scheme that had already committed over £1 billion to successful UK applicants for 2021–2023 calls.

    Most Pillar II collaborative projects require a consortium of at least three independent legal entities established in three different EU member states or associated countries. ERC and MSCA awards under Pillar I, by contrast, can be held by a single host institution or researcher.

    What Does Horizon Europe’s Open Science Mandate Require?

    Horizon Europe’s Model Grant Agreement makes open science a contractual obligation, not a recommendation. Every funded project must provide immediate open access to peer-reviewed publications, and any project that generates or collects research data must submit a Data Management Plan (DMP) following the FAIR principles — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable — under the “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” default.

    This is where interoperable identifiers stop being optional infrastructure and become compliance requirements. Consortium partners reporting jointly to the European Commission need consistent, machine-readable ways to identify people, organisations, and contributions across every partner institution’s systems:

    • ORCID iDs give researchers a persistent, disambiguated identifier that consortium partners and the Funding & Tenders Portal can rely on for reporting and attribution.
    • FAIR data management, as required by the DMP, depends on standardised metadata schemas so that datasets remain findable and reusable after a project closes.
    • Contributor role taxonomies such as CRediT give multi-partner consortia a consistent, non-hierarchical way to record who did what on a publication, which matters when authorship spans institutions with different local conventions.

    CASRAI originated the CRediT contributor role taxonomy in 2014. The standard is now stewarded by NISO as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. For Horizon Europe consortia, pairing CRediT contributor roles with ORCID identifiers and FAIR-compliant data management is what makes multi-partner reporting interoperable rather than a spreadsheet reconciled by hand at the end of each reporting period.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What does Horizon Europe do?

    Horizon Europe funds research and innovation projects across the EU and associated countries, tackling scientific, societal, and industrial goals. It supports everything from curiosity-driven basic science to near-market innovation and helps deliver commitments such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and EU climate targets.

    Who is eligible for Horizon Europe?

    Horizon Europe is open to legal entities — individuals, universities, businesses, and public bodies — established in an EU member state or a country formally associated with the programme. Entities from non-associated countries can often still participate in consortia, but funding eligibility depends on their specific country’s status.

    Is the UK a member of Horizon Europe?

    The UK is not an EU member but is a fully associated country to Horizon Europe as of 1 January 2024. UK researchers and institutions can lead projects and receive EU funding directly, with the single exception of the EIC Fund’s equity investment component.

    Who runs Horizon Europe?

    Horizon Europe is administered by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, working with executive agencies such as the European Research Council Executive Agency and the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, which manage day-to-day calls and grant agreements.

    What This Means for Research Administrators

    For RAs supporting a first Horizon Europe application, three things matter most: confirm country-status eligibility before drafting a consortium agreement, budget time for a compliant Data Management Plan rather than treating it as boilerplate, and set up ORCID and contributor-role tracking for every named researcher before the project starts, not retrospectively at reporting time.

    As the programme moves toward its 2028–2034 successor framework, currently under negotiation, the compliance burden around open science is unlikely to loosen. Institutions that treat FAIR data, persistent identifiers, and structured contributor attribution as core research-administration infrastructure — rather than a publisher-side afterthought — will find Horizon Europe reporting considerably easier to manage. For broader context, see CASRAI’s research administration resources.

  • ERC Starting Grant Deadline: 4 Schemes Compared

    The ERC Starting Grant deadline for the 2027 competition is expected in mid-October 2026, following a call opening around July 2026 on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Research offices supporting Horizon Europe applicants also need the Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grant cycles in view, since each scheme runs on its own annual timetable and eligibility window.

    The European Research Council (ERC) is the European Union’s funding body for investigator-driven “frontier research,” awarding grants through four schemes — Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy — distinguished primarily by a principal investigator’s years of experience since their PhD, rather than by subject area or nationality.

    What are the four ERC grant schemes?

    The ERC funds individual researchers or small collaborative teams to pursue high-risk, high-gain research defined entirely by the investigator, not by a funder-set thematic priority. The four schemes sit along a career-stage continuum, with funding ceilings rising accordingly.

    Scheme Career stage Maximum funding Duration
    Starting Grant (StG) Early-career, building an independent team Up to €1.5 million Up to 5 years
    Consolidator Grant (CoG) Consolidating an independent research programme Up to €2 million Up to 5 years
    Advanced Grant (AdG) Established leaders with a proven track record Up to €2.5 million Up to 5 years
    Synergy Grant (SyG) 2–4 principal investigators, joint proposal Up to €10 million Up to 6 years

    All four schemes can request additional funding for major equipment, large infrastructure access or field-specific needs. Grants are hosted by an eligible legal entity — typically a university, research institute or company — established in an EU member state or an associated country, which is why the host institution’s grants office is central to every application.

    Who is eligible for each ERC grant?

    Eligibility for Starting and Consolidator Grants is defined by the number of years elapsed since the PhD was defended. Advanced and Synergy Grants instead assess track record and, for Synergy, the complementarity of the investigator team.

    Starting Grant eligibility

    Applicants must demonstrate research independence — commonly a significant publication without their doctoral supervisor as co-author. Under the ERC’s April 2026 announcement on the 2027 competitions, the Starting Grant window has widened so a PhD defended no more than 10 years before 1 January 2027 qualifies, replacing the narrower 2–7 year band used previously. Documented career breaks — parental leave, illness, clinical training — extend this window further.

    Consolidator Grant eligibility

    The Consolidator Grant sits between Starting and Advanced. For the 2027 call, the ERC has set the window at a PhD defended between 5 and 15 years before 1 January 2027, up from the previous 7–12 year band. The ERC’s one-grant rule applies across both early-career schemes: a principal investigator may hold only one Starting Grant and one Consolidator Grant across their career, so grants offices should verify prior ERC awards before nominating a candidate.

    Advanced Grant eligibility

    There is no PhD-year window for the Advanced Grant. Applicants must instead show a track record of significant research achievements over the preceding decade, making this the natural route for senior academics whose profile no longer fits a fixed post-PhD calculation.

    Synergy Grant eligibility

    Synergy Grants require two to four principal investigators whose complementary expertise is genuinely necessary to address a question no single PI could tackle alone. There is no career-stage restriction, but each PI’s track record must match their own career stage, and the proposal must show a clear synergistic — not merely additive — effect.

    When are the ERC grant deadlines?

    Each scheme runs on its own annual cycle, and the call identifier (for example, ERC-2027-StG) refers to the year the budget is allocated, which is not always the calendar year of the submission deadline. Confirmed and currently expected dates for the 2026–2027 cycle are set out below; research offices should treat “expected” dates as planning markers until the ERC publishes the formal Horizon Europe work programme.

    Call Status Call opens Submission deadline
    ERC-2026-StG Closed 9 July 2025 14 October 2025
    ERC-2026-AdG Open cycle, deadline approaching c. May 2026 c. 27 August 2026
    ERC-2027-StG Expected c. July 2026 Mid-October 2026
    ERC-2027-CoG Expected c. September 2026 c. January 2027
    ERC-2027-SyG Expected, dates to be confirmed To be confirmed To be confirmed

    Deadlines cannot be extended once a call closes, and late submissions are not accepted under any circumstances — a rule the ERC states explicitly on its own call pages. Institutions should build in an internal deadline several working days ahead of the ERC’s own cut-off to allow for legal-entity validation, budget sign-off and final proposal checks by the host institution.

    How does ERC panel evaluation work?

    All ERC schemes use a peer-review evaluation process organised around 25 discipline panels grouped into three broad domains: Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE), Life Sciences (LS), and Social Sciences and Humanities (SH). Proposals are assigned to the panel that best matches their primary research field, with additional referees consulted for cross-panel or interdisciplinary work.

    Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants are evaluated in two steps: Step 1 is a remote assessment of the extended synopsis and CV by panel members; applicants who pass Step 1 proceed to Step 2, an interview before the panel, which in most fields now takes place in person or via video conference. Synergy Grant proposals follow a comparable two-step model but are reviewed by panels convened specifically for multi-PI, often cross-disciplinary projects, reflecting the scheme’s collaborative design.

    • Step 1 — remote assessment against excellence criteria only, resulting in a shortlist invited to interview.
    • Step 2 — panel interview, typically 20–30 minutes, focused on the applicant’s ability to deliver the proposed research.
    • Final ranking lists are published by the ERC, with reserve lists sometimes drawn on if budget allows.

    Frequently asked questions

    Who is eligible for the ERC Starting Grant?

    Eligibility depends on years since PhD defence, not age or nationality. For the 2027 call, applicants qualify if their PhD was defended no more than 10 years before 1 January 2027, and they must show evidence of research independence from their doctoral supervisor.

    What is the success rate of an ERC Starting Grant?

    The 2025 Starting Grant call attracted 3,928 proposals, a 13% increase on the previous year, according to UKRO’s published results. Just over 12% of proposals were funded, making Starting Grants among the most competitive early-career awards in Europe.

    Who is eligible for the ERC Consolidator Grant?

    Consolidator Grant applicants must have defended their PhD between 5 and 15 years before 1 January 2027 under the updated 2027 call rules. A principal investigator may hold only one Starting Grant and one Consolidator Grant in total across their career.

    Can UK-based researchers apply for ERC grants?

    Yes. Following the UK’s association to Horizon Europe, effective 1 January 2024, UK-based researchers and eligible host institutions can apply for and hold ERC grants on the same terms as institutions in EU member states and other associated countries.

    What this means for research offices

    For institutional grants offices, the planning unit is not “the ERC deadline” but four separate deadlines, each with its own lead time. Starting and Consolidator applicants need early PhD-date verification given the widened 2027 windows, since borderline cases require a documented calculation against the 1 January 2027 reference date. Advanced candidates need track-record evidence gathered well before the August window, and Synergy proposals need co-investigator agreements in place earlier still, given multi-institution budget complexity.

    The one-grant rule makes prior-award tracking a compliance task, not a courtesy — institutions nominating a returning applicant should confirm eligibility before committing proposal-development resources. Offices should monitor the ERC’s Horizon Europe work programme publication each spring, since exact dates, panel structures and resubmission rules are confirmed there, not on third-party calendars.

    The widened post-PhD windows for the 2027 Starting and Consolidator calls signal an ERC response to career-path diversity, including breaks and non-linear routes into research leadership; eligibility guidance should keep evolving as the Horizon Europe successor programme is negotiated. Institutions that treat research administration as a year-round function, rather than a pre-deadline scramble, consistently see stronger application quality across all four schemes.

  • Horizon Europe Cluster 6 Work Programme 2026: Open Data Rules for Applicants

    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?

    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.