Leaked Horizon plans point to €140.5M cut in food and environment calls

This year’s budget for food and environment research in Horizon Europe is to be scaled back by €140.5 million, according to a leaked work programme seen by Science|Business. The document foresees calls for proposals worth €967.7 million in 2025, compared to €1.1 billion projected in an October version of the work programme.

The February draft of the Cluster 6 work programme plans on releasing €352.5 million for calls for proposals in building sustainable and resilient farming systems, safeguarding ocean health and developing green communities, down from €423.5 million in the previous draft. Meanwhile, €345 million will go into calls relating to protecting and restoring biodiversity, boosting circularity and reducing pollution, whereas the earlier draft had planned €410 million. These two areas account for the bulk of the budget.

The associated two-stage calls will receive €74 million and €48 million, respectively. Their breakdown was not provided in the plans leaked in October.

Finally, projects on innovative digital and data-based solutions and agile governance models that aim to support the European Green Deal will receive €129.4 million, an increase on the €119.9-million previously projected.

All the calls are expected to open on 6 May 2025.

Cluster 6 will also include six co-funded partnerships, according to a leaked presentation for a meeting of the programme committee. 

In 2025, the joint research call for proposals under the European Biodiversity Partnership, dubbed Biodiversa+, will focus on the restoration of ecosystem functioning; and in 2026, it will focus on future ecosystems. Meanwhile, the Water4all Partnership will allocate €32 million to a “water and health” joint transnational call this year.

We think it is important to maintain a public record of how Horizon Europe evolves in successive rounds of drafting between the Commission and member states. This is a political process that, so far, the Commission refuses to make transparent. To this end, Science|Business is making a full history of the drafting process publicly available in our Horizon Papers database. You can share other draft work programmes anonymously at [email protected].