The European Commission has allocated approximately €17.8 million to 18 projects with Portuguese participation under six 2023 calls from the four European Missions of Horizon Europe (Climate, Cities, Ocean & Waters, and Soil), supporting the European Green Deal.

In total, of the tenders launched by the Missions in 2023, Portugal participated in 117 applications, of which 18 were approved for funding, representing an approval rate of 15.4%. A total of 63 participations from 53 Portuguese entities, including 2 projects coordinated by national institutions. Nationally Coordinated Projects:

• The LivingSoiLL project, coordinated by the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), involves an international consortium of 50 academic and business entities, with 17 Portuguese partners. With a total budget of around €12M (40% of which is allocated to Portuguese entities), the LivingSoiLL project is the first project of this Mission to establish Living Labs (LLs) in Europe and aims to create 5 LLs (in PT, FR, ES, IT and PL) focused on permanent crops (vineyards, olive groves, chestnut groves, hazelnut groves and apple orchards), comprising at least 50 demonstration sites and 10 reference structures, and involving the active participation of more than 2. 000 local actors in an approach applied to real-life contexts.
• The TERRASAFE project, with the national coordination of the University of Aveiro, has an international consortium of 18 academic and business entities and 1 more Portuguese partner. With a total budget of around 7M€, the TERRASAFE project aims to empower communities in southern Europe and North Africa to face desertification through social and technological innovations, seeking to combat different forms of desertification in five pilot areas and promoting the co-creation of solutions in a multi-actor approach.

In this 3rd year of Missions competitions, it is to highlight the national success in the Solo Mission with 6 approved projects, 2 of which coordinated by national entities, representing the best year of national results in this mission from its beginning, with national entities to capture a little more than € 7.9 million (about 6% of the total budget available in this contest). We recall that in 2023, thanks to the partnership between the ANI and the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DGADR), additional efforts were made to promote and support national involvement in the Solo Mission competitions, events (Coimbra, Évora, Vila Real).

In the remaining Missions, it is also worth mentioning the 5 projects with national participation in the Oceano&Águas Mission competition, with 12 national participations that captured 3.3 M€. In Missão Clima, with 16 participations of national entities in 4 projects, 4.3M€. In the mission Cities 1 national entity participates in a project of this contest, capturing about 0.4M €. Success also for the contest that connects the Missions Climate and Cities, with 6 national participations in 2 projects, totaling more about 1.9M € for national entities.

Since the beginning of Horizonte Europa, Portugal has already captured about 52.4 M€, with 6 national coordinations, and a total of 64 projects in the contests in support of the 4 Missions in support of the European Ecological Pact demonstrating the excellence and internationalization capacity of the national entities.

17.8 M€ allocated to 18 projects with national participation