Water is a critical resource for the European society. Beside its main life function, freshwater also provides many other functions essential to our economy. Water challenges cannot be successfully tackled through the isolated effort of individual national research and innovation programmes. This ERA-NET cofund proposal is submitted in the name of the Joint Programming Initiative “Water Challenges for a Changing World”, and aims at contributing to tackle European water challenges through the development of transnational and trans-disciplinary research and innovation actions. WaterWorks2014 addresses the specific challenge of integrating the efforts and Strategic Agendas of many European Water Research and Innovation funding organizations. This ERA-NET cofund will implement a Call for proposals on “research and innovation developing technological solutions and services to support the implementation of EU water policy, in particular for water distribution and measurement, waste water treatment and reuse, desalination, floods and droughts etc.” This Call for proposals will be funded by 18 organizations from 16 countries, and will have a total budget of 15.2 million Euro. This total budget includes a cofund from the European Commission amounting to 5.0 million Euro. WaterWorks2014 will also perform additional activities contributing to Water JPI Strategy and Implementation. Activities contributing to strategy include the development of new versions of the Water JPI Strategic Agenda and the Implementation Plan. Activities contributing to implementation include sharing good practices on Water research and innovation funding and management, exploratory workshops, alignment of on-going projects and the monitoring and final evaluation of Calls without cofunding. WaterWorks2014 will benefit researchers, policy-makers, water authorities, utility operators, industry, farmers, and citizens by developing new solutions to water challenges.

The WaterWorks2015 proposal responds to the Horizon 2020 (H2020) Societal Challenge 5 2015 Call topic Water-3 [2015]: Stepping up EU research and innovation cooperation in the water area. WaterWorks2015 aims at pooling resources from the 32 participating research programme owners / managers of 23 countries to implement a joint call for proposals, with EU co-funding in the area of sustainable water use in agriculture and forestry. It's a collaboration between the Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs), Water JPI “Water Challenges for a Changing World” and FACCE JPI “Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change”. Achieving a “sustainable water use in agriculture, to increase water use efficiency and reduce soil and water pollution” is at the intersection of the two JPIs, contributing to the implementation of their respective Strategic Research Agendas. WaterWorks2015 includes 9 organisations from associated and third countries in an effort to reinforce international cooperation. Additional Activities will also be carried out to further support the implementation and strategy of the Water JPI. The overall aims include: • Increasing the value of relevant national and EU R&D funding by concerted and joint planning, implementation and evaluation of national research programmes; • Pooling financial resources from participating states towards the definition and implementation of a Co-funded transnational and multi-disciplinary Call for research and innovation proposals. The aim of the Call will be to support the implementation of initiatives and environmental policies, in particular those related to water and agriculture & forestry, as a way to increase water use efficiency and to reduce soil and water pollution; • Overcoming the fragmentation of European water and agriculture/forestry-related research and innovation activities; • Supporting the implementation and the development of the two Joint Programming Initiatives, seeking synergies in overlapping research issues.

The NCP4HE project has been designed, on one hand, to bring together and support the needs of the NCP National Coordinators and Legal & Financial NCPs communities and, on the other, to boost a closer and more efficient coordination and cooperation among the different NCP configurations through the infrastructures inherited by the Bridge2HE project, namely the HE NCP Portal and the NCP Virtual Campus, which the project will continue maintaining and developing, enlarging them in content, functionalities and userbase. A large series of activities involving training events, e-learning courses, pre-meetings, meet and exchange workshops, coffee-talks, and mentoring activities, have been planned to provide horizontal support to the whole NPC community, improve mutual learning, and create a structured space for exchange, with a particular focus on newcomers. NCP4HE will also prepare the ground for NCPs in the transition from Horizon Europe to the next Framework Programme working closely with the European Commission and their agencies to ensure a proper interaction with NCPs during that preparatory process. NCP4HE brings together a wide and comprehensive consortium of 36 NCPs host organizations from 22 MS and 9 AS countries, spanning three continents. Additionally, 11 of the 15 widening member countries are represented in the consortium. The project includes a balance mix of NCPs from countries with extensive participation in Horizon 2020 with NCPs coming from countries with low level of participation. This wide spectrum of partners is there to ensure that the project activities and outputs serve as many NCPs as possible, but also that the whole community needs are taken into account when designing and implementing the planned actions.

The New European Bauhaus (NEB) brings the European Green Deal to life through inclusivity, aesthetics, and sustainability, evolving from grassroots efforts to impactful implementation. Central to this is the NEB Facility, which bridges research and innovation (R&I) with roll-out efforts, focusing on local neighbourhoods. NEB4All supports the Facility by strengthening a transnational network of Horizon Europe (HE) and Policy (POL) National Contact Points (NCPs), fostering collaboration, sharing best practices, and empowering NEB NCPs to deliver exceptional support to NEB Facility stakeholders. NEB4All unites 28 NCPs from 25 countries, combining the expertise of experienced and newly appointed members. Through tailored training, mentoring, and peer learning, it enhances NCP capacities, improving stakeholder support, increasing participation in NEB calls, and elevating proposal quality. Key objectives of NEB4All include: (1) Building NCP Capacity: Providing training and tools to align HE and POL NCPs and bridge knowledge gaps. (2) Raising Awareness: Equipping NCPs to engage national stakeholders and promote the NEB Facility effectively. (3) Improving Feedback Mechanisms: Creating systems to collect stakeholder insights and deliver actionable feedback to the European Commission. (4) Supporting Stakeholders: Empowering applicants through matchmaking events and stakeholder meetings. NEB4All lowers barriers to participation for stakeholders like municipalities, companies, researchers (from technical backgrounds and social sciences, humanities and arts), and civil society, fostering connections across the NEB ecosystem. By ensuring high-quality services and gathering actionable feedback, it enhances the NEB Facility’s visibility, accessibility, and impact, driving sustainable innovation and inclusive growth across Europe.

LUKE is an initiative of several EU Member States and countries associated to Horizon Europe aiming to establish a multilateral funding and capacity building platform focusing on Ukraine. Its key objectives are to implement a joint call and fund transnational research and innovation (R&I) projects with Ukrainian participation as well as to enhance Ukraine's R&I capacities. A modern, efficient, and transparent science and innovation system is crucial for Ukraine’s post-war recovery and economic prosperity. Sharing best practices, pooling resources, and transferring knowledge can significantly contribute to unlocking Ukraine's scientific potential, improving the framework conditions for research and innovation, and integrating the country more closely into the European Research Area (ERA). The LUKE network comprises a group of funding parties and the project consortium responsible for accompanying activities. The overall coordination and management are conducted by a call secretariat. Altogether 19 organisations from 13 countries have already confirmed their willingness to participate as funders within the network: Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine itself, as well as the EU accession candidates Georgia, Republic of Moldova, and Türkiye. Additional funding agencies have expressed interest in joining and may be included in the group of funding parties once the joint call has been finalized. The project consortium includes nine organisations, amongst them the German Aerospace Center (DLR) as coordinator, the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (including the Horizon Office and Science Council), Centre for Social Innovation (Austria), Danish Board of Technology (DBT), and University of Daugavpils (Latvia).