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Climate change and environmental degradation constitute a profound and accelerating threat to Europe’s prosperity, security, and well‑being. In response, the European Green Deal has set out a comprehensive and transformative roadmap to make Europe the first climate‑neutral continent by 2050, while promoting sustainable economic growth, reinforcing industrial competitiveness, and ensuring a fair and inclusive transition for all regions and communities.
This political vision has been translated into binding commitments through the European Climate Law, which enshrines the objective of climate neutrality by 2050 and establishes an intermediate target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. Meeting these objectives requires coordinated and systemic action across all sectors of society and the economy, energy, mobility, industry, agriculture, food systems, and the built environment, supported by robust governance, behavioural change, and social innovation.
Research and innovation are indispensable drivers of this transformation. Horizon Europe allocates a minimum of 35% of its budget to climate‑related activities and at least 10% to biodiversity, mobilising scientific excellence and innovation capacity to accelerate emissions reduction, strengthen climate resilience, restore ecosystems, and support Europe’s long‑term competitiveness. The work programmes of Pillar II (“Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness”) play a pivotal role in advancing the priorities of the green transition, while EU Missions and New European Bauhaus initiatives foster experimentation, citizen engagement, and the deployment of systemic solutions at scale.
The collaboration between Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and STEM disciplines is essential to achieving Europe’s climate objectives. Technological innovation alone cannot deliver the scale of transformation required; societal behaviours, governance models, economic incentives, cultural practices, and community engagement are equally decisive. SSH expertise is therefore indispensable for designing effective, inclusive, and socially robust pathways towards climate neutrality.
This brokerage event targets applicants interested in submitting proposals related to the green transition and climate resilience across a range of fields, including health, climate and environment, energy, mobility, and cities, where multidisciplinary collaboration between SSH and STEM is key to success.
The event offers participants the opportunity to:
- gain a clearer understanding of the SSH research aspects of selected upcoming Horizon Europe topics relevant to the green transition
- receive practical guidance on building effective SSH–STEM collaboration
- connect with potential partners and initiate interdisciplinary consortia
A pitching session will be open to both SSH and STEM experts wishing to present their expertise or project ideas. This will provide added value for all participants by enabling a more immediate understanding of the diverse competencies involved and supporting the identification of suitable partners for future proposals.
🖊️ Topics to be focused on during brokerage event
All 2026-2027 work programmes in Pillar 2 have been scanned, and 13 topics have been identified. The topics have been selected according to the following criteria:
- Green transition and/or climate resilience has a pivotal role in the topic text either in the expected outcomes or in the scope sections.
- The topic text contains the “standard sentence” (e.g. “This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise …”) on SSH Integration or a clear mention of SSH activities or components.
In the list below, some references to the text topics have been included as examples, in order to highlight the reasons that led to the inclusion of each topic in the list.
Within Clusters 3 and 4, no topics relevant to the purpose of the event were identified.
Cluster 1
- HORIZON-HLTH-2027-01-ENVHLTH-02: Integrating climate-related exposures into the human exposome and characterising its changes in response to climate change (RIA)
(Opening: 10 Feb. 2027; Deadline 13 Apr. 2027)
- HORIZON-HLTH-2027-01-ENVHLTH-MISSCLIMA-03: Tools and technologies to support health adaptation to climate change (PCP)
(Opening: 10 Feb.2027; Deadline 13 Apr. 2027)
Cluster 2
- HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-TRANSFO-01: Impact of access to nature-positive environments in promoting social cohesion and reducing inequalities in urban and peri-urban settings (RIA)
(Opening: 13 May 2027; Deadline 23 Sept. 2027)
Cluster 5
- HORIZON-CL5-2027-01-D1-09: Assessing the performance of policy instruments to inform climate change mitigation action (RIA)
(Opening 17 Nov. 2026; Deadline 04 Mar. 2027)
- HORIZON-CL5-2027-01-D1-13: Next generation scenarios for informing climate and sustainability transitions (RIA)
(Opening 17 Nov. 2026; Deadline 04 Mar. 2027)
Cluster 6
- HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-COMMUNITIES-01: Strengthening rural communities' resilience to shocks (RIA)
(Opening: 20 April 2027; Deadline: 23 September 2027)
NEB
- HORIZON-NEB-2027-01-PARTICIPATION-01: The transformative potential of co-governance in the green transition of neighbourhoods (IA)
(Opening: 05 May 2027; Deadline: 01 Dec. 2027)
- HORIZON-NEB-2027-01-PARTICIPATION-03: Novel combinations of knowledge and research methods to address social issues and advance a fair green transition of neighbourhoods (IA)
(Opening: 05 May 2027; Deadline: 01 Dec. 2027)
- HORIZON-NEB-2027-02-NEB-SOIL-01: Reducing soil sealing through sustainable urban and territorial design in the New European Bauhaus (IA)
(Openining: 05 May 2027; Deadline: 15 Sept.2027)
EU Missions
- HORIZON-MISS-2027-01-CLIMA-01: Demonstrating transformative solutions to increase cross-border climate resilience (IA)
(Opening: 09 Feb 2027; Deadline: 22 Sep 2027)
- HORIZON-MISS-2027-03-OCEAN-01: Increasing riparian and coastal areas resilience to climate change, including in waterfront cities and islands (IA)
(Opening: 09 Feb 2027; Deadline: 21 Sep 2027)
- HORIZON-MISS-2027-04-CIT-03: Inclusive and climate resilient multimodal passenger hubs enhancing modal shift towards sustainable transport and shared mobility (IA)
(Opening: 09 Feb 2027; Deadline: 07 Oct 2027)
- HORIZON-MISS-2027-07-CLIMA-CIT-NEB-01: Urban nature: supporting restoration of urban ecosystems, along urban transport networks and in the built environment (IA)
(Opening: 09 Feb 2027; Deadline: 22 Sep 2027)
