The Environment 2012 call is now open.

The Environment theme has been re-structured for 2012 into challenges with fewer but broader topics, with several funding more than one proposal. The use of a two-stage submission and evaluation procedure is being used extensively across the call, and for the first time, each topic specifies the upper funding limits for the requested EU contribution, with some proposals now as high as €9 million. There continues to be specific SME-targeted and SME-friendly topics across the challenges, with many topics having minimum levels of SME involvement.

All of call information, including the work programme and guide for applicants can be downloaded by clicking on the links below.

FP7-ENV-2012-two-stage - this is a two stage call, first stage deadline 20/10/2011
FP7-ENV-2012-one-stage - this is a single stage call, the deadline is 20/10/2011

FP7-2012-GC-MATERIALS - deadline is 1/12/2011

If you have any questions about the call, please email Catherine Holt or phone on 01302 322 633.

This theme aims to fund research that promotes sustainable management of the environment and its resources by advancing our knowledge between the climate, biosphere, ecosystems and human activities. The idea is to bring the different organisations together to understand these areas and develop new technologies, tools and services. This theme is split into the following five challenges:

	Coping with climate change
	Sustainable use and management of land and seas
	Improving resource efficiency
	Protecting citizens from environmental hazards
	Mobilising environmental knowledge for policy, industry and society

Each of the five challenges will focus on and use different research activities to achieve their objectives. The five challenges are detailed below.

A key challenge for the remaining period of FP7 is to develop a more effective interface between climate change knowledge, social and economic systems and the policy making process. The 2012 call will strongly contribute to this challenge by exploring the economic opportunities and the costs associated to the development of a low carbon, resource efficient and climate resilient society and economy. It will include key research building blocks for developing future climate services of paramount economic importance for industry and society as a whole. It will include:

• Mainstream developments of modelling tools and data-sets to support cost-effective mitigation and adaptation policies.
• Addressing the economic impact of mitigation policies on key economic sectors, together with the cost of adaptation.
• Exploring the potential of economic instruments to contribute to achieving the EU's long-term greenhouse gases reduction objectives.
• Responding to policy makers about the potential, limits, the costs and the risks associated with geo-engineering options.

Natural resources (terrestrial and marine) and ecosystem services constitute the natural capital that supports economies, societies and individual well-being. Good governance requires a quantification of the interactions and trade-offs among ecosystem services and understanding of how biodiversity underpins ecosystem functions and services across time, scales and sectors. Research will focus on:

• Developing innovative conceptual frameworks, method and coherent, shared protocols to provide consistent datasets and knowledge at different scales.
• Developing innovative approaches to evaluate biodiversity and ecosystem services and to develop public goods and sustainable economic activities from them.
• Contribute to maintaining and restoring the ecosystem's capacity to deliver products and services required by industry and society.
• Contribute to the set-up of multi-purpose 'green infrastructures' based upon landscape ecology.
• Assess and monitor the environmental status of marine waters.

Europe is facing the question of sustainable growth at a time of increasing energy prices, carbon constraints and greater competition for resources and markets. In this context, improving resource efficiency within and across all sectors of our society is not only recognised as the way to reduce our societal ecological footprint and to preserve our fragile environment and its ecosystems services, but also as an opportunity to create a new European economy with strong global competitive advantage by 2020. The overall objective of this challenge is to fasten the transition towards a culture of 'saving, re-use and recycling' to achieve smart and greener growth and build up more sustainable patterns for consumption and production. This call supports the major recent EU policy initiatives ranging from the Europe 2020 Strategy to the Resource-efficient Europe and the Innovation Union Flagship Initiatives, the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development as well as the EC Communication 'Tackling the challenges in commodity markets on raw materials'. Therefore, the focus is to enable and accelerate the development of:

• Innovative ideas and new market opportunities for eco-efficient technologies, processes and services contributing to decreasing material inputs, increasing resource productivity, minimising waste and recycling waste as a resource of secondary raw materials, which will offer new opportunities for SMEs.
• Adequate decision support tools (indicators and models) to enable policy makers and other stakeholders to choose the best mix of policy options, as well as to analyse and monitor the progress towards resource-efficiency.
• Standardisation requirements in the field of environment.

The core challenge for the remaining period of FP7 is to provide research support aiming at risk reduction from environmental hazards, including extreme and sudden large events as well as noxious elements present in the environment. This will be achieved by:

• Integrating science, innovative technologies and earth observation systems to better manage environmental hazards and reduce their adverse impacts on societies, economies and ecosystems.
• Helping society improve its resilience, reduce its vulnerability and be better prepared to respond to the threats of hazards by promoting an integrated and interdisciplinary approach, bringing natural and social sciences closer and by contributing to the international effort in this field.
• Focussing on a novel approach for the integration of environmental data on exposures to chemicals and other stressors with human health and well-being data.

Environment Catalogue of FP7 Projects: 2007-2009. This EC document is a compilation of the catalogues of projects 2007, 2008 and 2009. It presents research projects in the field of environment (including climate change) according to key research areas and provides an abstract and partner details for each project.

Research for the Environment 2007-2013 - A brochure that provides an overview of EU environmental research and highlights some of the more successful research projects funded by the Framework Programme.

EC staff working document - Integrated Climate Change Research Following the Release of The 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Most Recent Developments

Environment Scientific Officer list - 2009 call (most recent available)

European Technology Platforms (ETPs) are industry-led stakeholder groups which are used to help define research priorities in several technological areas, for example, water supply and sanitation. Please click here for full details.

Policy Information. If you need information on environmental policy for your proposal, DG Environment has 'Science for Environment Policy', a weekly service of news alerts on new scientific findings relevant to environmental policy issues. The news alerts are e-mailed to subscribers every week and are also available on the news alert website.