TYPE OF ACTION: (RIA) Research and Innovation action
TOTAL INDICATIVE AMOUNT ALLOCATED TO THIS CALL: EUR 36 million
OPENING DATE: 20.03.2026
DEADLINE:15.05.2026 (13:00h Central European Time (CET)
STATUS: Open
Thematic Area 1-Water management in the Nexus
Topic 2.1.1-2026 (RIA) Leveraging Ecosystem Functions and Enhancing Water Allocation for the Protection and Restoration of Non-Perennial Watercourses in the Mediterranean
Enhancing the protection, ecological functionality, and climate resilience of non-perennial watercourses is essential for safeguarding biodiversity, ecosystem services, and water security in the Mediterranean. This aligns with the Water Framework Directive, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, and the recently adopted European Water Resilience Strategy and contributes to PRIMA Operational Objectives on Land and Water Sustainability and Water Governance Systems.
Projects will also support the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals—particularly SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land).
The action will support inclusive and ecosystem-based approaches to the management and restoration of ephemeral, seasonal, and intermittent rivers, streams, and wadis, ensuring that environmental flows and ecosystem needs are recognised in water planning and allocation. Projects are expected to strengthen resilience to hydroclimatic variability by maintaining or restoring key ecological processes.
Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:
Non-perennial watercourses — including ephemeral, seasonal, and intermittent rivers and streams — are integral to the hydrological and ecological systems of the Mediterranean34.35 However, they are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, groundwater over-extraction, land-use change, and agricultural intensification36, while their ecological roles remain insufficiently recognised in water governance37. Strengthening their protection and restoration is therefore critical for climate resilience, sustainable agriculture, and biodiversity conservation in the region. By improving the understanding of the ecosystem services provided by these systems and informing water allocation frameworks that acknowledge environmental flows, projects responding to this topic will support inclusive, adaptive, and sustainable water governance under climate stress. Proposals should generate robust evidence and co-develop nature-based solutions (NbS) that maintain or restore the ecological functionality of non-perennial watercourses.
Proposed activities should cover at least one of the following aspects:
Projects should monitor biodiversity and ecosystem health to assess the effectiveness of interventions, with particular attention to maintaining ecological integrity under changing flow regimes.
While interventions may be tested at pilot scale, proposals are expected to lay the groundwork for scaling up tools, frameworks, and methodologies across different Mediterranean contexts, thereby enhancing both scientific knowledge and practical implementation.
Projects should ensure meaningful co-creation with local communities, water managers, and policymakers, so that solutions are socially relevant and policy-ready. Stakeholder engagement should therefore be embedded within solution-oriented activities, not treated as a stand-alone objective.
Proposals should adopt a Multi-Actor Approach (MAA), that ensures meaningful co-creation with local communities, end users, water managers, policymakers, SMEs, technology providers, researchers, and competent authorities. Stakeholder engagement should be embedded throughout the entire project lifecycle—including the identification of needs, the co-design of solutions, testing and validation under real operational conditions, interpretation of results, and formulation of policy-relevant recommendations—so that the solutions developed are socially relevant, context-appropriate, and policy-ready. Living Labs39 are encouraged ensuring their relevance to local socio-ecological contexts, and their feasibility under real operational conditions.
Knowledge, innovations, and tools developed under this topic are expected to be linked with the AQUAGRI-KNOW thematic network and, where relevant, contribute to the future Horizon Europe topic HORIZON-CL6-2026-03-GOVERNANCE-09: Increasing knowledge flows to practice within AKIS via EU thematic knowledge hubs, specifically under the thematic knowledge hub on Sustainable Water Management under Climate Change.
Thematic Area 2-Farming systems in the Nexus
Topic 2.2.1-2026 (RIA) Novel remote and non-invasive ICT monitoring and control systems against disease and pest infestation
Enhancing the early detection, monitoring, and sustainable management of crop pests and diseases is essential for safeguarding agricultural productivity, ecosystem health, and food security in the Mediterranean Area.
This aligns with the European Green Deal, the Vision for agriculture and food, the EU Plant Health Law , the Digital Europe Strategy, and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, while supporting the objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy, the EU Organic Action Plan, and the EU Global Food Security strategy.
In line with PRIMA Operational Objective 5: Pests and Pathogens in Farming, successful proposals will advance the development, testing, and adoption of innovative, digital, and non-invasive systems for the early detection, monitoring, and management of pests and crop diseases. These systems should support the transition to sustainable, climate-resilient, and digitally enabled farming practices in Mediterranean agro-ecological contexts.
Projects are expected to strengthen resilience to climate-driven pest pressures by improving surveillance capacity, reducing dependency on broad-spectrum chemical treatments, and enabling more precise, adaptive, and sustainable crop protection strategies.
Funded projects are expected to deliver results that contribute to all of the following outcomes:
Pest and disease outbreaks, intensified by climate change, global trade, and biodiversity loss, pose increasing risks to agricultural productivity and food security in the Mediterranean, particularly for smallholder and open-field farming systems. FAO estimates that 20–40% of global crop production is lost to pests, underscoring the need for early detection and timely intervention.
Despite progress in digital agriculture, adoption in rural and resource-constrained areas remains limited due to infrastructure gaps, cost barriers, and the lack of context-adapted, user-friendly tools. This often results in delayed action and continued reliance on broad-spectrum pesticides, with environmental and socio-economic consequences. Emerging technologies — including AI-assisted diagnostics, Earth Observation systems, proximal and remote pest sensing, and non-invasive field monitoring — offer strong potential to improve Integrated Pest Management (IPM) through earlier detection, real-time surveillance, and targeted response. However, solutions must be affordable, scalable, interoperable, and tailored to Mediterranean farming conditions, particularly those of smallholders.
This topic aims to co-develop and demonstrate cost-effective, ICT-enabled systems for pest and disease monitoring and management that reduce pesticide use, lower environmental impacts, and support the transition toward sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture in the Mediterranean.
Projects are expected to address at least two of the following activities (consortia may cover more, depending on scope and resources):
If applicants target regulated pests in the EU, such as Xylella fastidiosa or Fall Armyworm (FAW), they are expected to ensure full compliance with the applicable EU and national rules and procedures, including those set out in the EU Plant Health Law (Regulation (EU) 2016/2031) and relevant implementing acts. In such cases, the participation or formal involvement of the relevant National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs) is required to ensure alignment with official monitoring, control, and eradication measures.
Proposals should adopt a Multi-Actor Approach (MAA) to ensure significant involvement of the national plant protection organisation (NPPOs) national plant protection organisation (NPPOs) together with the farming sector, in decision-making and implementation processes. Primary target groups include arable and horticultural farmers, farmer cooperatives, SMEs and technology providers in digital agriculture, advisory services, national plant protection organisations, and public authorities. These groups are expected to directly benefit from the project activities and should be actively engaged in co-design, training, demonstration, and knowledge transfer.
PRIMA strongly encourage collaboration and complementarity with other Horizon Europe relevant projects (e.g. Cerberus, Stella, Forsaid, Purpest, WheatWatcher, EUFAWREADY, Bexyl, SenseApeST, EmergeNOW). Proposals should consider joint dissemination activities, with particular emphasis on peer-reviewed publications and other high-quality scientific outputs, as well as concise summaries that distil research insights and practical recommendations to inform policy development and support evidence-based decision-making across relevant governance levels.
Topic 2.3.1-2026 (RIA) Empowering Mediterranean Food Value Chains through Context-Aware Digital Traceability
Strengthening the sustainability, transparency, and competitiveness of Mediterranean agri-food value chains is essential to support rural livelihoods, safeguard cultural heritage, and improve market access for smallholders and traditional producers. This aligns with the European Green Deal, the Vision for agriculture and food, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), European Union’s Digital Decade strategy. EU-AU Innovation Agenda.
In line with PRIMA Operational Objective 8 – New Agri-Food Business Models, successful proposals will support the development and adoption of context-aware, affordable, interoperable, and non-destructive digital traceability and decision-support systems tailored to the needs of Mediterranean food value chains These systems should enable producers to demonstrate authenticity and sustainability, meet certification or regulatory requirements, access premium markets, and strengthen consumer trust.
Projects are expected to empower smallholders, cooperatives, SMEs, and traditional food systems by reducing technical, financial, and organisational barriers to traceability and data integration, thereby improving their ability to participate in regional and international markets.
Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:
Traditional Mediterranean agri-food value chains, especially those rooted in heritage and small-scale production systems, face persistent structural barriers to accessing premium and regulated markets due to the high cost and complexity of existing traceability and certification systems (CIHEAM, 2024)44. Although traceability can increase consumer trust and value retention, current digital solutions are rarely adapted to smallholder contexts, reinforcing fragmentation and reducing competitiveness (Skalkos et al., 2021).
This action aims to co-design, pilot, and validate modular, affordable, non-destructive, and context-adapted digital traceability systems for Mediterranean agri-food value chains. The scope includes value chains in both PRIMA Participating States and EU Member States, including those involving heritage and culturally significant products that are not covered by PDO/PGI46 schemes.
Projects should address barriers such as fragmented production structures, low digital readiness, limited certification capacity, and high compliance costs. Solutions must be co-developed with producers, cooperatives, SMEs, and local authorities, ensuring usability, cost-effectiveness, and long-term uptake.
Projects are expected to address at least two of the following activities (consortia may cover more, depending on scope and resources):
Solutions developed under this topic should be compatible with the emerging Common European Agricultural Data Space (CEADS) and adopt data governance models that support data sovereignty, interoperability, and fair value-sharing among producers and value chain actors. The use of open standards and open-source components is strongly encouraged to avoid vendor lock-in. or ensuring continuity, scalability, and knowledge capitalisation.
Proposals should adopt a Multi-Actor Approach (MAA) ensuring inclusive participation of farmers, cooperatives, SMEs, consumer organisations, and local authorities throughout the project lifecycle, from design to deployment. Multi-actor, trans-Mediterranean cooperation is required, with meaningful involvement of producers, value-chain organisations, consumer groups, and regional authorities.
Solutions should build on and interoperate with tools developed by previous PRIMA-funded48 and Horizon Europe projects.
Consortia are also encouraged to build strategic collaborations with relevant research infrastructures such as METROFOOD-RI which provide advanced capabilities in traceability analysis, food authenticity testing, and quality assurance. Such collaborations can strengthen technical capacity, harmonise digital traceability tools, and foster cross-project learning across the Mediterranean region. Primary Target Groups are smallholder farmers, rural and mountain cooperatives, women- and youth-led enterprises, SMEs in food processing, local authorities, and consumer organisations. These groups are expected to directly benefit from project results and should be central to demonstration and capacity-building activities.
For questions related to this call for proposals, please contact Marco Orlando marco.orlando@prima-med.org or Eda Demir at eda.demir@prima-med.org.