Funding opportunities - Open call

The European Commission has adopted the European Research Council (ERC) Work Programme 2027, setting out the funding opportunities, grant budgets, competition timetable and application rules for the coming year.

Established by the ERC Scientific Council and formally adopted by the Commission, the Work Programme introduces several changes to the ERC's grant schemes and application procedures, which were announced earlier this year in order to give researchers time to prepare.

Key changes include expanded eligibility periods for Starting and Consolidator Grants, as well as limits on the number of proposals researchers can submit within a single work programme. These changes are intended to better reflect increasingly diverse research careers and to help ensure a fair and efficient evaluation process.

The first call under the new Work Programme will be the ERC Starting Grant 2027 call, opening on 22 July 2026. This will be followed by competitions for the Consolidator Grant, Synergy Grant, Advanced Grant and ERC Plus Grant.

The Carit Foundation, in line with the 2026 Forecast Programmatic Document and the 2024-2026 Multi-year Activity Program, has decided to publish this call for proposals in order to collect all requests for contributions related to the sectors of intervention described in paragraph 1.1 of this call, with the exception of those for which a specific call will be issued during the year, as listed below:

• Scientific and technological research
• Art, cultural activities, and heritage
• Public health, preventive and rehabilitative medicine
• Education, instruction, and training, including the purchase of
  editorial products for schools
• Volunteering, philanthropy, and charity
• Local development

The publication of the “General Contribution Requests” call is aimed at supporting third-party projects or initiatives in the selected fields intended to produce socially relevant results within a specified time frame as outlined in Art. 2, Title II, paragraph 5, of the Regulations for institutional activities.

Eligible applicants:

As established by the Foundation’s Statute, and in accordance with articles 9 and 10 of the institutional activity regulations, the eligible applicants are:
- Third Sector organizations (ETS)
- Private non-profit organizations
- Public entities
- Civilly recognized religious entities
which pursue objectives of social benefit and the promotion of the economic development of the territory, and which operate in the Foundation’s sectors of intervention, organized and formally established by a registered act for at least three years from the publication date of this call. For social enterprises established in any of the forms covered by Book V of the Civil Code, the Foundation reserves the right to determine, in relation to the various funding opportunities, any requirements that the statute must meet to be considered eligible, such as, for example, the total absence of direct or indirect subjective profit.

This cluster aims to strengthen European democratic values, including rule of law and fundamental rights, safeguarding our cultural heritage, and promoting socio-economic transformations that contribute to inclusion and growth.

The expected impacts of this cluster are contained in the "Horizon Europe strategic plan".

Areas of intervention:
democracy
cultural heritage
social and economic transformations
Policy information
Research area: Social Sciences and Humanities

Apply for funding
All funding information and details on how to apply are on the Funding and Tenders portal

Work programme
Funding opportunities under Horizon Europe are set out in multiannual work programmes, which cover the large majority of support available.

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

EU institutions, Member States and decision-makers worldwide, relevant international organisations, civil society organisations, and other societal actors develop a better shared understanding of the systemic challenges and the underlying drivers and motivations that hinder the sustainable management of global commons.
EU institutions, Member States and decision-makers worldwide, relevant international organisations, as well as academies of science, higher education institutions and research-performing organisations are better equipped with the tools needed to improve the science-policy interface in the area of foreign and security policies in general, and multilateral / national science advisory bodies in the field of foreign policy in particular, recognising the need to engage citizens in a more participatory and inclusive approach to research and policy-making.
Rules-based multilateralism is strengthened by the development of concepts, methods, processes, and information relevant for decision-making that foster the sustainable governance of global commons within the evolving geopolitical context, thereby also informing the EU’s science diplomacy actions.

Scope:

Global commons—resources shared by all humanity—are increasingly threatened by overuse and degradation by state and non-state actors. Spaces beyond national jurisdiction, in particular, require collective management to ensure sustainability for future generations. Failing to do so will deepen the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, and may lead to cascading and compounding effects as well as to exceeding irreversible tipping points and planetary boundaries. Evolving geopolitical tensions, weakened multilateral cooperation, technological advances, and rising commercial interests from non-state actors have intensified pressures on global commons. Declining trust in science further complicates efforts to reach agreement on their fair and sustainable governance, risking instability and conflict.

Given the current geopolitical background, it is necessary to assess the effectiveness of existing legal instruments and to support the implementation of new instruments through research. Additionally, there is a need to further enhance the impact of existing and emerging science-policy fora[1] and their connections to relevant conventions and agreements. To this end, proposals should provide a comprehensive mapping of actors’ motivations and values at societal, corporate and state levels, covering different regions and country coalitions worldwide[2].

Research is also needed into how the current governance of global commons affects intergenerational justice and human rights, including gender equality and the impact on different social groups, and how civil society can be enabled to access information, provide knowledge (including Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities knowledge), and participate in the governance of global commons. This may include undertaking research aimed at enhancing citizen engagement and trust in governance processes and efforts, exploring motivations and drivers underlying stakeholder positions in multilateral fora. Proposals are also encouraged to investigate the rights of appeal and redress in policies related to global commons, including but not limited to the “rights of nature”.

The central question is what sustainable governance of global commons should look like in a multipolar world with competing hegemonic powers that do not necessarily share a common understanding of the value of cooperation, multilateralism, or even international law. Therefore, the overall objective of this call is to develop multi- and interdisciplinary concepts and solutions for governing the global commons sustainably, including through the use of science diplomacy as a form of soft power and by learning from best practices in different types of commons, such as the Ocean, Antarctica and Outer Space.

Proposals are encouraged to analyse how imbalances in the governance of global commons may contribute to geopolitical tensions, including the onset of direct conflicts or proxy wars, as well as the erosion or violation of human rights. They are also encouraged to consider the broader implications of such governance gaps for international stability and the rules-based global order.

Proposals are expected to address one of the following thematic areas:

Area A: Climate governance. Projects should consider past and present global climate governance efforts, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, and develop insights into strengthening climate governance in light of the current geopolitical context. Particular attention should be given to analysing the factors underlying divergent positions on climate change among stakeholders and possible solutions, as well as to strengthening the role of science-policy interfaces such as the IPCC and other relevant science-based mechanisms, for example, through enhanced citizen engagement to increase trust. Proposals should inform and develop recommendations for EU and global science diplomacy action.

Area B: Biodiversity governance. Projects should consider past and present global biodiversity governance efforts, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, related Conferences of the Parties and their subsidiary bodies, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Projects are encouraged to examine, in particular, the integration of rights of appeal and redress in environmental decision-making processes, including legal mechanisms to address grievances and ensure accountability, especially in the context of the “rights of nature” and other innovative approaches to environmental justice. Considering the current geopolitical environment, projects should develop options to strengthen science-policy interfaces such as the IPBES, IPR and other relevant science-based mechanisms, including the Global Knowledge Support Service for Biodiversity and Subregional Technical and Scientific Cooperation Support Centres, with the aim of informing and developing recommendations for EU and global science diplomacy action. This should include a focus on improving access to environmental information for citizens and civil society organisations to empower action on biodiversity, as well as integrating gender equality and human rights considerations into biodiversity policy frameworks, in line with the work of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HCHR) on developing human rights norms for biodiversity protection.

Area C: Governance of spaces beyond national jurisdiction. Projects should deliver a cross-cutting assessment of how different types of spaces beyond national jurisdiction have been governed to date, notably the ocean, polar regions, outer space including the Moon, Low Earth Orbit, the use of the radio spectrum, and dark and quiet skies. This may include a comparative review of legal frameworks (e.g. Antarctic Treaty, UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, High Seas Treaty, Outer Space Treaty, etc.). Projects should take a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to studying current and emerging pressures on these spaces, with particular emphasis on the role of non-state actors, and develop approaches to sustainable governance of these spaces despite geopolitical fragmentation, thereby informing EU science diplomacy action. Examples include, but are not limited to, the protection of deep-sea ecosystems, the management of space debris, or the preservation of a dark and quiet sky.

Research activities should actively involve experts with practical experience in the relevant processes and bodies, including policymakers, diplomats, the business sector, academia, and civil society, including indigenous rights holders. Engagement with international partners is strongly encouraged. Involvement of the EU’s outermost regions is particularly welcome for area C. Research should have a multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary systemic perspective, bringing together expertise from natural sciences and engineering as well as social sciences and humanities (including history, law, ethics, and other disciplines). The selected projects should cooperate with each other to foster synergies and links between the different governance frameworks. Proposals are encouraged to identify other relevant EU-funded projects and to explore potential collaboration opportunities with them.