Tips & Tricks for a successful HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01 proposal
Opening
20 April 2027
Deadline
Keywords
Digital agriculture
Green Transition
Water scarcity
Nutrient management
AI decision support
Precision farming
Multi-actor approach
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HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01: Increasing the resilience of agriculture in water and nutrient-scarce environments through digital innovations
Water stress and nutrient depletion are two of the most concrete threats facing European agriculture right now, and the Commission wants technology to close the gap between what farmers know and what they can actually do on the ground. This topic is asking for research that connects soil science, digital sensing, and AI into something farmers can genuinely use. The emphasis on real-world adoption is not a side note. It’s the whole point.
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Administrative facts: what do we know about the HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01 call?
Which call is it, and when is the opening and the deadline?
- Call name: Call 02, single stage (2027)
- Call identifier: HORIZON-CL6-2027-02
- Destination: Fair, healthy and environment-friendly food systems from primary production to consumption
- Topic: HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01
- Opening date: 20 April 2027
- Deadline: 23 September 2027 (17:00 Brussels time)
- Type of action: Research and Innovation Actions (RIA)
What about the budget and estimated size of the project?
- Total indicative budget: EUR 12.00 million
- Expected number of projects: 2
- Budget per project: around EUR 6.00 million
What are the key eligibility and evaluation conditions?
- Multi-actor approach: mandatory eligibility criterion
- TRL target: 4-5 by end of project
- Lump sum grant (Decision of 7 July 2021)
- Standard thresholds apply per General Annexes A, B, C, D
Scientific range: what does the Commission expect from the HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01 grant?
What outcomes are expected?
At the end of the project, farmers should have real access to affordable digital tools and advisory systems that help them cope with water and nutrient scarcity. Pollution of water, soil, and air should decrease, and dependency on mineral fertilizers should come down measurably. The Commission also expects projects to feed into Green Transition policy directly, not just produce knowledge that sits in a journal.
What is within scope?
- Soil-plant-water-air-nutrient interaction research, covering nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics under climate change conditions
- Monitoring devices and sensor systems for soil conditions, water quality and nutrient availability, designed for affordable deployment and easy integration into farm management information systems (FMIS) or decision support systems (DSS)
- AI-enabled DSS for water and nutrient use management, adapted to different pedoclimatic zones and local farm conditions
- Creation and public release of high-quality AI training datasets, with standardised protocols, transparent metadata and clear legal status
- Analysis of barriers to adoption, including trust issues, accessibility for users with disabilities, low rural connectivity and knowledge gaps
Purely theoretical modeling with no pathway to farm-level deployment is not what the commission is after here.
What are the specifically proposed research directions?
- Mapping complex plant-soil-water-nutrient interactions across a representative set of European pedoclimatic regions, as a foundation for the monitoring and AI work
- Building monitoring systems that work under real farm conditions, including low-connectivity rural environments (this one is often underestimated in proposals)
- Developing and testing AI-powered DSS that assess the effects of land management decisions on water use, nutrient cycles and biodiversity
- Structuring and publicly releasing AI training datasets that other projects can build on
- Identifying what actually prevents farmers from using these tools, beyond just cost, and proposing ways to close those gaps
Scientific strategy: how can you enhance your chances of being funded through HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01?
What scientific choices matter most?
- Cover multiple pedoclimatic regions: A single-country, single-climate proposal will not convince evaluators. You need at least three or four genuinely distinct agro-environmental contexts.
- Build the monitoring system with farmers, not for them: The multi-actor approach is mandatory. If your monitoring devices assume good connectivity and high digital literacy, the approach will read as a lab exercise. Design for the real constraints.
- Go beyond nitrogen: Phosphorus interactions with soil and water are also in scope, and proposals that treat both seriously tend to read as more rigorous.
- The AI training datasets need a publication plan: Open access, metadata, standards, and legal clarity: evaluators will check whether you’ve actually thought this through.
- Address adoption barriers as a research task: Not a work package title. A real research question with methodology and outputs.
Consortium and proposal-writing plan: what works best with this type of call?
- Somewhere between eight and twelve partners is the right range, maybe slightly more if the pedoclimatic coverage requires it.
- You need agronomists, soil scientists, and digital/AI specialists. That’s a given. What proposals miss is the behavioral science or social science component to address the adoption barrier work. The call text says an SSH contribution is expected.
- Farmers and advisory services must be genuinely involved, not listed as end-users who validate in month 30. “Multi-actor” means co-design from the start.
- Include an innovative SME working on precision agriculture tools or sensor technology. If you can, make them a developer in the monitoring system work, not just a dissemination partner. Evaluators notice.
- On writing: frame the problem as a deployment failure, not a knowledge gap. The Commission already knows there is science on nutrient cycling. They want to know why farmers aren’t using it and what your project will change about that.
How would microfluidics contribute to this topic?
Conventional soil and water monitoring tools are often bulky, expensive, and slow. Labs send samples away and wait days. That doesn’t help a farmer deciding whether to irrigate this morning. Microfluidic sensors can change that equation, and your consortium should consider it seriously.
- Say you want to track nitrate leaching in real time from a specific field zone across a full season. A miniaturized electrochemical sensor on a microfluidic chip can do that continuously at a cost that scales. Same device, different analyte calibration, and you’re also measuring phosphate. That’s the kind of multi-parameter, field-deployable monitoring the Commission is describing.
- Lab-on-chip platforms for soil nutrient analysis can be integrated into FMIS as edge-computing nodes, feeding AI-DSS with real-time data rather than periodic lab results. The difference in decision quality is not subtle.
- Microfluidic water quality sensors already exist for nitrate and phosphorus at detection limits compatible with agricultural runoff monitoring. Your proposal can build directly on that at TRL 4-5, which is exactly what this call asks for.
- Accessibility matters here too. Microfluidic devices can be designed for low-skill operation, minimal reagents, and battery power. That matters in low-connectivity rural areas the work program specifically flags.
- And there’s the AI training data angle. Consistent, high-frequency, field-distributed sensor data from microfluidic arrays gives you the volume and the quality that AI models actually need. That’s harder to get from conventional soil labs.
For a consortium building a digitally enabled agricultural resilience tool, microfluidic sensing isn’t an add-on. It’s what makes the monitoring layer actually field-ready. The Microfluidics Innovation Center brings experience in developing miniaturized analytical systems for environmental applications, which fits directly into the sensor development and field validation work this topic requires.
The MIC already brings its expertise in microfluidics to Horizon Europe:
H2020-NMBP-TR-IND-2020
Microfluidic platform to study the interaction of cancer cells with lymphatic tissue
H2020-LC-GD-2020-3
Toxicology assessment of pharmaceutical products on a placenta-on-chip model
FAQ – HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01
What is the main objective of HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01?
The topic calls for Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) to make digital tools and advisory systems available and affordable to farmers to address water and nutrient scarcity. The Commission does not want “ivory tower” models. It is looking for tools that can be used on the farm to inform the Green transition policy.
Who is eligible to apply?
Any legal entity in an eligible Horizon Europe country. The key limiting factor is the requirement to work in a multi-actor approach: farmers, advisors, and end-users should co-design, not test. The usual rules apply per General Annexes A, B, C, and D.
What TRL is expected by the end of the project?
By the end of the project, activities should be at TRL 4-5. This means validation in relevant environments, not just laboratory settings. Field demonstrations with real farmers in real pedoclimatic conditions are expected. Check the Funding and Tenders Portal for more information.
Is the multi-actor approach really mandatory?
Yes. It’s a mandatory eligibility criterion. Projects that do not implement the multi-actor approach are considered ineligible. Farmers, agricultural advisors and other stakeholders must be involved in the project, including in the design and validation of the digital tools and DSS.
How many projects will be funded, and what is the budget per project?
The work program anticipates that 2 projects will be funded from this topic, each for around EUR 6.00 million. The indicative budget is EUR 12.00 million. The competition is likely to be high with the number of grants.
What role should AI play in the proposal?
This topic is all about AI Proposals will need to build and test AI-based decision support tools (DSS) for water and nutrient use, tailored to various pedoclimatic regions. Not only tools, but also quality AI training data (with standardized protocols, metadata, and legal framework) to be publicly released.
What does ‘lump sum grant’ mean in practice?
Under the lump-sum modality (Decision of 7 July 2021), the grant is fixed. Outputs are reported, not costs. This is an easier way to report, but requires a very detailed workplan design up front, as the budget available to work packages is fixed at the time of signing.
How should the consortium address farmer adoption barriers?
The work plan explicitly calls for considering adoption barriers, including trust, digital skills, connectivity in rural areas, and accessibility for people with disabilities. This must be considered as a research task (with methods and deliverables) rather than an extension service. The call wants the social sciences to be engaged.
Can microfluidic technology be integrated into the monitoring work?
Yes, and it can be a strong differentiator. Microfluidic platforms with miniaturized electrochemical sensors enable the real-time monitoring of nitrate, phosphate and other parameters for agricultural use at a cost. They feed FMIS and provide the data at the frequency required for AI-DSS modeling. The Microfluidics Innovation Center has experience in this field.
What is the deadline, and how early should we start preparing?
The call closes on 23 September 2027 at 17:00 (Brussels time), and opens on 20 April 2027. These are complex proposals and need plenty of advance planning. Early engagement with field partners and farmer organizations: the multi-actor approach demands co-design evidence from the start, not an “on paper” sign-off.