# Research and innovation for food waste prevention and reduction at household level through measurement, monitoring and new technologies
EUACC page: https://www.euacc.ai/calls/HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-04-two-stage
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## Public content

**topic id:** HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-04-two-stage
**call id:** HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-two-stage
**title:** Research and innovation for food waste prevention and reduction at household level through measurement, monitoring and new technologies
**programme:** Horizon Europe
**cluster:** CL6
**status:** closed
**deadline date:** 2026-02-18T00:00:00+00:00
**deadline model:** two-stage
**start date:** 2025-05-06T00:00:00+00:00
**url:** https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-04-two-stage
**description:** Expected Outcome:
Successful proposals will be in line with the European Green Deal priorities, the revised Waste Framework Directive and the EU’s climate targets for 2030 and 2050. Actions will also be in line with the overall challenges highlighted in the updated Food 2030 pathways for action report published in December 2023[1] on food waste and resource efficient food systems.
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
• successful implementation of the harmonisation of food waste measurement across Europe, supported by the development of new tools, and testing of existing ones, producing reliable and comparable data on food and waste at household level;
• alleviate the burden of reporting of household food waste data for Member States, by making use of technological innovations;
• understand the underlying causes of food waste at household level to help policymakers and stakeholders develop more efficient interventions;
• contribute to Members States’ reporting on their national food waste levels, in line with targets set by the Waste Framework Directive revision, with positive impacts on the reduction of food waste at household level, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pressure on natural resources.
 Scope:
In the EU, over 59 million tonnes of food waste (132 kg/inhabitant) are generated annually[2], with an associated market value estimated at 132 billion euros.
Eurostat roughly estimates that around 10% of food made available to EU consumers (at retail, food services and households) may be wasted. At the same time, in 2023, 9.5% of the EU population could not afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or vegetarian equivalent every second day[3]. In the EU, households generate more than half of the total food waste (54%).
Wasting food is not only an ethical and economic issue but it also depletes the environment of limited natural resources. Food waste has a huge environmental impact, accounting for about 16% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the EU food system. Therefore, by reducing food waste we can also support the fight against climate change.
Proposals should contribute to all of the following aspects:
• develop and validate new tools and methods, and/or further test existing methods (including those developed by previous EU-funded projects), to measure and estimate food waste at household level, including the food waste discarded as or with wastewaters and that would help distinguish between amounts of avoidable (edible) fraction of food waste and non-avoidable (inedible) food waste. The potential of AI and other technologies (including ones that are currently available) to simplify the collection of data and the reporting (by being integrated in advanced monitoring solutions) should be considered. Interoperable metadata standards accompanying indicators coming from these new tools and methods should be provided. The metadata standards for edible and inedible food waste indicators should allow data to be federated through the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) infrastructure;
• these new tools and methods should be applied across a large enough sample of diverse type of products and target groups (in terms of gender, age, socio-economic status, ethnic and/or cultural origins, etc.), allowing for a more precise assessment of food waste fractions (edible and inedible), across several years and in a significant number of Member States, and potentially in Associated Countries. This should generate robust measurement/estimation of food waste at household level for different target groups, at national level. The potential for extensive uptake of the proposed solution should be clearly highlighted;
• in addition to measurement, the direct and indirect drivers and root causes of food waste at household level should be thoroughly investigated. Particular attention should be paid to the identification of consumer behaviours (food consumption and disposal patterns) and other factors that influence food waste at household level, to assess the potential for a reduction strategy based on change in consumer behaviours.
 In addition, proposals could explore eco-friendly, low-input and efficient technological solutions to prevent edible food from being discarded in households, e.g. by preventing product degradation.
The required multi-actor approach must be implemented by conducting inter- and trans-disciplinary research and involving a wide diversity of food system actors, with special attention paid to consumers and civil society organisations.
Proposals are encouraged to build on past or ongoing EU-funded research (in particular, the EU-funded CHORIZO and WASTELESS projects, expected to be finalised in 2025) and on the work carried out by the European Consumer Food Waste Forum[4], and create synergies with relevant initiatives including the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste.
This topic should involve the effective contribution of SSH disciplines. Citizen science is encouraged at all stages of the research activities for this topic and should be integrated in the research methodology. Proposals should take into account and address inequalities (e.g. by addressing the risk of AI bias in terms of gender, disability, ethnicity, etc.).
[1] European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Bizzo, G., Fabbri, K., Gajdzinska, M. et al., Food 2030 – Pathways for action 2.0 – R&I policy as a driver for sustainable, healthy, climate resilient and inclusive food systems, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/365011
[2] Eurostat (2024), Food waste and food waste prevention – estimates, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Food_waste_and_food_waste_prevention_-_estimates
[3] Eurostat (2024), Inability to afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish (or vegetarian equivalent) every second day, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_mdes03/default/table?lang=en
[4] https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/projects-activities/european-consumer-food-waste-forum_en
**conditions:** General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
Applicants submitting a proposal under the blind evaluation pilot (see General Annex F) must not disclose their organisation names, acronyms, logos nor names of personnel in the proposal abstract and Part B of their first-stage application (see General Annex E).

described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

2. Eligible Countries
described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

3. Other Eligible Conditions
The following additional eligibility criteria apply: The proposals must apply the multi-actor approach. See definition of the multi-actor approach in the introduction to this work programme part.

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds
This topic is part of the blind evaluation pilot under which first stage proposals will be evaluated blindly.

are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes
are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.

5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement
described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].

described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Specific conditions
 described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]

Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA):
 Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard application form (HE RIA IA Stage 1) 
Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations 
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) 
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA and CSA Stage 1) 
Guidance
HE Programme Guide 
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Lump Sum MGA 
Call-specific instructions 
Detailed budget table (HE LS) 
Information on financial support to third parties (HE) 
Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?"

Additional documents:
 HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 9. Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 14. General Annexes
HE Programme Guide 
HE Framework Programme 2021/695 
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764 
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment 
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement 
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual 
Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions 
Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement
**action type:** HORIZON  Research and Innovation Actions
**budget:** 
  **budget Years Columns:** 
    - 2025
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        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 8000000
        **deadline Dates:** 
          - 2025-09-04
          - 2026-02-18
        **deadline Model:** two-stage
        **expected Grants:** 2
        **max Contribution:** 4000000
        **min Contribution:** 4000000
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-05-06
    **110453:** 
      -         **action:** HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-03-two-stage - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions
        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 12000000
        **deadline Dates:** 
          - 2025-09-04
          - 2026-02-18
        **deadline Model:** two-stage
        **expected Grants:** 2
        **max Contribution:** 6000000
        **min Contribution:** 6000000
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-05-06
    **110454:** 
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        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 18000000
        **deadline Dates:** 
          - 2025-09-04
          - 2026-02-18
        **deadline Model:** two-stage
        **expected Grants:** 3
        **max Contribution:** 6000000
        **min Contribution:** 6000000
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-05-06
    **110455:** 
      -         **action:** HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-05-two-stage - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON  Research and Innovation Actions
        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 12000000
        **deadline Dates:** 
          - 2025-09-04
          - 2026-02-18
        **deadline Model:** two-stage
        **expected Grants:** 2
        **max Contribution:** 6000000
        **min Contribution:** 6000000
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-05-06
    **110456:** 
      -         **action:** HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-01-two-stage - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON  Research and Innovation Actions
        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 12000000
        **deadline Dates:** 
          - 2025-09-04
          - 2026-02-18
        **deadline Model:** two-stage
        **expected Grants:** 2
        **max Contribution:** 6000000
        **min Contribution:** 6000000
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-05-06
    **110457:** 
      -         **action:** HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-02-two-stage - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions
        **budget Year Map:** 
          **2025:** 12000000
        **deadline Dates:** 
          - 2025-09-04
          - 2026-02-18
        **deadline Model:** two-stage
        **expected Grants:** 2
        **max Contribution:** 6000000
        **min Contribution:** 6000000
        **planned Opening Date:** 2025-05-06
**keywords:** HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-04-two-stage, HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-two-stage, Circular economy, Climate change mitigation, EU research policy /Research policies in the EU, Economic impact, Environment, Family studies, Social work, Food and beverages, Food waste, Greenhouse gases, Human waste, New business opportunities, Societal impact, Waste management
**last synced at:** 2026-11-09T17:23:17.403+00:00

## Review record

No independent verification record is available.

## Source metadata