General
Building and scaling urban food innovation ecosystems — hubs, incubators, accelerators, mentorship programs — that connect fragmented ecosystems across Member States. Deployment, not research.
- An urban food ecosystem partner — a food hub, urban farming network, or food innovation center that can credibly lead the food-focused part of the proposal.
- A food entrepreneur partner or network.
- Also needed: an urban planning partner (University of Tartu, or a municipal planning department
Assessment & Proposal
The Verdict: Strong Fit
This is an Innovation Action (IA)
Type: Innovation Action (IA), lump sum grant
Budget: ~€6M per project, 2 projects funded
Deadline: 23 September 2027
Opening: 20 April 2027
TRL required: TRL 6–8 by project end
IAs fund deployment and scaling, not research. An IA is designed for solutions that already exist and need to be demonstrated at scale. Your platform is operational at TRL 8 — which is exactly the profile IA calls are looking for.
This is a much better structural fit for gethelp.network than COMMUNITIES-01.
The Critical Requirement: Multi-Actor Approach (Again)
This call requires:
Local and regional authorities (we have municipal associations)
Urban planners — may need to add!
SMEs and start-ups (gethelp.network is the SME)
Food entrepreneurs (farmers' unions, but need urban food focus)
Research and innovation actors (universities)
Educational institutions (universities)
Civil society organisations — may need to add!
Citizens — need demonstrated involvement
Also required: SSH (Social Sciences and Humanities) contribution, and gender dimension integration.
What the Call Actually Wants
Accelerate growth of innovation-led local urban food start-ups — through business development services, access to capital, boosted innovation capacities
Empower urban food entrepreneurs — through inclusive governance models, mentoring, collaboration, co-creation
Establish interconnected European-wide urban food innovation ecosystems — scaled and deployed widely
The scope asks proposals to:
Develop and pilot decentralised local capacities and ecosystems — food innovation incubators, accelerators, hubs
Integrate mentorship programs to stimulate entrepreneurship
Leverage pilots to accelerate transformation and scalability — market uptake, replication
Connect with existing R&I initiatives — partnerships, missions, platforms
Translation: This call requires building (or scaling) an ecosystem that helps urban food entrepreneurs succeed. It's not about food production directly — it's about the infrastructure and support system for urban food innovation.
Where gethelp.network Fits
The platform can serve as the digital backbone of the urban food innovation ecosystem the call wants to build:
| Scope requirement | Platform's role |
|---|---|
| Decentralised local capacities — food hubs, incubators | The platform is the digital layer that connects these physical hubs. A local food hub can list its products, services, and needs on gethelp.network — becoming visible to the whole community. |
| Access to capital and investment | The platform's advertising model gives food entrepreneurs a low-cost way to reach customers — a form of market access that functions as capital-efficient growth. |
| Mentorship and collaboration | The "requests" content type can be used for mentorship matching — a food entrepreneur asks for help; an experienced one offers it. |
| Connecting fragmented ecosystems | This is the core function. The platform aggregates fragmented local information into one database. The call wants cross-Member-State connection — the platform already operates in multiple countries. |
| Market uptake and scaling | Your platform is already operational. Scaling it to more food entrepreneurs is a deployment activity, not a research activity — perfect for IA. |
| Measuring impact by indicators | Your platform generates data. Resilience indicators, food system metrics, entrepreneur activity — all measurable through your data layer. |
COMMUNITIES-02 asks to deploy an ecosystem for urban food innovation. The platform IS the ecosystem infrastructure. This is a deployment call, and you have the deployment asset.
The Reframing Challenge
This call is about food systems. The platform is not a food system.
The call wants proposals that empower urban food entrepreneurs specifically — food start-ups, food hubs, food innovation ecosystems. The platform is a general-purpose local discovery platform that happens to include food listings.
There are two ways to handle this:
Option A — Position food as one vertical of your platform. The proposal focuses on the food vertical specifically: how the platform enables urban food entrepreneurs to reach customers, find suppliers, source locally, and build visibility. Other content types (events, services, general products) exist but the proposal focuses on food.
Option B — Partner with a food-focused organization who leads. A food hub, urban farming network, or food innovation center leads the proposal, and gethelp.network is the digital infrastructure partner. This is likely more credible to evaluators. - Preferred!
Consortium Requirement
An urban food hub or food innovation center — the lead partner or co-lead. Should be an established organization in the urban food space.
An urban planning partner — the call explicitly names urban planners. A university with an urban planning department, or a municipal planning office.
A civil society organization — the call explicitly names them. A food-focused NGO, community food network, or similar.
A mentorship/entrepreneurship program — an incubator, accelerator, or business development organization that already runs entrepreneurship programs.
Possible additions:
EIT Food — the EU's food innovation community. They run accelerators and incubators across Europe. Adding EIT Food as a partner would be a strong signal.
A Nordic/Baltic food hub — e.g., an Estonian or Finnish food innovation center
A university with an urban food systems program — e.g., TalTech's food tech department, or a partner from the consortium
An urban planning partner — University of Tartu or similar
We already have:
Municipal associations (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
Farmers' unions (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
Universities (TalTech, TTK, Estonian University of Life Sciences)
Market research firms (Turu-Uuringute, FAKTU LOGS, UAB Rinkos)
gethelp.network
The municipal associations and farmers' unions are directly relevant. You need to add urban food + urban planning + civil society.
What the Proposal Would Need to Demonstrate
For an IA call, the proposal needs to answer:
What is the ecosystem we are building? Not just "a platform" — a functioning ecosystem of food entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and support services, connected through the platform.
How does it scale? IAs are about deployment and replication. Show how the model works in one city and can be replicated across the EU.
What is the market uptake path? How do food entrepreneurs actually adopt this? What is the business model for the ecosystem?
How do you measure impact? Which indicators — food entrepreneurs supported, market access improved, supply chain shortened, resilience increased?
What is the multi-actor co-creation? How are food entrepreneurs, urban planners, municipalities, and citizens actually involved in designing and running the ecosystem?
The challenge: the platform is live, but the urban food ecosystem is not yet built on it. The proposal would be about building that ecosystem using your platform as the infrastructure. This is legitimate for an IA — it's about deploying a solution — but it requires a credible plan for how the ecosystem comes into being.
The Assessment
Strengths:
IA type is a much better fit for the TRL 8 platform than RIA
The platform is the exact kind of "digital infrastructure" the call is asking for
The multi-actor structure already largely exists in our consortium
€6M per project, 2 projects funded — meaningful scale
The "connecting fragmented ecosystems" theme is literally the platform's function
11 months to prepare
Weaknesses:
Food is not your core vertical — you'll need a credible food-focused lead partner
"Urban" is specific — your current focus is broader than urban food
2 projects funded only, slightly more competitive
The evaluation will ask "is this really a food system proposal, or a technology platform with a food angle?"
You need to add 3–4 partners (urban food hub, urban planning, civil society, mentorship program)
Realistic odds: If we get the right food-focused lead partner and add the missing partner types, 20–25%.
Comparison: COMMUNITIES-01 vs COMMUNITIES-02
| Dimension | COMMUNITIES-01 (Rural Resilience) | COMMUNITIES-02 (Urban Food) |
|---|---|---|
| Type | RIA — research | IA — innovation/deployment |
| Budget/project | €5M | €6M |
| Projects funded | 3 | 2 |
| Fit with your TRL | Above expected (challenge) | Exactly right (advantage) |
| Lead partner | University | Food ecosystem organization |
| Your role | Research instrument | Digital infrastructure |
| Reframing needed | Platform as research tool | Platform as ecosystem backbone |
| Consortium gaps | Civil protection, SSH, rural community | Urban food hub, urban planning, civil society |
Both are strong candidates. COMMUNITIES-02 may be the better structural fit because the platform is exactly at the TRL level the IA expects.
Call text
Empowering local urban food systems entrepreneurship and innovation
HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-COMMUNITIES-02
General information
Programme
Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
Call
Call 02 - single stage (2027) (HORIZON-CL6-2027-02)
Type of action
HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions
Type of MGA
HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]
Forthcoming
Deadline model
Single-stage
Planned opening date
20 April 2027
Deadline date
23 September 2027 17:00:00 Brussels time
Topic description
Expected Outcome:
Projects results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- accelerated growth and success of innovation-led local urban food start-ups, through strengthened business development services, access to capital and investment, and boosted innovation capacities;
- empowered urban food entrepreneurs through inclusive, multi-actor governance models that foster mentoring, collaboration, and co-creation among local actors;
- established and interconnected European-wide competitive urban food systems innovation ecosystems, scaled and deployed widely, that increase the resilience, inclusiveness, and well-being of urban communities through socially innovative and climate smart approaches.
Scope:
The successful proposals should drive transformative and inclusive innovation in local urban food systems, boosting decentralised competitiveness and creating positive social and environmental spillovers that enhance well-being of urban communities. It will contribute to the European Green Deal priorities and the EU’s climate ambition for 2030 and 2050, while aligning with the priorities of the Food 2030 R&I initiative: nutrition for sustainable healthy diets, circularity and resource efficiency, innovation and empowering communities. It will also support the Clean Industrial Deal, the Competitiveness Compass, in particular, the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, and contribute to the EU Food System Monitoring Dashboard.
Proposals should:
- develop and pilot decentralised local capacities and ecosystems, such as food innovation incubators, accelerators and hubs, which support high-impact and sustainable urban food solutions. These should provide targeted support and access to capital and investment, while connecting fragmented ecosystems across Member States and Associated Countries;
- integrate tailored mentorship programs to stimulate entrepreneurship and start-ups in urban food systems and facilitate participatory co-creation of place-based collaborative sustainable and climate smart business models, utilising the networks and solutions developed through the local capacities;
- leverage these pilot implementations to accelerate urban food system transformation and scalability, ensuring market uptake, scaling and replication across diverse EU contexts, while measuring the impact on all dimensions of sustainability by relevant indicators;
- connect with already established R&I initiatives, such as partnerships, missions, platforms, and other relevant projects to derive economically viable, and sustainable, business models from these initiatives, accelerating the uptake of research outcomes.
This topic should involve the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines.
Proposals should integrate the gender dimension where applicable. Consideration of other social categories besides gender (disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnic and/or cultural origin, sexual orientation, etc.), and their intersections, should be also ensured.
Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, involving local and regional authorities, urban planners, SMEs and start-ups, food entrepreneurs, research and innovation actors, educational institutions, civil society organisations, and citizens, to co-create inclusive, sustainable, and scalable urban food system innovations.
Technology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.
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Topic destination
Resilient, inclusive, healthy and green rural, coastal and urban communities (2026-27)
The destination supports the European Green Deal and contributes to Europe’s competitiveness and sustainable prosperity by supporting the sustainable development and the just and fair transition of rural, coastal and urban communities.
This destination will support the EU Commission priorities ‘Sustaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature’ and ‘Supporting people, strengthening our societies and our social model’.
R&I will support knowledge needs stemming from the EU vision for agriculture and food, the Commission strategy for generational renewal in agriculture, and continue to support the implementation of common agricultural policy and the long-term vision for EU’s rural areas.
R&I activities in this destination will also contribute to achieving the objectives of the strategy for European life sciences, the EU start-up and scaleup strategy, the new EU bioeconomy strategy and the food 2030 initiative.
R&I will complement the new European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative by transformation of spaces and integrating the core NEB values.
Overall, R&I activities under this destination will contribute to supporting people and communities while strengthening our societies and our social model.
R&I will also support communities to work and prosper with nature, preserving biodiversity and ecosystem, and scaling-up the use of Nature-based Solutions, in line with the objectives of the EU climate adaptation strategy and the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.
R&I actions under this Destination will encourage international cooperation, in line with the global approach on R&I. The Destination supports unlocking the unique assets for research and innovation of the EU outermost regions, in line with the EU strategy for outermost regions[1].
Expected Impact: Proposals for topics under this destination should set out credible paths to "sustainably developing rural, urban and coastal areas". More specifically, proposed topics should contribute to one or more of the following expected impacts:
- Communities are empowered to act for a transformative change to increase their sustainability and resilience, through better access to knowledge and tools (including digital ones), and are better prepared to adapt to climate change and to achieve climate neutrality as well as to address environmental issues, including biodiversity loss.
- Rural communities are prepared to anticipate and respond to social, economic and environmental shocks and are attractive for young innovators.
- Urban and peri-urban communities can access affordable, healthier, nutritious and environmental-friendly food, benefitting from empowered local food entrepreneurship and socially innovative approaches, increasing resilience and inclusiveness.
[1] COM(2022) Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions.
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Topic conditions and documents
General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
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 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
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)
Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
Guidance
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Call-specific instructions
Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?"
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme
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
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Budget overview
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-CLIMATE-01 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions | 16 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 8 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-CLIMATE-02 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions | 12 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 6 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-CLIMATE-03 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions | 12 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 6 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-CLIMATE-04 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions | 22 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 11 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-COMMUNITIES-01 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions | 15 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 5 000 000,00 € | 3 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-COMMUNITIES-02 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions | 12 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 6 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-01 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions | 12 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 6 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-02 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions | 12 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 6 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-03 - HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions | 11 800 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | 5 000 000,00 € to 6 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-04 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions | 6 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 6 000 000,00 € | 1 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-05 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions | 12 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 6 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-06 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions | 10 000 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 5 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-07 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions | 15 500 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | 7 000 000,00 € to 8 000 000,00 € | 2 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-08 - HORIZON-IA HORIZON Innovation Actions | 7 800 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 7 800 000,00 € | 1 |
| HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-09 - HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions | 6 750 000,00 € | Single-stage | 20 April 2027 | 23 September 2027 | around 6 750 000,00 € | 1 |
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