Bioremediation of Ukraine’s ecosystems contaminated by conflicts

Expected Outcome:

The actions funded under this topic should support communities, land managers, local administrators, policy makers, and researchers to deploy solutions contributing to the goals of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation and the new EU bioeconomy strategy, through techniques aligned to the Strategy for European Life Sciences and the EU Biotech Act.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• innovative biotechnology and Nature-based Solutions (NbS)^[1] are developed and made available to communities, land managers, local administrators and policy makers in Ukraine to progress towards the targets of biodiversity protection and the clean environment and zero-pollution ambition;
• contribution to the reconstruction, recovery, circularity and upgrading of economy and environment of Ukraine is provided through the remediation of severe ecosystems pollution - due to conflicts - and restoration of ecosystem services.

Scope:

The recent wars are causing severe environmental degradation across ecosystems – besides the disruption of human lives and dignity - with concentrations of contaminants affecting the quality of air, water, soil, that may be beyond the known levels. There is the urgent need to advance in the knowledge of such extreme conditions, and to develop or adapt bioremediation techniques suitable to restore the degradation of the affected environments.

Proposals should:

• assess the level of contamination of soils in Ukraine due to past and ongoing conflicts and select the areas to be remediated within the actions funded. Include improving/adapting testing techniques, applying Earth observations and advanced tools (e.g., AI and autonomous systems) when applicable, aiming at the prioritisation and monitoring of the areas in the scope of remediation activities;
• develop and test innovative cost-effective biotechnology and Nature-based Solutions - including phytoremediation - for decontamination and bioremediation of soil pollution on the land and at source (including air and/or water bodies) in the conditions of contamination due to conflicts;
• demonstrate the developed techniques in Ukraine in the areas selected at the first point and monitor the effectiveness of the activities in scope, including increased resilience of the remediated ecosystems to climate change;
• evaluate potential (positive and negative) impacts on the population, especially on groups in vulnerable situations, and ensure transparent engagement with and information to stakeholders and civil society on solutions proposed;
• collect and provide recommendations to policymakers and EU and international relief organisations, to develop any replication actions, including in the context of the possible EU accession process, if relevant;
• deliver on EU international commitments and outreach, including actions directed at future EU enlargement and EU international partnerships contributing to the EU global commitments on biodiversity and climate change.

Proposals should involve consortia formed in the spirit of the multi-actor approach, including land managers and administrators from Ukraine as well as researchers from local academia and research institutions. The participation of SMEs in consortia is encouraged.

Proposals should make use of social sciences and humanities (SSH) to assess the impacts on the population.

Proposals should collaborate with Mission Soil projects dealing with soil pollution^[2] and with the project funded under the topic HORIZON-MISS-2026-05-SOIL-03: Enabling user-centred and open innovation initiatives to enhance soil health in Ukraine, as well as with the Mission Soil knowledge repository SoilWise and with the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO).

Efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of this topic are FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable) and compatible with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

International cooperation is strongly encouraged.

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[1] Nature-based Solutions are multilaterally defined as actions aimed at protecting, conserving, restoring, and sustainably managing natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience and biodiversity benefits (UNEA 5.2).

[2] E.g., ARAGORN, ISLANDR, EDAPHOS, SOILPROM, PHISHES.