Summary
- Profile Type
- Research & Development Request
- POD Reference
- RDRIT20260722042
- Term of Validity
- 27 July 2026 - 27 July 2027
- Company's Country
- Italy
- Type of partnership
- Research and development cooperation agreement
- Targeted Countries
- Albania
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Türkiye
- Malta
- Estonia
- Slovakia
- Romania
- Cyprus
- Serbia
- Hungary
- Montenegro
- Croatia
- North Macedonia
- Slovenia
- Lithuania
- Moldova
- Latvia
- Portugal
- Poland
- Czechia
- Georgia
- Ukraine
- Greece
General information
- Short Summary
- An EU consortium working on microbiome-enabled biotechnologies for soil health and non-food biomass systems in degraded and contaminated soils seeks partners from Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Baltics, and the Balkans to complete its network and apply to COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) 2026 Open call.
- Full Description
-
Across Europe, a significant portion of soil is currently degraded or contaminated by organic pollutants like PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) and PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls), which compromise soil health, biodiversity, water retention, nutrient cycling, and long-term land productivity. Conventional remediation methods are often expensive, energy-intensive, disruptive, and poorly connected to future productive land use. While biotechnology offers new opportunities to restore soil health through microbiome-based solutions, important bottlenecks remain, including limited field robustness, insufficient industrial readiness, incomplete characterisation of transformation products, and limited integration of environmental safety, market readiness, and stakeholder uptake.
To address these gaps, an EU-based consortium is developing a new generation of microbiome-based biotechnologies to remediate, restore, and improve contaminated soils while supporting safe productive reuse pathways. The project combines environmental microbiology, fungal and bacterial biomanufacturing, analytical chemistry, AI-based predictive ecotoxicology and environmental impact assessment, with a key focus on spent mushroom substrate (SMS) as a circular bio-based amendment and carrier, as well as a possible source of recoverable enzymatic fractions.
The consortium already brings together 8 partners from Italy, Greece, France, and the Netherlands—including universities, specialized biotech SMEs, and environmental consulting companies—covering the full value chain from microbiome discovery to field-oriented validation, impact assessment, and uptake.
To strengthen the existing consortium and advance its research and networking potential, the partners wish to apply to COST 2026 Open call.
CALL FOR PROPOSAL INFORMATION:
The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) is a funding organisation that enables researchers to establish interdisciplinary research networks known as COST Actions. Operating on a bottom-up principle, COST allows researchers to propose and build networks based on their own scientific vision by submitting a proposal to the COST Open Call—an entry point funded under EU Framework Programmes such as Horizon Europe. While a COST Action does not fund primary research itself, it provides funding for essential networking tools, including international meetings, training schools, short-term scientific missions (researcher mobility), and conference grants.
• Call deadline: October 28th 2026
• Project Duration: 4 years
• Average funding: approximately €600.000
Deadline for Expressions of Interest: September 25th 2026
The consortium is seeking research centres, technology developers, and agricultural or biomass end-user companies. The ideal partners should bring expertise in key domains such as soil microbiology, bioremediation, ecotoxicology, analytical chemistry, environmental modelling, LCA/LCC (Life Cycle Assessment/Life Cycle Costing), or stakeholder engagement. Selected partners will actively contribute by shaping the COST proposal, participating in specific thematic Working Groups, and joining networking activities, training schools, and short-term missions. To comply with COST Action guidelines in terms of partnership composition requirements, the consortium is specifically looking for partners from Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITCs) in Central-Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe, the Baltics, and the Balkans (see the full list of target countries in the dedicated section of the call guidelines). - Technical Specification or Expertise Sought
-
The consortium is interested in identifying partners with expertise in one or more of the following areas, willing to contribute to Working Groups, workshops, Training Schools, Short-Term Scientific Missions, and dissemination activities:
• environmental soil microbiology; microbial consortia, mycology;
• bioremediation, mycoremediation and restoration of degraded and contaminated ecosystems;
• soil and water ecotoxicology;
• environmental analytical chemistry;
• preparation of proposals, including COST and Horizon;
• environmental and/or predictive modelling;
• environmental impact assessment, LCA/LCC (Life Cycle Assessment/Life Cycle Costing);
• stakeholder engagement, participatory governance, dissemination;
• Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS);
• end-users in the agricultural sector or in non-food biomass production - Stage of Development
- Under development
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
- Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
- Goal 15: Life on Land
- Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
- Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
- IPR status
- No IPR applied
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
-
Partner Sought:
• universities, research centres and applied research organisations;
• innovative technology developers;
• laboratories or research groups with expertise in ecotoxicology or environmental analytical chemistry;
• advisory / extension / AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems) organisations;
• farmer organisations, cooperatives, or other end-users relevant to soil, agriculture, or biomass-related application
Expected Role:
The partner would be expected to contribute to the development of an interdisciplinary and international COST network, with a possible role as:
• main proposer (the coordinator) or secondary proposer (the other members of the Network of Proposers) in the COST Action;
• scientific and methodological contributor to one or more Working Groups;
• active participant in networking, training, mobility, workshops, and future European project development
Tasks to be performed:
• participation in the scientific and methodological definition of the COST Action;
• contribution to specific thematic Working Groups;
• sharing of methods, protocols, case studies, and experimental/applied approaches;
• participation in workshops, training activities, and capacity-building actions;
• support to the expansion of the European network;
• contribution to the preparation of future collaborative proposals, including Horizon Europe
Indicatively, the Working Groups may address:
• soil microbiomes and bioremediation/restoration;
• SMS (Spent Mushroom Substrate), circular approaches, and enzymatic valorisation;
• analytical chemistry and transformation products;
• ecotoxicology, modelling, and safe-by-design assessment;
• field applications, environmental impact, and productive reuse;
• stakeholder engagement, uptake, dissemination, and future funding opportunities - Type and Size of Partner
- SME 11-49
- SME <=10
- University
- Other
- SME 50 - 249
- Big company
- R&D Institution
- Type of partnership
- Research and development cooperation agreement
Call details
- Framework program
- Specific actions
- Call title and identifier
-
Open Call oc-2026-1
- Submission and evaluation scheme
-
Single-stage
- Coordinator required
-
Yes
- Deadline for EoI
- Deadline of the call
- Project duration in weeks
-
208
- Web link to the call
- https://www.cost.eu/how-to-apply/
- Specific actions
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 06002010 - Toxicology
- 010002008 - Soil Pollution
- 10002012 - Remediation of Contaminated Sites
- 05001004 - Organic Chemistry
- 10002011 - Soil and Groundwater Pollution
- Market keywords
- 04012 - Toxicology
- 04017 - Micro- and Nanotechnology related to Biological sciences
- 04005 - Biochemistry / Biophysics
- 04010 - Microbiology
- Sector Groups Involved
- Energy-Intensive Industries - BioChemTech
- Agri-Food
- Targeted countries
- Albania
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Türkiye
- Malta
- Estonia
- Slovakia
- Romania
- Cyprus
- Serbia
- Hungary
- Montenegro
- Croatia
- North Macedonia
- Slovenia
- Lithuania
- Moldova
- Latvia
- Portugal
- Poland
- Czechia
- Georgia
- Ukraine
- Armenia
- Greece