EU Puts €60 Million Into Nature Restoration Living Labs

The European Commission has opened a €60 million Horizon Europe call to build nature restoration living labs across Europe. Around six projects will receive about €10 million each to test, in real landscapes, how Member States can meet the targets of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation. For farms, agritech companies and living lab operators, it is one of the largest restoration opportunities of the year.

Call: HORIZON-NATURE-2027-02-02, Research and Innovation Action. Budget: €60 million, about 6 projects of €10 million. Open since: 13 October 2026. Deadline: 14 January 2027.

What the call funds

Each project must set up three new living labs: real sites where farmers, researchers, authorities and businesses co-design and test restoration solutions together. The labs can build on existing research infrastructure and regional networks, but they have to be new as living labs.

The projects should remove the bottlenecks that slow restoration down in practice and make ecosystems more resilient to risks. At least one living lab in each project must focus on how restoration gets financed, including new tools such as nature credits. A separate €4 million coordination action will network all the funded labs.

Who is needed in these consortia

This is a multi-actor call. Coordinators will look for partners who bring:

1. Land and sites, such as farms, landowners and existing demonstration fields.

2. Monitoring and data, such as sensors, remote sensing, soil and biodiversity measurement.

3. Finance and business models, such as nature credit schemes, carbon and biodiversity markets.

4. Public authorities that implement the Nature Restoration Regulation, and civil society groups.

Agritech SMEs with monitoring, soil or carbon solutions fit naturally into point 2 and point 3.

Part of a €229 million push for nature

The living labs topic belongs to the new cross-cutting Nature call, worth about €229 million across 11 topics. The same call also funds cost-effective biodiversity monitoring for EU policies (€16 million) and research on invertebrate decline (€15 million). See our overview of the 2027 Horizon Europe calls for agri-food for the full picture.

A living lab ready in Bulgaria

AgriVentures runs a Soil Living Lab in Kubrat, grown out of a cover crop, melliferous and oil crop demonstration field into a permanent site open to European projects. Our ecosystem map shows the members and partners we can bring into a consortium. For practical background, download our free guide Soil Health and Carbon Farming (in Bulgarian) and visit our carbon farming focus page.

Ten weeks to the deadline

A call with three new living labs per project needs partners and sites confirmed early. If you have land, data or a restoration solution to contribute, tell us about your organisation and we will look at where you fit.

To see every restoration, soil and biodiversity call that matches your company, run the free funding match. The Business membership adds matchmaking, PIC registration and invitations to participate in calls, with a 7-day free trial.

Sources: FFG call overview, EU Agenda topic page, EUACC topic summary, Accelopment Nature call guide. Checked 1 November 2026.

Check out our guides for funding opportunities

https://projects.agriventures.co/resources

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The role of Agriventures in supporting agrifood innovation

As the agritech startup ecosystem grows across Europe, initiatives such as Agriventures are helping connect entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, and policymakers working in agriculture and food innovation.

Agriventures focuses on supporting agrifood startups, biotechnology innovation, and access to European funding for agriculture, while also helping entrepreneurs navigate the complex landscape of startup financing, venture capital, and research commercialization.

By strengthening connections between startups, research institutions, investors, and farmers, Agriventures contributes to building a stronger agricultural innovation ecosystem that can accelerate the transition toward sustainable agriculture and resilient food systems.

Through knowledge sharing, events, and ecosystem building, Agriventures helps ensure that promising agritech innovations can scale and reach farmers, food producers, and global markets.