On Friday 5 April 2024 the HuMUS call for pilot proposals was officially closed at ANCI Toscana. Globally, 76 applications were received, all (as the Call required) with a public sector body or agency playing the role of single or main applicant. In the coming weeks, they will be shortlisted to 20, based on the evaluation criteria stated in the Call, which can be retrieved from here.
Each winner will carry forward an experiment of participatory soil governance at the regional level, of a maximum duration of one year, and receive financial support (lump sum grant) of €30,000 from ANCI Toscana, on behalf of the HuMUS consortium, which is funded by the Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation.
Simone Gheri, Director of ANCI Toscana, released the following statement: “As coordinator of the HuMUS project, I am very proud of the results of this phase of the competition. 17 of the 27 EU Member States have participated in the call, some of them with multiple applications; this is evidence of the pervasiveness of soil issues at European level, but also shows the emergence of an interesting movement of ideas and projects aimed at engaging soil stakeholders in the identification of structured solutions. Interestingly, there are also proposals coming from 6 Associated Countries to Horizon Europe, including from Ukraine, Africa (Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Nigeria), and Indonesia. They will be checked for eligibility according to the call rules, but I consider their participation as proof of the innovativeness and originality of our project and Call. I sincerely thank all applicants for their commitment. But I want to praise the performance of Spain, Italy, and Portugal, which is particularly noteworthy with 17, 15, and 6 received applications, respectively. These three countries alone represent 50% of all the received applications.”
The results of the evaluation will be announced by mid-May on HuMUS social media and website.
