SMURF 2nd Open Call
Empowering small forest owners' organisations across the EU through funding for innovative forestry practices, business models, and carbon projects under Horizon Europe’s SMURF project.
The SMURF 2nd Open Call is an initiative aimed at fostering innovation through cascade funding. This call seeks to empower projects within specific domains by providing financial support and resources to selected applicants.
Type of projects to be funded: Projects must support knowledge exchange, demonstration, and innovation in small forest holdings. Funded activities include attendance and dissemination efforts (mandatory), and optional actions such as pilot projects for business models, CNS demo stands, training, carbon credit pilots, and policy group engagement. The specific list of activities are:
- Activity 1: Participation in SMURF Conference (mandatory): €3,500
- Activity 2: Pilot business project (optional): up to €30,000
- Activity 3: CNS demo stand (optional): up to €10,000
- Activity 4: CNS training (optional): €2,500
- Activity 5: PES carbon project (optional): up to €12,000
- Activity 6: Working groups (optional): €2,000
Sectors / domain: Forestry, sustainable forest management, ecosystem services, carbon markets, innovation in forest-related businesses.
Individual or consortium: Only individual legal entities may apply — consortia are not eligible. Applicants must be organisations representing small forest owners (e.g. associations, federations, confederations, cooperatives).
Specific eligibility requirements: Eligible applicants must:
- Be legal entities based in one of the 27 EU Member States.
- Represent small forest owners (owning <500 ha).
- Have a VAT number or fiscal ID and a European bank account.
- Submit only one application per entity, in English.
Specific topics or challenges: The call focuses on:
- Demonstrating close-to-nature silviculture (CNS) models.
- Innovative business opportunities (non-wood products, new tech, etc.).
- Payments for ecosystem services (PES) through carbon projects.
- Stakeholder participation via working groups.
- Visibility through dissemination and a final conference.
Projects duration: From December 2025 to July 2027 (20 months max depending on activity).
Budget, funding rates and payment conditions:
- Funding rate: 100%
- Budget conditions / limitations: Up to €60,000 per organisation (max €55,000 for recipients of the first SMURF call). Activities funded include:
Activity 1 Participation in SMURF Conference (mandatory): €3,500
Activity 2 Pilot business project (optional): up to €30,000
Activity 3 CNS demo stand (optional): up to €10,000
Activity 4 CNS training (optional): €2,500
Activity 5 PES carbon project (optional): up to €12,000
Activity 6 Working groups (optional): €2,000
- Payments: 25% upon grant signature (Dec 2025), 25% in Nov 2026 after interim checks, 50% upon successful completion by July 2027.
Links
Closes
02/07/2025
Max funding per project
60.000€