Objective
Rivers support some of the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems and are vital to long-term human and ecological well-being. European climate and energy policies strongly promote hydropower to meet decarbonisation and energy security goals, yet its expansion drives biodiversity loss and disrupts Indigenous livelihoods. River management remains dominated by engineering approaches rooted in modernist, anthropocentric frameworks that reduce rivers to extractable resources while sidelining ecological, cultural, and Indigenous knowledge. As a result, relational perspectives – recognising rivers as living beings in relationship – remain marginalized. Yet they offer ecocentric approaches with profound implications for sustainability.
RivERS advances a relational and decolonial rethinking of river engineering. Its ambition is to reorient foundational assumptions toward plural and just futures for rivers and their living communities by integrating more-than-human perspectives. Combining multispecies ethnography, cross-case analysis, and participatory methods, it will: (O1) investigate human and more-than-human entanglements and frictions within the hydropower regime of Sweden’s Lule River, including impacts on Sámi livelihoods and riverine ecology; (O2) trace how relational knowledge is co-created across Indigenous and techno-scientific systems; and (O3) co-design participatory frameworks and tools for river engineering that enable culturally responsive, pluralistic, and ecologically sensitive practices.
RivERS benefits from a strong interdisciplinary environment at Karlstad University (Sweden) and Simon Fraser University (Canada). By bridging anthropology, STS, and ecology, it delivers context-sensitive knowledge and tools, laying the foundation for long-term transformation in engineering that strengthens socio-ecological resilience, biodiversity conservation, and just water governance.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology governance
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy planetary sciences planets
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy hydroelectricity
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
651 88 Karlstad
Sweden
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.