DNSH - Do No Significant Harm

The European Commission has developed the "Do No Significant Harm" (DNSH) principle to prevent an economic activity supported for its beneficial effects from producing unwanted damage to other relevant environmental objectives.

Specifically, the DNSH requires that research projects do no significant harm to the environment: this principle is essential to access European funding.

The Regulation identifies six criteria to determine how each economic activity substantially contributes to protecting the ecosystem, without causing harm to any of the environmental objectives:

1. mitigation of climate change
2. adaptation to climate change
3. sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources
4. transition to a circular economy, reduction and recycling of waste
5. prevention and reduction of air, water or soil pollution
6. protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem health.

The DNSH principle is based on what is specified in the Taxonomy for sustainable finance, adopted to promote investments in green and sustainable projects, as well as contribute to achieving the objectives of the Green Deal. A specific technical annex of the Taxonomy describes the parameters to assess whether the various economic activities substantially contribute to mitigating and adapting to climate change or cause significant damage to one of the other objectives.

In the design phase, the reference to the DNSH principle is integrated into the template, specifically in section 1 "Excellence". Proposals must refer to the DNSH in the presentation of the project methodology, highlighting that no activities are foreseen that could in any way conflict with the 6 environmental objectives.