The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership has announced the final list of 24 research and innovation projects recommended for funding under its second joint transnational call, “Unified Paths to a Climate-Neutral, Sustainable, and Resilient Blue Economy: Engaging Civil Society, Academia, Policy, and Industry”, launched in February 2024.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership has launched its first Transnational Access Call to Research Infrastructures (TA Call to RIs) on 28 February 2025, inviting applications from the pan-European blue economy community.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership will launch the first Call for Access to Research Infrastructures on ‘Piloting access to shared research infrastructures at pan-European scale and reinforce capacities to support the transformation of the blue economy’. 

It will enable applicants to submit a proposal for utilising the Research Infrastructures made available by providers partners of the Partnership from 7 different countries across all EU sea-basins and the Atlantic Ocean.

On 27 November 2024, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership hosted the ‘Blue Economy for the North Sea’ workshop in Amsterdam. This event was part of a broader series of regional workshops aimed at addressing the unique challenges and opportunities of the blue economy across the European sea basins. Organised in conjunction with the Blue Mission BANOS Arena 3 event, the workshop also explored synergies between the Partnership and the Mission Ocean.

Synergies in the context of Horizon Europe and other funds are a way to amplify the impact of investments in research and innovation. One of the key objectives of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is to support Consortium members in maximising financial synergies and leveraging available funding streams in each member country. This enables countries to benefit from different financial resources in a synergetic manner, enabling the co-funding of research projects.

On 17 October, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership hosted the ‘Blue Economy for a Sustainable Black Sea’ workshop in Sofia, Bulgaria. Stakeholders from across the Black Sea region came together to provide input to the Partnership about local needs, strengths, and priorities. The event took place back-to-back with the Mission Ocean event in Burgas and the BRIDGE-BS High-Tech Summit for the Black Sea, a research forum focused on ocean digitalisation and industry in the Black Sea region.  

On 25-26 September 2024, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership officially launched its first cohort of 19 funded projects during a vibrant two-day kick-off event held in Madrid. The gathering at the Agencia Estatal de Investigación in Spain brought together project coordinators, consortium partners, European Commission representatives, and other key stakeholders. The event marks the start of these projects’ 36-month journey toward fostering innovation, sustainability, and resilience in Europe’s blue economy. 

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership organised the workshop "The key towards Mediterranean regional Sustainability," as part of the POSIDONIA International Shipping Exhibition in Athens on 7 June 2024. The workshop offered an occasion for participants to exchange experiences, knowledge and good practice, explore the potential for cooperation and common undertakings, and network with relevant counterparts.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership contributed vividly to the European Maritime Day 2024. We convened a workshop on global strategic alignment of the blue economy and contributed to two further workshops on maximizing synergies and on planning and implementing equality in the blue economy, respectively. Read the full report on our website.  

Focused on ‘delivering the science we need for the ocean we want’, the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference was hosted by the Government of Spain in Barcelona from 10-12 April 2024. The conference brought together the global Ocean Decade community and partners to celebrate and take stock of progress and set joint priorities for the future. On this occasion, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership joined the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO in launching a new Decade Programme for Sustainable Ocean Planning.

During two days in mid-February in the historic setting of Belgium's Royal Museums of Fine Arts, the European blue economy community gathered to chart a transformative course towards sustainability. The first Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Symposium rallied the wider community from science, policy and business behind the Partnership’s efforts, informed firsthand about new projects and funding opportunities, and explored research and innovation-related areas which the Partnership could take on board during the coming years. 

The 19 projects selected in the first joint transnational call have been invited to present themselves through this digital poster exhibition. The exhibition will be updates as we receive new posters. To navigate between posters, please hover over the image and click the arrows. 

The first Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Symposium took place on 13-14 February 2024. If you missed the event, or would like to re-experience parts of it, you can now watch the recorded sessions at your own convenience. The Symposium brought together thought leaders, experts, and practitioners to promote the transformation towards a sustainable blue economy. 

Nineteen projects are selected for funding in response to the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership’s first co-funded call ‘The way forward: a thriving sustainable blue economy for a brighter future.’

Experts from across sectors and disciplines participated in a series of workshops organised by the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership this autumn. Among them were three thematic forward-looking workshops where participants reflected on the state of play and developed recommendations for the future of the Partnership, as it is updating its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).  

The General Assembly of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership on 19 October approved four Intervention Areas that will guide the partnership’s co-funded calls and activities in 2024. These areas point to needs for Research & Innovation activities and investments that support the necessary transformation into a green and digital ocean economy. 

Brussels, 26 September 2023 - The Waterborne Technology Platform and the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) announced enhanced cooperation which underlines both players’ firm commitment to develop a sustainable blue economy. 

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership received 94 pre-proposals in the 1st joint transnational call. The deadline for pre-proposals in the call  “The way forward: a thriving sustainable blue economy for a brighter future” was 14 April 2023. The results of the pre-proposal evaluation will be later confirmed in mid-July. Shortlisted consortia will be invited to submit full proposals by 13 September. 

More than 150 participants from 32 different countries took part in the kickoff meeting for the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership in Rome on 25th January 2023.

From 23 to 25 January, the network of 60 Partners from 25 countries and the European Commission gathers in Rome to discuss and showcase its planned activities.