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A low CO2 smart autonomous multiplatform system to monitor and forecast Calanus finmarchicus stock - a new sustainable climate neutral blue fish feed

The CliN-BluFeed project ambitions to develop and use a low-CO2 smart autonomous multiplatform system to monitor and forecast Calanus finmarchicus stock which is a new sustainable climate neutral blue fish feed for the growing aquaculture industry. The project addresses priority No. 3 "Climate-neutral, environmentally sustainable, and resource efficient blue food and feed" of JPI Oceans SBEP 2023. It covers the three highlighted issues of priority no. 3: (i) reduction of bycatch, (ii) exploration of the potential of low trophic level species in fisheries for fish feed production for the aquaculture industry and (iii) Increasing the supply of blue food by utilizing new sustainable marine resources. 

We aim to broaden the spatial, temporal and biological resolution and coverage of C. finmarchicus in-situ monitoring by combining optical and acoustic sensors on autonomous surface (Sailbuoy with echosounder) and underwater (Seaglider & Slocum with UVP6 and echosounder) vehicles and earth-orbiting satellites (LIDAR and RGB). We will use this in-situ data in tandem with ex-situ experimental assays and mechanistic simulation modelling to generate real-time predictions of C. finmarchicus abundance, biomass, population dynamics and the vertical and horizontal distributions of the stock in the Norwegian Sea. The project will: 1) optimize an optical sensor (UVP6) for real-time in-situ identification of C. finmarchicus and other co-occurring plankton and micronekton, and estimation of their abundances and size-structure. 2) characterize the zooplankton and micronekton community characterization and quantification towards identification of potential bycatch composition and reduction of bycatch during harvesting operations using optical and acoustic sensors installed on autonomous vehicles. 3) advance the present understanding of how external environmental variables influence C. finmarchicus vertical behavioral and abundance dynamics during the harvesting season. 4) Describe C. finmarchicus transcriptomic rhythmicity in the field and determine to what extend different environmental cues and internal rhythm regulators drive diel behavior. 5) Map the three-dimensional spatial distributions of C. finmarchicus in the harvesting area using ocean color and LiDAR remote sensing technologies and 6) forecasting of C. finmarchicus stock size and 3D spatial distributions. 

The project will deliver processed data products to multiple stakeholders and end users (regulatory agencies, state owned data portal, repository database, fishery etc). CliN-BluFeed will promote a climate neutral fish feed production for a growing aquaculture industry across Europe and the world through the delivery of cutting-edge high-quality data to stakeholders for managing the stock of C. finmarchicus in a sustainable manner. The project will ultimately ensure the growing production of blue food for the European and world population and support the green deal.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-96
Project acronym
CliN-BluFeed
Project start date
Project end date

About

About

The Partnership boosts the transformation towards a climate-neutral, sustainable, productive and competitive blue economy. We aim to restore the ocean’s health, resilience and services to people by enabling economic activity that is climate-neutral, sustainable and productive.  

Vision

  • by 2030: give the transformation towards a climate-neutral, sustainable, productive and competitive blue economy a boost
  • by 2050: create and support the conditions for a healthy ocean for the people

 

Through this vision we work together to support key EU policy objectives of Green transition, digital transformation and recovery and ultimately contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.

investments
€ 450
Million planned
investments
over 7 years
partners
74
Partners &
the European Commission
countries
30
Countries

Facts & Figures

Intervention areas

Intervention Areas are set in the Annual Work Programme of the Partnership and are based on the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda and the Member States and Associated Countries’ priorities. Intervention Areas for future calls and activities will be developed according to an annual cycle. 

2025

Digital Twins of the Ocean

This Intervention Area proposes a multidisciplinary, long-lasting research and innovation activity that focuses on the development of twin technology for spatially limited areas at sea-basin level. The activity aims to improve our understanding of the relations among essential systems at sea-basin level and ultimately support the development of AI based simulation and prediction capabilities for European oceans. 

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Blue Economy Sectors

The Intervention Area covers all sectors of the blue economy, focusing on the prerequisites for a green and digital transition of these sectors and on the conditions for co-existence and multi-use of activities and infrastructures at sea. The main aim of the Intervention Area is to support the optimal use of resources in European oceans and seas in terms of space and material flows while ensuring the conditions for sustainability and reducing environmental pressures. 

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Managing Sea-Uses

The Intervention Area addresses the need for innovative tools and approaches to the sustainable planning and management of sea-uses, interlinking maritime spatial planning (MSP), the marine strategy framework directive (MSFD), common fishery policy (CFP), and the marine protected areas (MPAs) with a focus on the regional dimension. 

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Blue Bioresources

The Intervention Area addresses research and innovation needs to support a just transition to the sustainable production and utilization of blue bioresources, with emphasis on production and processes that minimise the environmental impacts while meeting the demand for healthy and affordable blue food, feed, and other biobased products.

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Resilient Coastal Communities and Businesses

This Intervention Area tackles the risks and opportunities for coastal communities, businesses, and infrastructures in the context of climate change and marine environmental degradation, addressing coastal and maritime tourism as well as the conditions for coastal social-ecological systems to deliver ecosystem-services for nature and people.

2024

Digital Twins of the Ocean

This Intervention Area proposes a multidisciplinary, long-lasting research and innovation activity that focuses on the development of twin technology for spatially limited areas at sea-basin level. The activity aims to improve our understanding of the relations among essential systems at sea-basin level and ultimately support the development of AI based simulation and prediction capabilities for European oceans. 

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Blue Economy Sectors

The Intervention Area covers all sectors of the blue economy, focusing on the prerequisites for a green and digital transition of these sectors and on the conditions for co-existence and multi-use of activities and infrastructures at sea. The main aim of the Intervention Area is to support the optimal use of resources in European oceans and seas in terms of space and material flows while ensuring the conditions for sustainability and reducing environmental pressures. 

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Managing Sea-Uses

The Intervention Area addresses the need for innovative tools and approaches to the sustainable planning and management of sea-uses, interlinking maritime spatial planning (MSP), the marine strategy framework directive (MSFD), common fishery policy (CFP), and the marine protected areas (MPAs) with a focus on the regional dimension. 

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Blue Bioresources

The Intervention Area addresses research and innovation needs to support a just transition to the sustainable production and utilization of blue bioresources, with emphasis on production and processes that minimise the environmental impacts while meeting the demand for healthy and affordable blue food, feed, and other biobased products.

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2023

Development and validation of Digital Twins of the Ocean at sub-sea-basin scale

2023

Blue generation marine structures

2023

Planning and managing sea uses

2023

Healthy 'Blue Food' under a 'One Health' approach

2023

Enabling the green transition of 'Blue Food' production

2023

How can you engage?

The Partnership seeks to engage stakeholders across ocean industry sectors, policy, scientific disciplines, and civil society. You can engage in six co-funded calls over the seven-year timeframe 2022-2029. We will further add value with complementary actions and resource mobilisation, including: 

  • research infrastructures 
  • thematic programmes 
  • streamlining other funding sources  

 

As a Partnership, we engage with initiatives at the level of sea basins and the Atlantic Ocean. At global level, we promote the EU approach to a sustainable blue economy. We seek synergies with other Partnerships and the Mission Restore our Seas and Oceans. In parallel, we are establishing a community of practice with different stakeholders to co-design activities. 

Secretariat

  • Ministry of Universities and Research, Italy - sbep@mur.gov.it

Brussels Cellule

  • Kathrine Angell-Hansen, ka@forskningsradet.no
  • Julie Olivier, j.olivier@fz-juelich.de
  • Angiolo Boncompagni, angiolo.boncompagni@est.mur.gov.it
  • Maurice Heral, maurice.heral@agencerecherche.fr
  • Frode Dal Fjeldavli, fdf@forskningsradet.no

Sea basin nodes

  • Atlantic Ocean
    Ireland, Majbritt Bolton-Warberg, majbritt.bolton-warberg@marine.ie
    Portugal, Natalia Ospina-Alvarez, natalia.ospina@aircentre.org
  • Baltic Sea
    Estonia, Andro Truuverk,     
    andro.truuverk@kliimaministeerium.ee, Liis Kikas, Liis.Kikas@kliimaministeerium.ee, Kadri Just, kadri.just@agri.ee
    Poland, Monika Wloszek, monika.wloszek@ncbr.gov.pl
  • Black Sea
    Bulgaria, Milen Baltov, mbaltov@bfu.bg
    Georgia, Rusudan Jobava, jobava@rustaveli.org.ge
    Turkey, Ebru Aydin, ebru.aydin@tubitak.gov.tr
    Ukraine, Hryhorii Mozolevych, hryhorii.mozolevych@mon.gov.ua 
  • Mediterranean Sea
    Greece, Sophia Dimotropolou,s.dimitropoulou@gsrt.gr 
    Malta, Maria Azzopardi, maria.azzopardi.2@gov.mt
    Tunisia, Hayet Souai, souaihayet@gmail.com
  • North Sea
    Belgium, Ann-Katrien Lescrauwaet, ann.katrien.lescrauwaet@vliz.be
    Netherlands, Lisette Enserink, lisette.enserink@rws.nl

Partners

Brazil

Denmark

Faroe Islands

The Netherlands

The Netherlands

The Netherlands

The Netherlands

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Additional activities

Additional activities

In addition to our core initiatives, we believe in the power of collaboration and engagement to create a lasting positive impact on our oceans and coastal communities. That's why we offer a range of additional activities that complement our mission and provide opportunities for individuals, organizations, and businesses to get involved.

Ocean literacy

The Partnership will add a complementary perspective to environmentally driven ocean literacy efforts by promoting the changes in behaviours and attitudes needed to enable the just and sustainable transformation of Europe’s blue economy. This can generate interest in Europe in sustainable maritime innovations, career options, investment opportunities, and generally the quest of reconciling economic development with marine ecological integrity. Industry actors will be targeted  to help embed the  corporate environmental responsibility needed to affect the transition. The thematic foci will be guided by the Intervention Areas and align with the EU4Ocean Coalition. 

The partnership will also offer webinars about ocean literacy and communication science, and provides an ocean literacy toolkit to enable partnership beneficiaries to improve public knowledge and appreciation about their work and the opportunities in the blue economy domain. 

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Ocean Literacy Toolkit is intended both for its funded projects and for the stakeholder community at large. The Toolkit will support integrating and enhancing ocean literacy efforts in their activities to promote the behavioural changes needed to enable the just transition to a sustainable blue economy in Europe.   

The toolkit is a collection of resources, including links to informative reports, networking platforms and initiatives on ocean literacy at the regional (EU4Ocean) and international (UN Ocean Decade) levels.

Reports: 

UN Ocean Decade:

EU4Ocean:

Exploitation and Impact Network

The aim of the network is to develop tools and actions to transfer new knowledge and increase impact of the co-funded R&I projects at local, national and European level, taking into consideration different target groups: policy makers, civil society and marine and maritime industry. 

Ultimately, the Exploitation and Impact Network will contribute to a better co-creation and knowledge transfer between research industry, policy makers, and citizens by:  

  • making impact pathways mandatory at the project level;  

  • developing Open Access strategy and addressing Intellectual Property Rights;  

  • increasing the impact on the target groups needs through capacity building of the applicants to the call;  

  • promoting innovative solutions and accelerate their market uptake;  

  • bridging science policy gaps to maximise impact. 

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ADERA

Organisation short name
ADERA
Countries

Aquafeed Upgraded: Enhancing Immune Function with Seaweed-modified Functional Compounds

The aquaculture industry is anticipating intensive production growth to meet future food demand. Yet, this growth is constrained by a number of challenges, not least including disease spread and use of antibiotics and chemicals to combat or reduce disease outbreaks. To support fish health, alternative aquatic feeds need to be added with immune-stimulating functional ingredients. Seaweed is a promising aquaculture feed crop due to its rapid growth rate, carbon sequestration properties, and valuable biomass supply it provides without the need for fertilization. It also can potentially be a valuable source of nutrients in fish feed. However, the use of unrefined seaweed is hampered by the presence of anti-nutritional compounds such as high levels of non-starch polysaccharides, phytases, and tannins that reduce nutritional digestibility and, consequently, fish health and aquaculture productivity.

Pre-treatment technology to sustainably (cost-effective, scalable, and environmentally responsible) unlock the potential of seaweed bioactive compounds is not well-established. In response, a biorefinery process can help extract seaweed’s nutritional components and convert them to high-value products for various applications. However, the current extraction process involves harmful chemicals (acid or alkali). Therefore, significant progress is needed to develop extraction and purification technologies that can contribute to a sustainable and circular blue economy. Screening and identification of seaweed-derived functional compounds are also required to assess their functional properties like immunomodulatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and prebiotic effects. Here, in-vitro cell culture is an efficient screening tool for assessing the functionality of novel bioactive molecules as it enables efficient and cost-effective control and manipulation of experimental conditions for compound screening. This needs to be complimented and validated using in vivo studies. While several studies have investigated native compounds’ effects on immune function in fish, determining the functionality of seaweed-derived compounds is in its early stage of R&D. Finally, there is a lack of information on the environmental and economic impacts of seaweed-based functional ingredients compared to existing conventional functional ingredients. 

The above knowledge gaps identified will be addressed in this project to use of seaweed-modified ingredients in aquaculture. Our objective is to investigate seaweed-modified functional compounds in aquatic feed to improve growth, immune response, and disease resistance.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-101
Project acronym
AquaUP
Project start date
Project end date

Balancing economic, environmental, and social sustainability in the European aquaculture industry

Sustainable development of aquaculture is one of the main objectives of the common fisheries policy. Despite rather high profitability, the industry has been confronted with several (and mounting) environmental and ethical issues. It is therefore a need to strengthen the legitimacy of the aquaculture industry, reduce its negative environmental impact and increase its positive societal impact. To address this need, AQUABALANCE will identify barriers and drivers for ongoing transition processes, investigate dilemmas associated with rebalancing the economic, environmental, and social dimensions, analyse how the aquaculture industry can ensure legitimacy, and explore the role of policy for these transition processes. 

The project follows a pan-European perspective by focusing on different geographical locations and different sea-basins (North Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean), and maps existing and promising solutions boosting the sustainability and viability of the aquaculture industry. Specifically, based on a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, it will create new knowledge about how the European aquaculture industry can develop onwards in ways that are not environmentally harmful, and contribute to value creation and value capture both locally, nationally, and internationally. By combining several theoretical perspectives (economic geography, socio-technical transition studies, and literature on sustainable business models), the proposed project will provide valuable research-based insight and action points on an efficient and smart industry policy in order to successfully cope with the societal challenges of promoting economically robust, environmentally friendly, and socially inclusive industrial activities. Moreover, the project follows the multi-actor approach and includes a substantial degree of stakeholder engagement through various activities such as workshop and seminar series and a policy lab, which will allow a high potential for impact beyond the academic world and contribute to the uptake of AQUABALANCE’s research findings. 

As a result, AQUABALANCE will provide pan-European and regional industry and policy advice and a policy roadmap that has a transnational perspective and also can be adapted to the regional specificities. These recommendations will serve as a background for a more sustainable growth of the aquaculture industry, contributing to achieving the goals of the EU Farm to Fork strategy, solving grand challenges of climate change and social justice, and thereby generating significant value for the whole society.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-349
Project acronym
AQUABALANCE
Project start date
Project end date

Belgian Science Policy Office

Abbreviated organisation name
BELSPO
Address

Boulevard Simon Bolivar 30 bte 7, 1000 Brussels

Countries
email
David.COX@belspo.be
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BLUE WAY to a Sustainable Europe

The atmospheric CO2 levels recently reached levels that are 50% higher than in the pre-industrial times. BLUEWAYSE proposes a significant cut in the CO2 emissions of the food and feed sectors, creating synergies and exploiting opportunities to achieve environmental and health benefits via economic sustainability. BLUEWAYSE will develop and promote novel, zero-waste biorefinery approach-based blue ways of exploiting marine resources, paving the way for a climate-neutral, environmentally sustainable, and resource-efficient food and feed sectors in Europe. Fisheries and aquaculture sidestream biomass will be processed to create food supplements and the sidestreams thereof will be used for a) the production of biomaterials using the bone and scales biomass, b) the production of low marine salmon feeds and c) the cultivation of microalgae using fish hydrolysate nanofiltration permeates rich in minerals and water soluble nitrogenous compounds of small molecular weight until now discarded. The cultivated microalgae biomass will be fractionated for maximum value creation by application-specific fraction optimization. Solids will be used in functional food products, such as bread, and oil and water soluble fractions, rich in antioxidants and immune stimulating compounds will be exploited as aquaculture feed additives, nutritional supplements to enhance male fertility and healthier sunscreen creams. The safety of the BLUEWAYSE ingredients and products will be evaluated against regulative standards, environmental, social and economic sustainability. 

The project results will be communicated early on to inspire and promote collaboration and product co-creation with stakeholders, and disseminated through popular and scientific publications, concluding by the BLUEWAYSE conference.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-961
Project acronym
BLUEWAYSE
Project start date
Project end date

Boosting seaweed farming through better utilization of genetic resources

The European macroalgae industry has a considerable potential to contribute to critical societal challenges such as carbon neutrality, access to nutritious and sustainable food, and a sustainable and circular European bioeconomy. We aim for sustainable economic development of the macroalgae industry by (i) improving the efficiency of propagation and selection of suitable genotypes, (ii) better exploiting genetic variation, while at the same time maintaining local genetic diversity and minimizing the potential for genetic pollution of natural populations, and (iii) actively involving stakeholders in creating a plan for future macroalgae breeding in Europe.

In the proposed Blue Bio Boost (BBB) project, we will test innovative strategies and novel methods that utilize properties of macroalgal life cycles, hybrid vigour (heterosis), and the adaptation to the local environment and culturing conditions, to obtain this goal. Through a Proof of Concept experiment we will test a simple way of utilizing local genetic variation and heterosis for improved productivity that will result in minimal change in allele frequencies relative to the surrounding natural population, thus mitigating the potential effect of genetic exchange. BBB will create a biodiversity collection of kelp gametophytes, identify methods to increase gametophyte growth rates, and develop gametophyte phenotyping protocols for growth rate and light and temperature tolerance. Building on results from this experiment, we will design future strategies for optimized use of hybrid vigour. Finally, BBB will develop tools based on ploidy manipulation and determination for breeding purposes and explore the utility of giant sea lettuce in aquaculture. The developed methods and technologies will create strong incentives-to-invest in future algae breeding, while access to high-yield seeding materials adapted to local conditions will stimulate seaweed aquaculture production and processing that channel customized biomass to dedicated seaweed applications, and all associated material and service providers, thus providing food, feed and raw materials for a growing population. 

Furthermore, BBB will provide crucial insights into the genetic diversity of natural populations and cultivated material, and allow monitoring, evaluating, and/or mitigating the extent of genetic exchange from the onset of large-scale cultivation in co-existence with natural populations. As an alternative to developing seeding materials for production sites, breeding methods that create seeding materials with specific genetic compositions may also be used for kelp forest restoration. Since our approach promotes using local natural resources for local aquaculture production, it will stimulate coastal livelihoods and short-chain production systems, while utilizing the climatic, environmental and genetic diversity along the European coastline, creating impact at scale.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-476
Project acronym
Blue Bio Boost
Project start date
Project end date

Boosting the resilience of European shellfish production against climate change-related challenges through genetic selection

Bivalve aquaculture has become increasingly important sector of global blue bioeconomy in recent years due to its numerous environmental, economic, and social benefits. Shellfish farming is considered sustainable and environmentally-friendly compared with other aquaculture species as it is low trophic, has a very limited carbon footprint, and it provides multiple ecosystem services. Shellfish production is already facing major challenges due to direct and indirect effects of climate change and such challenges will become even more serious in the future. 

The long-term goal of ShellFishBoost is to mitigate the effects of climate change on the bivalve production with the ultimate impact of protecting and developing a vital blue bioeconomic sector in Europe. To achieve this goal, the project has been co-designed together with key stakeholders (bivalve hatcheries, shellfish producers and their organizations) first by identifying the major problems for each main bivalve species farmed in Europe. The main objectives of ShellFishBoost are the development/optimisation of advanced tools for genetic selection (molecular tools, optimized breeding schemes) and the estimate of genetic parameters for key traits (growth, resistance to heat-waves, salinity stress, summer mortalities, and presence of harmful algal toxins). A third major objective is the co-creation of best practices for selective breeding in each target species, together with industrial partners of ShellFishBoost and other relevant stakeholders (producer associations and other bivalve hatcheries). Project activities will be divided into five problem-focused workpackages (WPs). WP1 will develop and optimize advanced tools for genetic selection. WP2 will estimate genetic parameters and identify Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) for disease resistance in oysters and clams. WP3 will estimate genetic parameters and identify QTLs for resilience to climate-related challenges in oysters and clams. WP4 will estimate genetic parameters and identify QTLs for reduced toxin accumulation in mussels. WP5 will co-create best practices and strengthen the capacities for selective breeding in bivalves. ShellFishBoost fully embraces the approach based on the “Theory of Change”. WP5 objective is to effectively translate projects outputs into positive outcomes for European shellfish farming sector, to achieve the ultimate impact of improving the resilience of the sector against climate change effects.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-230
Project acronym
SHELLFISHBOOST
Project start date
Project end date

Burgas Free University

Abbreviated organisation name
BFU
Address

8001, Burgas, 62 San Stefano Street

Countries
email
mbaltov@bfu.bg
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Contact

Contact

Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership

The Partnership is coordinated by Italy, with Norway as co-coordinator.

Coordinator:
Ministry of Universities and Research (Italy) - sbep@mur.gov.it

Co-coordinator: Research Council of Norway

Communication: info@bluepartnership.eu

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Secretariat

  • Ministry of Universities and Research, Italy - sbep@mur.gov.it

Brussels Cellule

  • Kathrine Angell-Hansen, ka@forskningsradet.no
  • Julie Olivier, j.olivier@fz-juelich.de
  • Angiolo Boncompagni, angiolo.boncompagni@est.mur.gov.it
  • Maurice Heral, maurice.heral@agencerecherche.fr
  • Frode Dal Fjeldavli, fdf@forskningsradet.no

Sea basin nodes

  • Atlantic Ocean
    Ireland, Majbritt Bolton-Warberg, majbritt.bolton-warberg@marine.ie
    Portugal, Natalia Ospina-Alvarez, natalia.ospina@aircentre.org
  • Baltic Sea
    Estonia, Andro Truuverk, andro.truuverk@kliimaministeerium.ee, Liis Kikas, Liis.Kikas@kliimaministeerium.ee, Kadri Just, kadri.just@agri.ee
    Poland, Monika Wloszek, monika.wloszek@ncbr.gov.pl
  • Black Sea
    Bulgaria, Milen Baltov, mbaltov@bfu.bg
    Georgia, Rusudan Jobava, jobava@rustaveli.org.ge
    Turkey, Ebru Aydin, ebru.aydin@tubitak.gov.tr
    Ukraine, Hryhorii Mozolevych, hryhorii.mozolevych@mon.gov.ua 
  • Mediterranean Sea
    Greece, Sophia Dimotropolou, s.dimitropoulou@gsrt.gr 
    Malta, Maria Azzopardi, maria.azzopardi.2@gov.mt
    Tunisia, Hayet Souai, souaihayet@gmail.com
  • North Sea
    Belgium, Ann-Katrien Lescrauwaet, ann.katrien.lescrauwaet@vliz.be
    Netherlands, Lisette Enserink, lisette.enserink@rws.nl

CREA

Organisation short name
CREA
Countries

Data and Scenarios for a Sustainable Mediterranean Blue Economy

The World Ocean Council Europe is proposing to lead a consortium of 15 partners representing research institutes, universities, enterprises and institutions linked to Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), to implement the MEDSEAPLAN project ('Data and Scenarios for a Sustainable Mediterranean Blue Economy) over 36 months. The project will focus on future-proof Maritime Spatial Planning, the need for advanced data and an increased inclusion of maritime industry in the development of MSP-relevant foresight scenarios. 

MEDSEAPLAN aims to operationalise impactful change in sea basin-level multi-sectoral MSP development with data-driven and industry-based input. The project will focus on assessing current and future data needs for regional MSP, and flowing from this, on innovative solutions to create data for MSP (and transforming it into information that can be used by MSP planners). Concrete pathways to collect innovative data sets for MSP will revolve around nature-based solutions for improved biodiversity; including data from maritime industry vessels; and the design and demonstration of innovative floating data buoys. The strength of MEDSEAPLAN lies in its multi-sectoral, multi-actor and cross-border approach. The project will design a set of scenarios, which will be co-developed with stakeholders through assessing their data needs and testing these scenarios to assess potential solutions to future impacts brought forward by the maritime industry leaders. In this way, MEDSEAPLAN will contribute to the development of MSP that is of a more robust knowledge-based and data-driven nature, realising a more sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean Region.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-424
Project acronym
MEDSEAPLAN
Project start date
Project end date

Digital Twin of the Ocean for Arctic Fisheries

ARCFISH will develop a pilot Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO) Platform delivering new data products and services in support of sustainable Arctic Fisheries. These data products and services will be co-designed with stakeholders in the fisheries sector and used to create products such as ecosystem indices that can be applied in fisheries planning and management. 

Available data sources and gaps will be analysed to fulfil user needs and ingest relevant data into the Blue Insight DTO Platform. They include (1) oceanographic data from research vessels, autonomous  mobile platforms, fixed buoys, and ships of opportunity such as e.g., fishing vessels, (2) met-ocean-ice forecasts and reanalysis from models (e.g., from CMEMS and INTAROS), (3) fisheries management data (e.g., fisheries stocks, species) from ICES and national sources, and (4) reference data (e.g., bathymetry, economic zones, AIS data). Based on the stakeholder needs, a use case for sustainable fisheries will be implemented using the ingested data and tools for generating customised products. The use case will address two geographic regions, the west coast of Greenland centred around the rich fishing grounds surrounding Disko Bay, and the region around Iceland, northwards to the Svalbard archipelago and the Barents Sea. 

Using the compiled data and developed tools, a regional database of climate, environmental, and fisheries data will be created and made available through an open data repository to support sustainable Arctic Fisheries. This important asset will contribute to the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) program by providing new data products that can be utilised in digital twin platforms to support decision-making in fisheries management. The Blue Insight Platform developed by Kongsberg Discovery, Norway, will be part of the Digital Twins of the Ocean (DITTO) program of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. As part of DITTO and through engagement with other running Digital Twin projects and initiatives such as EDITO, ILIAD, Blue-Cloud2026 and EOSC, ARCFISH development will follow standards for data exchange and implementation of services and tools in the EU DTO. ARCFISH will prepare training material for using the Blue Insight DTO and organise capacity building events for stakeholders and other SBE projects. Training will be organised in conjunction with project meetings and SBEP seminars. Furthermore, the regional database, developed services and tools, training and promotional material will be promoted through the iAOS portal from INTAROS, a public project website linked to relevant DTO sites, and dedicated social media channels. ARCFISH results will also be promoted through the partners extensive network of Arctic observing and data management, digital technologies, capacity building in ocean literacy, stakeholder interaction and fisheries.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-364
Project acronym
ARCFISH
Project start date
Project end date

Digital Twin of the Ocean: Animal Tracking

The ocean is a wickedly challenging area to conduct scientific research. Marine fish evolve in an environment that is not readily accessible (immersed, offshore) leading to fragmented, and sometimes non-existent, knowledge of species distribution and ecology. The concept of generating digital twins of the ocean is borne from the necessity of having tools and methodologies available to support research and management activities on Europe’s seas. In this context, data and tools derived from mapping and animal tracking can support efforts aimed at facilitating modelling and simulations for fisheries management and spatial planning. Digital twins have largely focused on physical features of the oceans, especially bathymetric mapping, water circulation, and physicochemical properties; however, biological digital twins developed from animal tracking are highly promising to support management actions and key policy like the EU Common Fisheries Policy and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Animal tracking (acoustic, archival telemetry) has emerged as a valuable scientific tool for marine ecology and oceanography. Animal movement is an essential ocean variable1, but one that is generally challenging to ascertain because of the highly dynamic nature of animal movement at the immense scale at which it must be observed, and because GPS signals cannot reach satellites from under water. Technological advances in aquatic animal telemetry technologies have allowed for near-continuous remote observation of marine animals after initial capture. Innovations driven forward by the European Tracking Network (ETN) are entrenching telemetry as a key tool for tracking aquatic species in Europe, and will support the development of a digital twin of the North Sea fauna in this project. DTOTrack will leverage existing telemetry infrastructure in eight different European nations along with a dedicated international digital infrastructure housed at VLIZ (ESFRI LifeWatch and Horizon Europe Bioflow), and the new Horizon Europe STRAITS project, which is instrumenting major acoustic telemetry receiver lines along the Danish Straits and the Celtic Straits to develop a digital twin of North Sea fauna. In this project, eight North Sea member states will collaborate to deploy regional infrastructure (tags and receivers), and leverage existing physical (STRAITS project lines) and digital infrastructure (LifeWatch ETN database) to develop a digital twin of the North Sea’s fauna. Funding will be leveraged to coordinate animal tagging studies across countries to test hypotheses about animal migration and behaviour, overlap with offshore developments, and to address ‘what if’ scenarios of interest to managers, developers, and conservation organisations, using novel data streams and integrated tools.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-964
Project acronym
DTO-Track
Project start date
Project end date

Exploitation and Impact Network

The aim of the network is to develop tools and actions to transfer new knowledge and increase impact of the co-funded R&I projects at local, national and European level, taking into consideration different target groups: policy makers, civil society and marine and maritime industry. 

Ultimately, the Exploitation and Impact Network will contribute to a better co-creation and knowledge transfer between research industry, policy makers, and citizens by:  

  • making impact pathways mandatory at the project level;  

  • developing Open Access strategy and addressing Intellectual Property Rights;  

  • increasing the impact on the target groups needs through capacity building of the applicants to the call;  

  • promoting innovative solutions and accelerate their market uptake;  

  • bridging science policy gaps to maximise impact. 

Feedback survey - Non-participants - 1st Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership

Feedback survey - Non-participants - 1st Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership

Thank you for taking the time to answer our survey. Your valuable insights are instrumental in our continuous improvement efforts. We appreciate your contribution towards making future events even more successful and fulfilling for all participants.

 

Feedback survey - Participants at the 1st Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Symposium

Feedback survey - Participants at the 1st Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Symposium

Your insights are instrumental in our continuous improvement efforts. We appreciate your contribution towards making future events even more successful. 

 







From science to policy: assessing impacts and developing solutions for ship traffic and offshore wind farms through detailed soundmaps

Owing to the synergy among research institutions from Italy, Germany, Sweden, and Norway, BluEcho aims to improve the sustainability of the shipping and wind farm industries and conserve species biodiversity by assessing noise impacts on marine fauna and evaluating the efficiency of various acoustic mitigation measures to reduce noise levels.

Our comprehensive approach will adopt a combination of numerical simulations, fieldwork, and desktop studies to provide critical data for the design of low-noise Marine Protected Areas implemented in the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the Polar Oceans. Data from the more pristine polar regions will serve as a benchmark for comparison with areas with high shipping traffic recorded in the other sea basins. Sound produced by wind turbines and ship propellers will be reproduced in detail with cutting-edge numerical techniques and will serve as input for producing detailed sound maps. In particular, the Hywind Tampen wind farm case study in the Norwegian Sea will serve as a starting point to develop similar sustainable technologies in other sea basins. Model validation, resulting from the joint effort of the partners, will lead to fine-tuning and optimization processes for the numerical tools.

The numerical modeling will generate accurate three-dimensional sound maps resulting from existing models and in-house codes that will provide useful information on the effective noise-generation mechanisms. The maps will guide the process of identification of mitigation measures of noise emission.

Noise reduction measures already taken into consideration by various ship-building firms will be evaluated for their effectiveness with a science-based approach.  Underwater noise impacts will be assessed on selected marine taxa tailored to each sea basin.

The joint effort among the partners will contribute to implementing a coordinated international approach to effectively manage underwater noise pollution.

The project will deliver an economic analysis of costs and benefits coupled with a marine spatial planning analysis. Given the difficulty to reliably monetize benefits, a cost effectiveness analysis is suggested to find the best balance between noise reduction and economic cost minimization. Starting from the list of measures that can be adopted to reduce noise, we will analyze their cost components: investment and variable cost.

The project's results will use marine data from Copernicus Marine service and EMODnet and will be broadly available and accessible to decision-making bodies and represent a benchmark for the relevant stakeholders.

Long term impacts of BluEcho will be: 1) the contribution to the development of new decision-support tools; 2) the promotion and integration of initiatives and support to interconnectivity of policies among regional sea basins; 3) the enhanced cooperation, co-design, and activity alignment with stakeholders beyond academia.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-368
Project acronym
BluEcho
Project start date
Project end date

From waste to taste: exploring innovative food applications of postharvest fish losses

WASTE2TASTE is a network of 8 European partners including academia, research centers, and SME’s, with proven expertise in higher education and endowed with state-of-the-art scientific and technical expertise aimed at the development of commercially viable products by using postharvest fish losses (PHFL), including unwanted fishery by-catch species (e.g., non-indigenous species (NIS)  and cartilaginous fish with low commercial value) and by-products from fish processing and aquaculture industries. 

The main WASTE2TASTE objective is the valorization of PHFL, showing potential applications in a circular economy and an eco-friendly vision by developing protocols for sustainable exploitation of underused and/or wasted marine resources, to obtain high-value products for food applications. The base of WASTE2TASTE is to utilize PHFL, naturally rich in proteins and bioactive compounds, to develop innovative green and cost-effective bioprocesses for the production of marine ingredients (e.g., collagen, chitin/chitosan, and fish oil), reducing extraction time and use of hazardous solvents/enzymes allowing, at the same time, to minimize pollution into the ecosystem.

Therefore, WASTE2TASTE will (i) contribute to reducing the waste volume through the development of appropriate PHFL management measures, (ii) allow to address the European "ZeroWaste" goal aiming at the 3R principle "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle”, (iii) contribute to achieve a resilient and sustainable development for marine/maritime sector and, in an indirect way, (iv) allow to mitigate the NIS, which cause damage to marine ecosystems and humans. The challenge is to gain insights into market opportunities that will be profitable and will satisfy new and different attitudes/demands of consumers. 

Overall, WASTE2TASTE will fully exploit the potential of underutilized marine biological resources, from laboratory to industrial scale production of marine collagen and chitosan-based products, with potential commercial uses that reach Technological Readiness Level 7. WASTE2TASTE will create a nutritional end product targeting different end-users’ health issues (e.g., exercise performance, muscle growth, joint problems, gut health, and obesity).

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-61
Project acronym
WASTE2TASTE
Project start date
Project end date

Functional processing of cultivated seaweeds for novel food products

One of our most pressing societal challenges today is feeding the growing world population in a sustainable manner. The present global food system causes major environmental problems, including land degradation, loss of biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, water usage and pollution. There is thus a great need for novel food resources that are healthy, safe, and nutritious, and at the same time cause less emission of greenhouse gases, pollutants, and excess nutrients, and do not further compromise the sustainability and biodiversity of natural resources. Cultivated macroalgae are a staple of the Asian diets and can have a bigger contribution to more sustainable food systems, but still faces challenges in penetrating western markets due to an inherently low nutritional content, low versatility and inclusion rates in foods because of sensory properties, lacking innovation in product development, and knowledge gaps regarding safety and health benefits.  

The FunSea project aims to enhance nutritional quality, safety and functional properties of cultivated brown and green algae as food ingredients, through development of new sustainable processing technologies and utilization of side streams and residual biomass from seaweed production as well as other aquaculture industries and fisheries. The project will further develop and characterize novel food prototypes toward a wide European market, and assess environmental, economic, and regulatory aspects along the value chain from biomass production to finished products. The consortium consists of four research partners (SINTEF, Lund University, Aalborg University, Fraunhofer IMTE), one public body (Marine centre Simrishams municipality) and two industry partners (Seaweed Solutions, Bettafish) representing four countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany) and will utilize marine resources from the Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea. Key technologies in the project include biomass cultivation and pre-processing, enzymatic and microbial processing, food technology, and environmental analysis. The FunSea project will develop new knowledge, methodology and prototypes based on renewable and sustainable marine biomasses, contributing to the growth of the blue economy, development of scientific excellence, and solutions toward key societal challenges.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-892
Project acronym
FunSea
Project start date
Project end date

Fundo Azul

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FA
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Av. Dr. Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho N.6 1495-165 Algés

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catarina.resende@dgpm.mm.gov.pt
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The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership represents an unprecedent effort of 74 Partner institutions from 30 countries and the European Commission to pool research and innovation investments and align national programmes at pan-European scale. As a Horizon Europe co-funded partnership, its strategy takes into consideration the R&I agendas of the sea basins (Mediterranean, Black Sea, Baltic and North Sea) and the Atlantic Ocean and builds on lessons learned from previous initiatives.    

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Improved Valorization of Marine Sources and Processing Waste for Resource Efficient Blue Food/Feed and Environmentally Sustainable Materials Development

Impact-oriented utilization pathways for new sustainable, unexploited low trophic marine resources and fish/aquaculture wastes are one of the key pillars of sustainable transformation of EU blue economy. SEAREFINERY aims to establish a novel bio-based blue food/feed and blue food packaging materials production platform by embracing marine-based sources and wastes targeting five seas. The SEAREFINERY concept will be designed within a multidisciplinary and smart collaboration platform for developing a breakthrough eco-centric strategy considering the local sources, economic and social perspectives at transnational level within the EU. The specific aims of SEAREFINERY includes extraction of high value-added compounds from invasive species, low trophic organisms and marine derived by-products, utilisation of marine-based extracted materials for development of blue food analogues (meat and cheese), functional bread, and smart and active food packaging materials, valorisation of aquaculture and fish waste for blue feed production via bacterial fermentation and microalgae cultivation, a systematic evaluation of the products based on environmental impacts, market analysis, and consumer acceptance followed by a multi-criteria decision making analysis. 

At the end of the project, this pin-point novel approach will fulfill the needs for restoring and preservation of the marine ecosystem, the need for valorisation of marine resources for sustainable blue economy, the needs and requirements of society and end-users as well as it will allow for new business models and investment schemes.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-939
Project acronym
SEAREFINERY
Project start date
Project end date

Innovative design and operation for rare earth material reduction and optimized lifetime for next generation offshore wind-based hydrogen production

In the green hydrogen - the hydrogen from renewable energy such as offshore wind - the rare earth materials (REE) play an important role in the magnet and catalyst needed for both offshore wind and the hydrogen production, respectively. The high production concentration, a growing Chinese domestic market demand and an increased worldwide geopolitical political tensions can pose a high supply risk for Europe. REE production comes also with significant environmental impacts. Some estimations show that for every ton of REE, 2,000 tons of toxic waste, including radioactive waste, are produced. Therefore, as a key pathway for the EU’s net zero commitment, hydrogen produced by wind energy’s potential needs to be fully unlocked. This requires disruptive technologies to achieve this goal.

INSPIRE is born in response to the priority area “Development of offshore marine multi-use infrastructures to support the blue economy” to combine marine renewable energy constructions with hydrogen production, to develop multi-use structures and materials to reduce, recycle, reuse and being resistance to extreme environmental conditions. To reach these goals we have set up a consortium of industrial and research partners to optimize green hydrogen system design methodology with minimum REE, to deliver a reference design of an optimized open access 25x15 MW floating wind-hydrogen with minimized REE and optimized lifetime, to implement AI-based wind-hydrogen production optimization and to establish a pathway towards implementation in policy and industrial standards.

The core ambition of INSPIRE is to deliver innovative optimized design for REE reduction, and AI-based optimized operation for integrated hydrogen-wind system as well as road maps for EU policy makers.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-440
Project acronym
INSPIRE
Project start date
Project end date

Integral valorisation of seaweed biomass for the development of sustainable, high nutritional quality food products

SEAFOODTURE is an ambitious project which aims to contribute towards an integral valorisation of seaweeds for the production of sustainable, high nutritional quality food products. The project combines research activities dealing with: sustainable cultivation of seaweeds; development of protein-rich ingredients and seaweed-based food products through green technologies; production of bio-based packaging materials; structural and techno-functional characterization; assessment of nutritional quality and digestibility; sensorial and consumer studies to bring the products closer to the final markets; and life cycle assessment (LCA) and socio-economic analysis, to ensure the environmental social and economic sustainability. This will be achieved by combining the complementary and multidisciplinary expertise of the European academic and industry partners involved in this proposal and the participation of relevant stakeholders.

The food industry is facing great challenges, motivated by society’s needs and environmental concerns. The rapid population growth is pushing food production towards its limits, and reliance on animal-based protein sources puts additional strain on the environment. Moreover, plant protein sources need to be complemented by novel cultivars, less dependent on the use of water and lands. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop additional protein-rich food products with high nutritional quality by exploiting non-traditional sources. Seaweeds are attracting great interest due to their advantages over land biomass; however, they are still largely unexplored as foods, which is mostly due to (i) the lack of sustainable and robust strategies for the supply of seaweed biomass, (ii) the scarce knowledge on their techno-functional and nutritional properties, which makes it challenging to process them and ensure product stability/safety at industrial scale, (iii) the knowledge gap with regards to the digestibility and bioaccessibility of their proteins and (iv) the low awareness of consumers in European countries towards seaweed-based products. In this project, we aim to exploit the full potential of seaweeds as an alternative and sustainable protein source by investigating the techno-functional and nutritional properties of protein-rich products in which proteins will be combined with other components such as dietary fibres, providing health and techno-functional benefits. Furthermore, with the aim of minimizing the amount of waste generated through the manufacturing process, residues obtained after the extraction of protein-rich ingredients will be used to generate bio-based food packaging materials. This will allow to develop novel seaweed-based food products through a circular economy approach. The project is expected to have a strongly positive impact on the seaweed industry, fostering an efficient biomass utilization to generate high added value products and promoting the consumption of seaweed-based foods amongst EU consumers.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-39
Project acronym
SEAFOODTURE
Project start date
Project end date

Intervention Area: Blue Bioresources

Intervention Area: Blue Bioresources

This Intervention Area addresses research and innovation needs to support a just transition to the sustainable production and utilization of blue bioresources, with emphasis on production and processes that minimise the environmental impacts while meeting the demand for healthy and affordable blue food, feed, and other biobased products.  

 

 

IA4

Background and rationale 

The EU Green Deal sets the context for Europe’s blue economy to become sustainable and climate-neutral by 2050. The Blue Bioeconomy represents an important component of the broader blue economy, delivering food, feed and bio-based products for internal and export markets. With the completion of the Horizon 2020 BlueBio ERA-Net in 2023, the SBEP becomes a key implementing mechanism in Horizon Europe for blue bioeconomy R&D. To achieve sustainability, it is important to consider all stages of the bioresources value chain, from production (capture fisheries, aquaculture) to seafood processing, extracting value from waste streams, developing new types of biomasses, new food and non-food products, as well as advanced extraction technologies such as those used in biorefineries. Cooperation will be sought with the FutureFoodS partnership, which will focus on the post-farming and -fishing part of food systems. 

Key considerations to be taken on board in this Intervention Area include the importance of engaging with industry and stakeholders and if relevant, the application of multi/trans-disciplinary approaches to address complex challenges, including social sciences and humanities.  

Key thematic areas 

Sustainable Fisheries and Harvesting    

Overexploitation and the cumulative impact of overfishing with the effects of pollutants, climate change and other drivers on susceptible species and ecosystems is leading to unsustainable scenarios for the next decades. To bring Europe's fish stocks back to sustainable levels, there are important challenges remaining. More food, feed or biotic resources for other purposes can be obtained from more targeted fisheries and harvesting by improved management of overfished stocks, optimized fishing technologies and practices to reduce bycatch and discards, and increased fishing and harvesting of underutilised species (i.e., zooplankton, other invertebrates, macroalgae). A forward-looking ecosystem-based management approach under EU legislation yet tailored to local conditions will reduce adverse impacts of fishing and harvesting on marine ecosystems, particularly sensitive species, and on vulnerable habitats. The sustainability of mesopelagic fisheries is still being assessed and there is a unique opportunity to ensure that EBM is embedded from the outset. New digital tools such as remote electronic monitoring systems, catch reporting using mobile applications, ecosystem modelling and artificial intelligence tools can optimize both small- and large-scale fishing operations. At the same time such technologies can enable data collection and analysis that can support development of sustainable management practices, while providing full traceability for our seafood. Assessments and solution scenarios should consider the impact and social implications of combined drivers such as habitat degradation, pollution, warming, water stratification and acidification, as well as their effects, such as changes in ecosystem composition, higher frequency of toxic algal blooms and alterations with species migration and phenology. 

Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • Integrated approaches to innovation for fishing vessels to improve vessel operations and practices including technology for e.g., location (also to contrast illegal fisheries), and water characteristics, catch logistics, while reducing the use of fossil fuels.  

  • Exploring and co-developing with industry the potential for new fishing techniques, technologies, and new resources for small-scale fisheries, and seaweed harvesting.  

  • Research to inform policy options and management of migratory fish stocks that spend different parts of their life cycle in different jurisdictions. This is a critical issue for the EU Common Fisheries Policy and co-management of stocks between EU and third countries.  

  • Supporting the application of ecosystem-based management approaches to inshore and small-scale fisheries management.  

  • Understanding the impacts of climate change and human activities including pollution on commercial fisheries, fish stocks and other species with commercial potential. 

  • Understanding cross-compliance, alignment and trade-offs between fisheries policy and management with other policy domains (MSP, MSFD, WFD) and the implications of measures associated with the EU Nature Restoration Law on fishing and fishers.   

  • Technological advancements to preserve the nutritional value and use for new types of catch or harvest.  

  • Increased R&I efforts to improve the understanding of species’ role in the trophic webs, as well as their growth potential as seen in an integrated sustainability and biodiversity-resilience perspective, including the knowledge in concrete management solutions (based on managers’ needs). 

  • Understanding the social and economic drivers of change in commercial fisheries to inform both fisheries, economic and regional development policy and planning. 

  • R&I that supports new digital tools for monitoring for well-informed and timely decision making and sustainable management considering the impact and societal costs of stressors such as habitat degradation, pollution, and climate change.  

  • Development of more selective fishing gears that reduce environmental impact, particularly in the bottom-contact fisheries, and for harvesting new species including macroalgae. Focus can also be on improving fish welfare and increasing traceability. 

 

Aquaculture 

Production of safe, secure food and sustainable bioproducts through aquaculture, has a margin for improvements in respect of diversification, competitiveness, and environmental performance. Aquaculture production should be rethought to satisfy growing consumer demand for blue food, as well as the need for innovative blue bioproducts, while enhancing the social, economic, and environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality of the production. This requires targeted technological advancements and diversified production solutions also considering regional and local differences throughout Europe. Integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA), off-shore production, closed systems, or land-based infrastructure with use of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), are options for culturing of established and new species. Diversification of species, in particular the expansion and production of organisms of the primary and/or low trophic levels, face several challenges that need technological advancements. For macroalgae there is a need for R&I that supports spatial considerations as well as new offshore production techniques that require further development and facilities, including larger-scale farms, mechanisation, and methods for further processing after harvest. The new and modified technological and digital systems should favour and promote the health and welfare and quality of the farmed fish. 

Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • Challenges and opportunities associated with further development and expansion of seaweed production, including but not limited to environmental concerns, e.g., light, nutrients’ uptake, vectors for diseases, parasites and spread of invasive species; risk of genetic impact on wild seaweed populations; challenges of insufficient seed quality and varying nutritional levels; food safety challenges due to bioaccumulation of heavy metals; new methods for processing harvested seaweed, taking into account the subsequent value chain (e.g. through biorefinery).  

  • Development of biologically, technically, and economically feasible onshore recirculating aquaculture systems opportunities for fish, shellfish, and seaweed. 

  • Challenges and opportunities associated with mollusc production, including but not limited to algal blooms as potential threats for food safety; cost/benefits for longer distance offshore production. 

  • Innovative alternative solutions to produce established and new species, including integrated multitrophic aquaculture, new systems associated with other economic off-shore activities, closed or land-based systems.   

  • New high value and sustainable feed sources to ensure sufficient and balanced feeds that promote fish quality, health, and welfare. 

  • Challenges and opportunities for growth in fed mariculture, including but not limited to sustainable and healthy feed, fish health optimization environmental concerns, and food safety issues due to bioaccumulation and biomagnification of xenobiotics.  

 

Enabling a circular blue bioeconomy 

Transitioning to a circular blue bioeconomy, whereby the entire biomass of fish, shellfish and seaweed sourced from capture fisheries and aquaculture is utilised, presents both challenges and opportunities. Current policy and regulation can be a barrier to developing new bio-products from waste or side streams (by-catch, rest raw materials etc.), and there is a growing body of evidence to support policy reform. New, sustainable, high-value products can be developed through a biorefinery approach, by e.g., valorisation of waste streams, and contributes to minimising waste and enhancing the value chain. Further exploration of the synergies between blue (aquatic farming) and green (agriculture) is another opportunity in a fully circular blue bioeconomy. For example, side streams from agriculture could be used in aquaculture or bio stimulants derived from marine sources could be used in agriculture. New solutions are also needed for existing challenges e.g., seaweed as bioplastic.  

Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • Opportunities for developing new sustainable bio-based products (food/feed/chemical/pharmaceutical/material) or services to accelerate the ocean economy and provide solutions for existing challenges.  

  • Post-harvest or processing technology to overcome sensory and other drawbacks to increase consumer acceptance for new products.   

  • R&I in support of traceability of bio-based products from marine sources through digitalisation. 

  • R&I that supports policy reform with respect to regulations on use of waste or side streams for a variety of new bio-based products (food/feed/chemical/pharmaceutical/nutraceutical/material). 

 

Implementation, enablers, and synergies  

R&I topics will be formulated for calls for proposals, where projects will be expected to involve a broad range of scientific disciplines, industry partners, citizens, and policy stakeholders order to meet the stated objectives and the quadruple helix ambition. Relevant additional activities could include bringing together diverse marine stakeholder to co-develop objectives, assessing the access and status of research, testing, and demonstration facilities, or supporting the uptake of innovative solutions. 

Synergies and complementarity will be sought through dialogue with other relevant and potential overlapping initiatives, particularly EU partnerships Biodiversa+, FutureFoodS, Water4All, and Animal Health and Welfare; actions under the Mission Restore our Oceans and Waters (Mission Ocean); the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE-JU) and Waterborne platform. It is important to ensure that new knowledge, products, or services stemming from Cluster 5 and 6 calls are taken up in relevant blue sectors (by both production and value chain stakeholders). 

Outcomes and Impacts 

  • Examples of outcomes from R&I investment in this area: Sustainably produced, nutritious, affordable and climate friendly blue food; diversification of food, feed and other feedstock for products with focus on lower trophic levels; more healthy food, fish, fish stocks and healthier marine ecosystems; improved production efficiencies, for seafood products; greater understanding of the impacts of climate change and human activities on commercial fisheries and fish stock; value chain approaches; aquatic bio-productions that are regionally adapted, well integrated into area-based management, with more selective and less damaging fishing techniques; deployment of new technical solutions, digital, nature-based and social innovations as well as community-led and purpose-driven technology for the blue food sectors.  

  • Environmental impacts: reduced overfishing by supporting legislation to reducing fishing pressure on overexploited species; optimized technology for reduced bycatch and disincentivising its exploitation; supporting the industry shift towards carbon neutrality by development of more selective and less energy-consuming technologies and procedures​; Reduced impact of fisheries on marine habitats​. 

  • Social impacts: more informed consumers​; improved understanding of social and economic drivers of change in the blue bioeconomy and in economic and regional development policy and planning; uptake of innovative fishing gear​ 

  • Economic impacts: productive and competitive greening of the fisheries, aquaculture and processing sectors​; improved traceability and labelling of blue food​; increase in the number of blue-green companies, products, processes and services​; reduced import dependencies and strengthened tech industries; policy and management options to inform EU (CFP) and third-party negotiations in respect of migratory species.  

 

 

Intervention Area: Blue Economy Sectors

Intervention Area: Blue Economy Sectors

The main aim of this Intervention Area is to support the development of Blue Economy sectors and the optimal use of resources in European oceans and seas in terms of space and material flows while ensuring the conditions for sustainability and reducing environmental pressures. 

 

 

Image removed.

Background and rationale 

The ocean industries face several common challenges which can be tackled more efficiently by stimulating cross-sectorial technological cooperation and ensure the transitions needed. The key drivers of technological development are sustainability, safety in operation, green and cost-efficient solutions. 

Within the broader policy framework of the Partnership, the aim of the Intervention Area is to bolster long-term sustainable purpose-driven technological innovations. The Intervention Area is not limited to any sector or activity but covers the entire blue economy, focusing on the prerequisites for a green and digital transition of these sectors and on the conditions for co-existence and multi-use of activities and infrastructures at sea. Through this Intervention Area the Partnership will support marine and maritime contributions to curbing greenhouse gas emissions towards net zero and solutions for climate related mitigation and adaptation (e.g., Ocean-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal) that strengthen societal and economic resilience against climate-change impacts. The Intervention Area focuses on actions that will bring us closer to sustainability, whether in relation to materials (cf., EU Waste Framework Directive, Critical Raw Materials initiative) and/or helping to minimise conflicts deriving from the demands for space at sea or at the coast. 

The activities within the Blue Economy sectors represent highly complex multi-actor social-ecological systems. The transition of these sectors will therefore include broad industrial stakeholder involvement and a diversified funding strategy. Common challenges within all highlighted target areas include regulatory and legal constraints and opportunities, social acceptance of the developments for existing and emerging sectors, socio-economic considerations for a just transition, and broad and inclusive approaches based on principles of social innovation (attitudes and perceptions; learning, networking, and collaboration; and scale, scope, and resonance). Other common challenges are related to corporate social responsibility and social acceptance and license to operate, and the need for new or improved tools and regimes to manage complex safety, security and risk conditions arising from increased co-existence and multi-use structures, including considering biodiversity and cross sectoral issues.  

Key thematic areas 

This Intervention Area contains two strongly connected sub-areas. There are equally strong linkages with the intervention areas on digital twin solutions, and on marine spatial planning. The focus here is on the material and spatial intervention aspects. 

1. Transitioning the Blue Economy 

Actions under this Intervention Area should emphasise technology and process development, solution orientation, and integrated approaches to develop the sustainable Blue Economy in the context of climate change and natural hazard challenges. Projects and their clusters should plan a clear path (e.g., value chain perspective) from new knowledge and innovative services and/or products, to a possible service offer to end-users and how to address demands by end-users. 

There are several critical needs that require specific attention and investment to advance nature-based solutions (NBS) for ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in their biotic (e.g., seaweed cultivation, artificial upwelling) or abiotic (ocean alkalinity enhancement) shape. Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • Tools, techniques, and processes, such as ocean sensors to track NBS impacts, methods for cultivating and sinking seaweed and risk assessments. 

  • Developing sufficient understanding for scientists and policymakers to assess overall environmental, social and economic impacts (including multi-use) on the ocean and society. 

  • Creation of markets and business models: identification of opportunities for profit within appropriate bounds of social license. 

 

The high material intensity of maritime activities, taking account of rapid changes in energy systems, requires full consideration of transition to circularity for existing and upcoming sea-based activities. As an example, the rapid development and expansion of offshore wind requires intensified R&I to better understand the environmental impacts (example: marine habitats and ecosystems, migration routes for birds) and possible technical solutions to alleviate negative impacts). Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • Decommissioning options in existing and upcoming segments of the energy sector at meso (type) and macro (sector segment) level. 

  • Business models for possible investment mechanisms to facilitate the re-use of installations addressed from a legal, environmental, and economical perspective. 

  • Innovation for reducing environmental externalities of new installations and of options for future decommissioning at micro (installation) and meso (type) level, and reuse of materials. 

  • ‘Materials and Nature-Based Solutions’: compatibilities and incompatibilities of material uses in view of enhancing natural functions and/or enabling reuse and recycling. 

 

2. Improve co-existence and multi-use infrastructures 

In view of the increasing demand for space, activities and functions at sea, multi-use spatial concepts, including multi-use infrastructures, brings a potential for synergistic benefits for associated sectors. At the same time, the risk of conflicts and negative environmental effects needs to be minimised. Any multi-use of installations or space increases the complexity compared to a ‘single-use’ situation and requires cost-benefit analysis to understand and valorise its economic and social value chain (e.g., research and innovation, new job profiles, diversification of the tourism sector) and make informed decisions as to its benefit for society and the environment. As an example, industry actors can support multi-use by proposing possible investment mechanisms to facilitate the re-use of installations from a legal, environmental, and economical perspective.  

Crowding of space may result in industrial activities moving to further offshore areas, and climate change will generate a more hostile environment for marine and maritime operations (higher sea states, more frequent extreme events). Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • How to deal with increased challenges for operations and platforms, for which management and monitoring of operations will need intelligent, faster, and more reliable control systems for remote intervention, including data simulation of potential accidents and spills, efficient strategies for prevention/containment, and consequent environmental remediation approaches.  

  • Mechanisms to promote sustainable, safe and secure coexistence of several spatial functions and activities within the Blue Economy, and how to address such coexistence within the legal, economic, social, managerial, and policy context. 

  • How to combine infrastructure, functions, and logistics: For example, energy produced at sea can be used for aquaculture farms, hydrogen production, and desalinization, whereas hydrogen can also be used as a vector to transfer energy on shore, or to refuel ships propelled by hydrogen.  

 

Implementation, enablers, and synergies  

Direct engagement with stakeholders from the industry is foreseen to reflect the range of sectors addressed within this Intervention Area. R&I activities will involve multiple domains including mathematics/physics, maritime, marine and aquaculture sciences, science diplomacy, economics, legal studies, and political sciences, and extend to research infrastructures and their authorities responsible at national level, and NGOs. Co-creation is foreseen by aligning activities with those of the EU Mission 'Restore our Ocean and Waters' and their regional lighthouses.  

A range of tools are foreseen to enable R&I, including Knowledge Hubs, fora with industry to understand gaps and needs, capacity building for countries without expertise in marine structures, and R&I call(s). A successful implementation will need the support of innovative NBS and purpose-driven and smart digital technologies, e.g., simulations, risk assessments and planning purposes, automated data collection and monitoring, models, taxonomy. There is good potential for engagement of in-kind infrastructures such as test-basins, simulation facilities, Digital Twin technologies, and research platforms. 

Outcomes and Impacts 

  • Examples of outcomes from R&I investment in this area: solutions for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, targeting climate neutrality in the Blue Economy, strengthening societal and economic resilience against climate-change impacts, and targeting climate neutrality from marine and maritime infrastructures. Improved assessments of ecological dynamics versus socioeconomic needs; New knowledge, tools, information, platforms and incentives to support actors from all sectors to drive the just and inclusive transition; piloting of multi-use structures; science-based recommendations for blue economic development to policymakers; support for bio- and ecological observation networks through multi-use of structures. 

  • Environmental impacts: Improved marine biodiversity & ecosystems and increased clean energy generation; More agile frameworks developed to cater to environmental challenges; Increased uptake of nature-based solutions; Increased resilience of the whole ecosystems (including fisheries) 

  • Social impacts: Generation of sustainable blue growth and markets in alignment with stakeholder interests and consumers’ rights; opportunities for new working life skills and knowledge; social acceptance of improved and new uses of ocean structures, including within the Blue Economy sectors, is achieved, and affected citizens and workers are engaged in the development. 

  • Economic impacts: generation of sustainable blue markets and opportunities; introduction into the EU legislation the allocation of areas devoted to renewable energy production. 

 

 

Intervention Area: Digital Twins of the Ocean

Intervention Area: Digital Twins of the Ocean

The concept approach of this Intervention Area is the development and validation of Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs) at sub-basin scale. It is a multidisciplinary, long-lasting research and innovation activity that focuses on the development of twin technology for spatially limited areas at sea-basin level. The activity aims to improve our understanding of the relations among essential systems at sea-basin level and ultimately support the development of AI based simulation and prediction capabilities for European oceans. 

 

 

IA1

Background and rationale 

The development of digital twins, including DTOs, offers realistic digital representations of assets, processes, or systems in the built or natural environment. DTOs enable users to provide answers to “what if” questions in the context of ocean development, a sustainable blue economy and effective maritime spatial planning. By combining large amount of data and information with data-driven models for relevant sea systems and their interdependency DTO applications will allow for user-driven scenario building of effects of natural processes and anthropogenic activities on the marine environment. This ability will enhance planning rapid responses to unexpected events at sea and provide innovative, interactive, and user-driven tools available to citizens, entrepreneurs, scientists, and policymakers.  

The concept approach of this Intervention Area – the development and validation of DTOs at sub-basin scale – is a multidisciplinary, long-lasting research and innovation activity. The initial focus will be on some spatially limited areas at sea-basin level at low TRL to improve our understanding of the relations among the essential processes and system components of the marine environment. The aim is to develop holistic types of DTOs that include and model all essential systems and their interactions: circulation and currents, waves, tides, interaction with the atmosphere, but also seabed and sediments, coasts and estuaries, animal and plant life, the ecosystem, and socio-economic activities and impacts. DTO applications for scenarios should connect to the marine environment but also to blue economy activities at local level. The development of accurate, validated, holistic DTOs at sub-basin scale will include several phases, notably the selection of targeted sub-basins, the collection of relevant data for these areas, the development of data-driven AI models representing the essential processes that characterize these basins, and the evaluation of the mutual interactions among the systems. Further steps include the combination with existing physics-based models, the development of digital systems and new sensors, development of a data-lake for storage of constantly increasing and heterogeneous data (to feed the AI simulators), the development of the framework for computation of multidisciplinary equilibrium among the systems, and numerical solution via large High-Performance Computing (HPC) architectures. Finally, this DTO approach will require constant test and validation of models' predictions, as well as specialized tools for access, rapid analysis, and dynamic visualization of the data and the predicted solutions.    

This Intervention Area is complementary to the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (European DTO) under the EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters and will complement key initiatives such as the EDITO library of models/ EMODnet and ILIAD.   The activity is closely linked with the assessment and improvement the EU observing system under EOOS, and it will require deployment and coordination with ocean related ESFRI Research Infrastructures. 

Key thematic areas 

Actions under this Intervention Area will be dedicated to development of DTO models at sub-basin scale, i.e., spatially limited areas within sea-basins. This will provide accurate information on the limits and knowledge gaps of single/interconnected sub-modules (physical, biogeochemical, ecosystem, socio-economic) and details for integrating spatial hierarchical models. Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • Mapping and understanding user requirements for models, based on input from relevant communities (research, business, management), and turning this knowledge into applications based on stakeholder requirements. 
  • Identifying and assessing data gaps and available data and doing uncertainty quantification of the data and models relevant to selected use cases at a sub-sea-basin scale. 
  • New sensors and innovative approaches to fill identified data gaps to provide more and more accurate information on sub-systems. 
  • Understanding the essential systems characterizing one selected area and mapping the need for additional AI models where existing models do not apply.  
  • General frameworks for exchanging information between models.  

 

A close scientific and expert cooperation and coordination is needed to ensure appropriate timing, complementarities, convergence, and interoperability with other ongoing and planned DTO initiatives, notably under the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters”, Horizon Europe actions (Cluster 6), national projects, and DTO core infrastructures. 

Implementation, enablers, and synergies 

In addition to cash calls for R&I proposals, there is good potential for in-kind contribution and engaging observing systems and national monitoring efforts to ensure harmonization of data collection and better coverage and frequency of measurements to improve the fundamental modelling. 

Relevant SRIA enablers for achieving the targets include FAIR data; SSH integration and social innovation, considering the socioeconomic and coastal community aspects of area specific modelling; training activity that address human capacity needs; social innovation and rules for practical applications; sustainable financing of infrastructures.  

Synergies will be sought with activities under Horizon Europe, including EU Mission actions, Copernicus, EOOS, UN Decade, Mercator, DITTO, ILIAD, and EMODnet, relevant RIs, and national projects and activities. 

Outcomes and Impacts  

  • Examples of outcomes from R&I investment in this area: Sub-basin ODT; Intelligent environmental monitoring systems and new sensor technology; synergies between available data networks.  
  • Environmental impacts: Planning and adaptation strategies put in place to tackle environmental and climate change.    
  • Social impacts: better stakeholder engagement (incl. citizens), inter-institutional collaborations & investments. 
  • Economic impacts: Higher use of intelligent DSS by industry, municipalities and coastal communities, and potential for circular business models    

 

 

Intervention Area: Managing Sea-Uses

Intervention Area: Managing Sea-Uses

This Intervention Area addresses the need for innovative tools and approaches to the sustainable planning and management of sea-uses, interlinking maritime spatial planning (MSP), the marine strategy framework directive (MSFD), common fishery policy (CFP), and the marine protected areas (MPAs) with a focus on the regional dimension.  

 

 

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Background and rationale 

Planning and managing sea-uses are essential for sustainable resource management, conservation of marine ecosystems, conflict resolution, disaster risk reduction, economic development, and addressing climate change challenges. By adopting an integrated and holistic approach to planning and management, societies can ensure the long-term health, productivity, and resilience of the oceans, seas, and coastal areas.  

The boundaries and operational objectives for sustainable development and Good Environmental Status are defined under the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Within this framework ecosystem-based management (EBM) of human uses and Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) plays an important role in achieving Europe’s objectives of decarbonisation and biodiversity protection by supporting more efficient use of marine space, while reducing conflicting uses and inefficiencies in transport and related facilities (EC COM (2021)240 final). MSP plays a crucial role in defining suitable space for Blue Economy sectors to operate, while assessing and mitigating their cumulative impacts and promoting coexistence with other sea uses. 

The overarching goal of this Intervention Area is to support science-based decision making that takes stock of environmental status, the legacy of human impacts, climate change trends, and future scenarios, considering multitude of pressures from uses of marine space and marine resources. The Intervention Area focuses on R&I needs related to Ecosystems-based management and Maritime Spatial Planning, aiming to support cross-border cooperation and management of marine protected areas, innovative tools for decision making that combine data from various sectors, as well as knowledge generation on areas such as Good Environmental Status (GES), the valuation of ecosystem services, and the carbon sequestration capacity of coastal restoration programs. The Intervention Area also encompasses reconstructions of seafloor changes in 4D in areas of significant natural dynamic and/or heavy human impact, R&I needs within maritime surveillance, as well as more inclusive processes for development of decision support-systems. Co-design, co-development, and co-use with MSP competent authorities at national and regional level will be essential to ensure direct capitalization of results and to widen the information basis available to relevant authorities, particularly by including socio economic data sources. 

Key thematic areas 

1. Fostering the full use of scientific knowledge for effective management and conservation   

Assessments of ecosystem health is a prerequisite for effective environmental management and conservation. Innovative research on this topic will provide essential data for the identification of suitable areas for diverse uses, minimizing conflicts and maximizing sustainable development. Ecosystem based management, including MSP, requires high resolution mapping of marine underwater morphology, and marine uses and quantification of indicators describing ecosystem distribution, health and pressures caused by human uses and of ecosystem services which will provide essential tools for ecosystem health assessment, spatial management of the marine domain, and implementation of restoration measures. The temporal evolution of the monitored variables, either abiotic (seafloor morphology, sediment dynamics, etc.) or biotic (community structure and function) are relevant for MSP, and other marine policies, notably the MSFD. Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • Research to improve understanding of the harm caused by all diverse types of litter (assessment of marine litter). 

  • Further development (and validation) of frameworks for assessment of sound impacts on populations and the ecosystem, including relation between direct responses and population consequences, spatial risk‐assessment approaches, and population modelling, considering the MSFD assessment of the distribution of reported impulsive sounds. 

  • Development of suitable population dynamics models to support the setting of absolute abundance assessment values for sensitive fish species (assessment of the Recovery in the Population Abundance of Sensitive Fish Species). 

  • Research to better implement integrated economical, ecological, and social ocean health indicators into marine ecosystem management tools. 

  • Provision of essential data for enhanced understanding of marine ecosystems and geology and effective environmental management and conservation and supporting the identification of suitable areas for different uses, minimizing conflicts, and maximizing sustainable development.  

 

2. Development of innovative Decision Support Tools (DSTs)  

MSP is recognized today as an essential tool to prevent conflict between policy priorities and to reconcile nature conservation with economic development (EC COM (2021) 240 final). Its complexity requires sophisticated tools to analyse and visualise data, assess potential conflicts, and identify optimal solutions. DSTs can significantly enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of MSP processes. By integrating multiple data sources and modelling techniques, DST will allow decision-makers to evaluate different scenarios and provide for a better-informed decision-making by considering the broader impacts and interdependencies among different sea-uses. Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • New methodologies for integrating and operationalising socio-economic and socio-ecological aspects in MSP to quantitatively estimate environmental, social, and economic benefits of MSP in present and future scenarios. 

  • Filling knowledge gaps on pressures, states, and ecosystem functioning, as well as re-use potential of relevant data from existing repositories and broader sources. 

  • Explore transboundary scenarios and multi-lateral solutions (e.g., international protected areas; protection of highly mobile species and shared stocks and resources; environmental disasters; preparedness to marine hazards). 

  • Identifying environmental and socio-economic trends and drivers and building scenarios at sea basin and sub-sea basin scale for informed adaptive planning and management.  

  • advanced models for integrating multiple disciplines to create digital intelligent supporting tools (including Artificial Intelligence based) able to consider environmental processes, anthropogenic activities (coastal and sea uses), socio-economic and socio-ecological aspects. case studies and demonstrators of the concrete added value of the developed DSTs for specific sector planning demands, with a focus on coastal areas and land-sea interactions (e.g., offshore renewable energies, aquaculture, fisheries, maritime transport, coastal and maritime tourism and multi-use of marine space).  

  • Overcoming technical and non-technical barriers in co-using advanced DSTs in institutional MSP processes. 

  • Potential application of DSTs in non-EU countries across sea basins and environmental / sectoral policy domains other than MSP. 

 

3. Enhanced Marine and Maritime Surveillance 

Maritime Surveillance includes the protection of marine resources from illegal activities (fishery control, oil spill detection, environmental degradation monitoring etc.), food security, transport safety and the monitoring of critical marine infrastructures (e.g., renewable energy and aquaculture offshore platforms), key issues for a sustainable blue economy. Different observation systems for data acquisition (satellite and stratospheric-platform, including ship-borne observations), sharing and management are the fundamental tools of Maritime Surveillance.  

Activities should explore obstacles and opportunities for:  

  • integrating platforms and services for maritime surveillance through data sharing between the existing EU and national platforms. 

  • implementing platforms allowing the integration of marine and maritime data analytics with socio-economic data.  

  • Data from maritime surveillance to inform the implementation of monitoring processes. 

  • Embedding maritime surveillance into MSP, through dedicated zoning and management measures. 

 

4. The seafloor in 4D 

The uses of the coastal regions are often defined without taking in full account the sea-floor morphology and its dynamic evolution. This additional 'temporal' aspect adds a crucial fourth dimension (hence 4D) to seafloor sampling and surveying. Innovative strategies of repeated bathymetric surveys should be adopted in dynamic coastal and nearshore areas characterized by consistent sediment transport and consequent modification of the sea floor morphology. Such 4D information, and related big data, presented via accessible tools and formats is highly relevant for MSP, from the assessment to the planning and adapting phases, including awareness raising and proper engagement of stakeholders. Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • Performing intelligent seafloor sampling surveys  

  • Assessing seafloor ecosystem health, damage/degradation of marine habitat and effectiveness of restoration measures.  

  • Representations of the sea floor, including of human impacts, through augmented reality with emphasis on public dissemination and stakeholder engagement. 

 

Implementation, enablers, and synergies  

Cash calls for R&I proposals are important to address knowledge gaps, develop solutions, and build R&I capacity within the area. There is good potential for engaging observing systems and RIs through additional activities (in-kind contributions), e.g., in relation to maritime surveillance and seafloor sampling and observation. 

Innovative governance and integration of SSH are key enablers to achieve the goals. Research and innovation efforts are needed to address the lack of data standards and challenges of combining data from a variety of sources.  

The Intervention Area will build on input from relevant projects under HE (Cluster 6 Destination 1 topics in particular). It will align with EU Missions ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’ and 'Adaptation to Climate Change' and the DTO initiative. Among European Partnerships Biodiversa+; Artificial Intelligence (AI), data and robotics, Zero Emission Waterborne Transport, and FutureFoodS will be of relevance.  

Many organizations and initiatives at global and sea-basin scale are involved in promoting and implementing MSP, including from United Nations to the UNESCO/IOC to executing authorities of the Regional Sea Conventions to national governments implementing relevant European directives. 

Outcomes and Impacts 

  • Examples of outcomes from R&I investment in this area: enhanced capacity for R&I in support of MSP; co-designed AI-based DSTs for MSP; application of DSTs to case study areas/topics; framework conditions for a stronger ocean industry collaboration across sectors; identification of data-gaps; improved MSP plans, transferring DST results in the formal MSP processes & plans; tools for the implementation of relevant policies, strategies and directives; transdisciplinary and socio-ecological approaches for MSP processes at different scales; more coherent MSP in the same sea basin and overall; common tools and decisions and transfer of tools among stakeholders in the involved regions; several regions and MS involved in the process of MSP and development; more climate resilient and ecosystem-based MSP; improved co-design / co-planning, from strategic objectives to specific management measures; skills and education to enable use of digital support tools; 

  • Environmental impacts: avoidance of negative impacts on environment based on early identification. 

  • Social Impacts: improved public trust in the research-innovation-management chain; Improved public literacy regarding transformations of the seafloor and water mass 

  • Economic impacts: evidence-based decision making that greens the industry; decreased carbon footprint of blue economic drivers. 

 

 

Intervention Area: Resilient Coastal Communities and Businesses

Intervention Area: Resilient Coastal Communities and Businesses

This Intervention Area tackles the risks and opportunities for coastal communities, businesses, and infrastructures in the context of climate change and marine environmental degradation, addressing coastal and maritime tourism as well as the conditions for coastal social-ecological systems to deliver ecosystem-services for nature and people. The aim is to support interdisciplinary R&I to enable a just and efficient transition to low-impact, sustainable tourism, fostering resilience and delivering new economic opportunities and thriving coastal communities. 

 

 

IA5

Background and rationale 

For coastal regions and communities around Europe, tourism is a highly important economic activity that provides substantial employment. Coastal and maritime tourism represents about half of all tourism globally and is the largest sector of the EU Blue Economy in terms of GVA and employment. The sector was affected hard by the covid pandemic and is still recovering, with a GVA of €49.9bn generated by the sector in 2021, representing a 74% increase from 2020, but still a 38% contraction of pre-pandemic levels. In 2021 the sector employed 1.9m people in the EU (2.8 million in 2019) (EU Blue Economy Report 2024). The sector is highly dependent on the quality of marine and coastal environments but can also impact directly on those environments. Many of its activities also depend on coastal infrastructures, including for example small harbours and marinas, that provide an interface between the land and the sea but are in themselves exposed to risks from climate change and extreme weather impacts. Moreover, the social infrastructure of coastal communities is challenged by the seasonality of the tourism sector, and there is a need for greater economic diversification and improved digital infrastructure to encourage new economic activities in coastal communities.  

There are significant challenges and opportunities for coastal and marine tourism to achieve a transition from its currently unsustainable model and to manage exposure to environmental, economic and social risks. The aim of this IA is to support interdisciplinary research across natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and technology, as well as innovation to enable a just and efficient transition to low-impact, regenerative and sustainable tourism and coastal business that increases also the resilience of the communities in which these businesses are embedded. While focusing on coastal and maritime tourism, the knowledge generated under this Intervention Area could also apply to challenges that are common to other coastal businesses. 

Key thematic areas 

1. Low-impact, regenerative coastal tourism and business 

An increasing global population and middle class with access to disposable income, has led to a rise in tourism and the numbers of people travelling for recreational purposes. The covid pandemic, however, caused a major disruption to international tourism and impacted tourism business globally, including 75 million job losses and a tourism-induced GDP reduction of more than €2 trillion. As the sector recovers from the impacts of the pandemic, there are substantial opportunities for change and adaptation towards a more sustainable business model. Research in this area is needed to guide policy and planning to support a just and efficient transition towards low-impact, regenerative tourism.  

  • Identify opportunities for viable tourism products that help to reduce negative environmental impact, manage and restore local environments, and revitalise local and traditional culture and heritage.
  • Analysis of the energy usage and needs across marine and coastal tourism and strategies for reducing sectoral energy use and green-house gas emissions, transitioning to renewable energy, including electrification of recreational vessels and ground transportation.
  • Shifting tourist attitudes and behaviours to enable a transition to a lower impact, regenerative business models, reducing pollution, water and energy usage.
  • Understand willingness to pay for environmental measures to inform financial models and transition strategies to low-impact tourism.
  • Identify opportunities for citizen science as a tool to deliver co-benefits in terms of ocean literacy, environmental protection/restoration, and an activity that can form part of a viable business product.
  • Development of innovative digital products and services that inform decision-making and creation of new products for tourism operators.

 

2. Resilient coastal tourism and diversification of business 

Coastal tourism businesses operate in a continually evolving socio-economic context where seasonality, limited access to labour and tight profit margins are commonplace. These businesses are also highly dependent on the quality of the marine and coastal environment and are on the front line of climate and weather impacts. The threats they face are reflected more broadly by the threats to the coastal communities they support. An improved understanding of these pressures can inform more effective policies, planning and product development, as well as strategies to foster resilience in coastal communities and businesses and support diversification of coastal and marine-based enterprises.

Activities should address the following aspects: 

  • Research to understand the impacts posed to coastal business and communities by climate change (ocean warming, sea-level rise, biodiversity loss, etc.) and extreme weather events.
  • Strategies for strengthening ecosystem resilience in face of change coastal businesses against climatic, geological and anthropogenic hazards and social and economic risk factors.
  • Social innovation to enable diversification and eco-sustainability of coastal and marine-based enterprises and mechanisms to sustain such businesses.
  • Assess the impacts of diverse coastal activities on marine and coastal environments and co-dependencies between tourism and marine ecosystem health and biodiversity.
  • Understand the relationships and interdependencies between marine and coastal tourism and the communities in which they operate, including challenges linked to social/community unrest generated by mass tourism.
  • Improved understanding of financing instruments and incentves for innnovation that support new and sustainable job creation in the greeen-blue economy coastal communities.
  • Improved understanding of the impact of ‘social’ infrastructure (education, health, welfare) on the relocation of more diversified businesses to coastal areas.
  • Improve understanding of the social and cultural costs and benefits of sustainable coastal and marine tourism and the cultural context for fostering a sustainable.

 

3. Resilient coastal infrastructures and nature-based solutions 

Coastal tourism relies in large part on built infrastructures such as small harbours, piers and marinas, that enable access for operators and tourists to the marine environment. These infrastructures are by nature of their location, highly exposed to the impacts of climate change (e.g. sea-level rise), geological hazards, coastal erosion and extreme weather events. Understanding the risk to existing infrastructures and advancing innovative approaches to design and adaptation of coastal structures is a key component underpinning sectoral resilience. A transition towards nature-based solutions is an important opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint of activities linked to tourism. Nature based solutions can promote the development of sustainable blue tourism in coastal areas, including strategies to combat coastal erosion, control the spread of harmful alien species, and ensure the quality of bathing waters.

Activities should address the following aspects:  

  • Research on impacts on coastal infrastructures due to climate change and extreme weather events.
  • Nature-based solutions to protect /re-design coastal structures, improve environmental quality and safety and mitigate potential impacts on coastal communities and businesses.
  • Integrating NBS and   technologies in coastal infrastructures that can improve and monitor environmental conditions and support long-term data on amelioration of coastal conditions and environmental change.
  • Effective Investment in and conservation of natural assets that benefit both costal tourism and ecosystem services / Nature-based Solutions (e.g. through carbon storage, flood protection) focused on habitat regeneration and blue carbon.
  • Analysis of public policies around water provisions, desalinisation and marine based infrastructures management to set the path for future interventions.  
  • Enabling diversification by working with existing and emerging maritime sectors to provide tourism opportunities linked to eco-tourism, offshore energy, aquaculture operations, fisheries and ports.
  • Improved knowledge about the diversity of demands per region in terms of infrastructures (stable or mobile ones) to inform policies on coastal development and local economic activities.
  • Research on the impact (positive or negative) of subsidies/allowance on different economic activities in context of their long term sustainability.
  • Improved comparative knowledge on legal frameworks across different European regions to support coastal activities in the the most effiecient and sustainable way. 

 

Implementation, enablers, and synergies  

Technology, data and digitalisation can enable solutions for coastal and marine tourism to transition to a more sustainable, regenerative business model, create new tourism offerings and opportunities, including for upskilling. In a European context, marine environmental data portals such as EMODNet provide users with access to a major source of information that can be used to improve decision-making and product development. Data and technological innovation are also critical enablers to inform the design and maintenance of coastal infrastructures. Moreover, technology paired with a better and comparative understanding of socio and cultural factors can contribute to frame appropriately the potentials of different regions in terms diversification of economic activities, infrastructures, labour markets, and legal and financial support for innovation.  

Cash calls for R&I proposals are relevant for addressing knowledge gaps, develop solutions, and build R&I capacity around the topic of this Intervention Area. Synergies will be sought with the Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters and European Partnerships such as Social Transformations and Resilience, Resilient Cultural Heritage, and Driving Urban Transitions.  

Outcomes and Impacts 

  • Knowledge and guidance for public authorities and development agencies (national, local), to inform policy and planning to enable a just and efficient transition for coastal and marine activities to a sustainable and regenerative business model.
  • Greater understanding for key stakeholders (coastal businesses, community leaders, local authorities, etc.) of the risks posed by climate change impacts, extreme weather and geological hazards.
  • Greater understanding of the social and cultural context underpinning coastal tourism and strategies to ensure that transition to a new sustainable business model safeguard the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of local communities.
  • Strategies to foster greater resilience for coastal business and communities in the face of climate change, extreme weather events, geological hazards, and social and economic impacts to inform all stakeholders from individual businesses to national policy and planning authorities.
  • Mitigation of environmental impacts of coastal and marine tourism in Europe, linked to reduced pollution, GHG emissions and energy usage, water usage, and impact on local marine and coastal environments.  
  • Improved strategies and policies for delivering positive change in tourist behaviours and attitudes towards reducing deleterious environmental, social and cultural impacts from their touristic activities. Supporting an interest/willingness to participate in regenerative activities such as nature restoration and citizen science.  
  • Greater deployment of innovative technologies (e.g. low-cost sensors, application for citizen science approaches), and use of data and digital products (e.g. publicly available data by tourist operators) to inform low-impact tourism activities and products. 

 

 

IRTA

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IRTA
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Ministry of Climate

Abbreviated organisation name
KLIM
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 Suur-Ameerika 1, 10122 Tallinn

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info@kliimaministeerium.ee
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National Research Agency

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ANR
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86 rue Regnault, 75013 Paris

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Elcin.SARIKAYA@agencerecherche.fr
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Ocean literacy

The Partnership will add a complementary perspective to environmentally driven ocean literacy efforts by promoting the changes in behaviours and attitudes needed to enable the just and sustainable transformation of Europe’s blue economy. This can generate interest in Europe in sustainable maritime innovations, career options, investment opportunities, and generally the quest of reconciling economic development with marine ecological integrity. Industry actors will be targeted  to help embed the  corporate environmental responsibility needed to affect the transition. The thematic foci will be guided by the Intervention Areas and align with the EU4Ocean Coalition. 

The partnership will also offer webinars about ocean literacy and communication science, and provides an ocean literacy toolkit to enable partnership beneficiaries to improve public knowledge and appreciation about their work and the opportunities in the blue economy domain. 

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Ocean Literacy Toolkit is intended both for its funded projects and for the stakeholder community at large. The Toolkit will support integrating and enhancing ocean literacy efforts in their activities to promote the behavioural changes needed to enable the just transition to a sustainable blue economy in Europe.   

The toolkit is a collection of resources, including links to informative reports, networking platforms and initiatives on ocean literacy at the regional (EU4Ocean) and international (UN Ocean Decade) levels.

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Project Title Culture of a wide range of low trophic species to boost sustainable production of Blue Food and reduce environmental footprint

BLUEBOOST fits priority area 3.2.3 and aims to demonstrate that co-culture of a wide range of low trophic species with established species can boost current European aquaculture of blue foods and feeds while reducing the environmental footprint and moving towards a carbon-neutral aquaculture blue economy. The consortium consists of partners from eight countries (Spain, Portugal, Poland, Italy, Brazil, Sweden, UK, Finland) and three seas / oceans (Atlantic – north and south, Mediterranean, Baltic). Partners are experts in the ecology, hydrobiology, culture of low trophic species, integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA), economics and life cycle assessment (LCA) of blue food and feed production. 

BLUEBOOST aims to provide knowledge based solutions that will enable the aquaculture industry to overcome bottlenecks that inhibit Governments and businesses, following an impact pathway that can increase the volume and diversity of aquaculture products, reduce environmental footprint towards a carbon-neutral economy, raise the circularity and competitiveness of the blue economy, provide new products, restore ecosystems, create jobs and increase ecosystems resilience against climate change. The partners will work with six different IMTA systems and a wide range of species from different trophic levels to evaluate the use of waste streams from traditionally farmed species to provide nutrients and feed for low trophic species. The nutrients and carbon fluxes will be mapped, and the environmental footprint of six systems with and without IMTA, determined employing LCA to demonstrate the benefits and trade-offs of incorporating extractive low trophic species in combination with traditional aquaculture species. Self-financed partners will examine new products, use of macroalgae for sustainable food packaging and test low trophic blue feed ingredients in the diets of marine organisms. To restore ecosystems, threatened oysters species will be farmed in Italy and Spain, whereas coastal ponds of the Ebro Delta will be offered as new aquaculture sites and protection against climate change related sea level rise and storm intensification. 

We envisage that BLUEBOOST will involve (co-creation/co-design) and impact all stakeholder levels providing societal value creation such as: (a) technical advances that provide new sustainable production methods and products; (b) reduced environmental footprint of blue food and feeds; (c) environmental restorative aquaculture practices; (d) improved economics with increased volume and diversity of production; (e), policy-making to provide conditions for and to drive desired change and (f) low carbon products and business investments to meet consumer demand. This win-win scenario will deliver improved diversification of blue foods and feeds and, at the same time, increase production volumes and quality, to improve the competitiveness of European and Brazilian aquaculture while reducing the industries environmental footprint.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-725
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BlueBoost
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The partnership is hosting nineteen projects on research and innovation. All ongoing projects can be found below. 

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Regione Emilia-Romagna

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RER
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Viale Aldo Moro, 52, 40127 Bologna

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urp@regione.emilia-romagna.it
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Registration "Charting the course towards a Sustainable Blue Economy" Symposium

Registration "Charting the Course towards a Sustainable Blue Economy" Symposium

Date: 13-14 February 2024
Location: Royal Museum of Fine Arts Belgium (Rue du Musée 5, 1000 Brussels)

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Registration - Kick-off meeting of funded projects (2023 Joint Call)

Registration - Kick-off meeting of funded projects (2023 Joint Call)

Date: 25-26 September 2024
Location: Madrid, Spain (address: Agencia Estatal de Investigación - Salón de Actos (ground floor) - AEI, Calle Torrelaguna 58 bis, 28027 Madrid, Spain)

By filling in this form, you consent to having your data shared with the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership. Your information will only be used internally by the Partnership. For more information, see the Partnership's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any given time, although this will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on your given consent prior withdrawal. You have a legal right to request access, correction and deletion of your personal information (this includes photo and video). You also have the right to restrict the processing of your personal information.

Photography and social media coverage will be taking place during the event. By filling out the form, you agree footage or images of you, taken in the natural course of proceedings, will be published in the context of the event. In case you have any questions or requirements on the topic of GDPR and data processing and image usage, please contact info@bluepartnership.eu.

For more information about the kick-off, consult the dedicated event page here.

 

REM

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REM
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Resource efficient blue food production from small underutilized pelagic fish species (RE-BLUE)

Herring (Clupea harengus) and sprat (Sprattus sprattus) are two low trophic level fish species which dominate the fisheries of many Northern/Central European countries. They are, however, massively underutilized in food production. This is increasingly questioned viewed against the current geopolitical situation raising the need of affordable, nutrient dense and locally produced food, and against the ongoing dietary protein shift where consumers seek healthy and sustainable protein sources to replace red meat. Herring and sprat have as low climate footprint as pulses and are rich in high quality proteins, important fatty acids, vitamins and minerals; many of which are missing in red and/or green protein sources. Combining climate impact and nutrient density data, herring/sprat were recently ranked as the most favorable animal protein sources common to the EU.

Based on these incentives, the multi-actor RE-BLUE project will explore new scalable food value chains from the large parts of the herring/sprat catches that either do not enter the food chain (whole fish landed as feed) or leave it (filleting rest raw materials, RRM, also going to feed). Together, these biomass streams make up ca. 60-95% (!) of total herring/sprat catches in the countries of this consortium. Our specific aims are to design, align and combine process-steps which are tailored to tackle the very small size of the “fodder fish”, presence of enzyme-dense organs, high levels of pigments/pro-oxidants/small bones and occasional abundance of dioxins, dioxin-like (DL) PCB´s and PFAS.

An innovative cutting/filleting line which gradually can trim off head, intestines, viscera, and spine even from very small herring/sprat (<55g) forms a project core. Whole fish, fish subjected to different degrees of trimming, or sorted regular RRM will then be used in: (i) mechanical mince production, washing and freezing, (ii) conversion of pre-frozen minces to “falafel” balls/burgers/sausages with and without antioxidant-rich plant RRM or seaweed, (iii) enzymatic hydrolysis into savory ingredients, (iv) fermentation with salt into a fish sauce, (v) direct mixing and extrusion into a “pulled fish product”, with/without plant-based proteins and (vi) acid marination. (i)-(vi) are evaluated with and without pre-dipping of raw materials in new antioxidant solutions. Product prototypes will be characterized in terms of e.g., ash, nutrients, sensorial and volatile compound profiles, color, lipid oxidation, lipolysis, proteolysis, microbial growth and when required, dioxins/PCBs/PFAS. In parallel, fundamental understanding on how enzymatic/non-enzymatic reactions in small pelagic fish respond to different processing variables will be gained. Results can be extended to other European small fish species regarded invasive (e.g., round goby) or underutilized (e.g., sand eels, sardines) and are expected to have major societal impact related to e.g., food preparedness, public health, and national/EU policies.

Project proposal no
SBEP2023-542
Project acronym
RE-BLUE
Project start date
Project end date

Spanish State Research Agency

Abbreviated organisation name
AEI
Address

Calle Torrelaguna 58 bis, 28027 Madrid

Countries
email
esther.chacon@aei.gob.es
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Survey - Enhancing human capacity to maximise impact

Survey - Enhancing human capacity to maximise impact

As part of SBEP Task 7.6 “Enhancing human capacity to maximise impact”, we kindly ask you to invest 10 minutes in replying to this survey by 16 August. The survey will give us input on human capacity needs, gaps, and activities. Your input will form the basis for recommendations on how the Partnership can address capacity building through its co-funded calls and other activities.      

Survey Stakeholder Mapping

Stakeholder Mapping Survey

The purpose of this stakeholder mapping is to establish a community of practice which will be engaged by the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership in future exchanges related to the transformation to a sustainable blue economy. With this survey, the Partnership aims at collecting accurate data on relevant stakeholders (domain of activity, sea-basin, sector, social media channels). Please note that by stakeholders we here mean institutions, organisations, businesses, etc. We are not targeting individuals and one reply to the survey per entity is therefore sufficient.

By filling in this survey, you consent to having your data shared with the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership. Your information will only be used internally by the Partnership. For more information, see the Partnership's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership’s first joint transnational call

“The way forward: a thriving sustainable blue economy for a brighter future”

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, a European partnership under the European Commission’s Research & Innovation Framework Programme Horizon Europe, is pleased to announce its first Joint transnational call entitled « The way forward: a thriving sustainable blue economy for a brighter future ».

The vision of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is to design, steer and support a just and inclusive transition to a regenerative, resilient, and sustainable blue economy. This EU Partnership aims to boost the transformation needed towards a climate-neutral, sustainable, productive, and competitive blue economy by 2030 while creating and supporting the conditions for a sustainable ocean for the people by 2050.

This first co-funded call aims to support transnational research and innovation projects (36 months) addressing one of the five priority areas below:

  1. Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level
  2. Development of offshore marine multi-use infrastructures to support the blue economy
  3. Climate-neutral, environmentally sustainable, and resource-efficient blue food and feed
  4. Green transition of Blue Food production
  5. Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs) test use cases at EU sea-basins and the Atlantic Ocean

 

These five priority areas were selected to maximise participation while reinforcing the European blue economy through innovative solutions and improved resilience of marine ecosystems. The priority areas embrace actionable routes from science to policy to observe, assess and mitigate the impacts of climate change on vital ecological assets such as biodiversity and other ecosystem services on which our economies depend, thus supporting coastal communities.

Projects in this Co-funded call must be impact-driven contributions to the transformation into a blue economy for a more resilient future and towards carbon neutrality targets, following an impact pathway approach.

Projects must be developed at a pan-European level and in the different European sea basins: the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and establish close cross-sectorial cooperation in the science, innovation, and economic sectors. Projects are expected to consider several European sea basins or, at least, to consider the impact of the projects on several European sea basins.

The first Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) Co-funded call pools national and regional financial resources through the participation of 36 funding organisations from 23 countries (19 Member-States: Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, 4 Associated Countries: Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, Türkiye and 1 third country: Brazil) responsible for funding research and innovation actions in the blue economy, with financial support from the European Commission. The total budget is about 50 Million Euros.

Apply Here

To be eligible, research consortia must include partners from a minimum of three independent legal entities from three different countries participating in the call. Self-funded partners including partners from countries (and/or regions) not participating in this Co-funded call are allowed but do not contribute to the minimum eligible consortium size. Stakeholder engagement as partners or self-funded partners is encouraged (according to national/regional regulations) to enhance innovation, policy, and societal relevance and ultimately the impact of the projects.


 

For more information about the 19 projects selected for funding, priority areas, consortium members, and project abstract, please consult this detailed description

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Belgian Science Policy Office

Abbreviated organisation name
BELSPO
Address

Boulevard Simon Bolivar 30 bte 7, 1000 Brussels

Countries
email
David.COX@belspo.be
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National Research Agency

Abbreviated organisation name
ANR
Address

86 rue Regnault, 75013 Paris

Countries
email
Elcin.SARIKAYA@agencerecherche.fr
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