«Unified paths to a climate-neutral, sustainable, and resilient blue economy: engaging civil society, academia, policy, and industry» 

Pre-proposal submission deadline: 10/04/2024, 15:00 CEST (Brussels Time) 
Full proposal submission deadline (Provisional): 06/11/2024, 15:00 CET (Brussels Time) 

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is pleased to announce its second joint transnational call entitled “Unified Paths to a Climate-Neutral, Sustainable, and Resilient Blue Economy: Engaging Civil Society, Academia, Policy, and Industry». 

The vision of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, a European partnership under the Horizon Europe Programme, 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 second co-funded call aims to support transnational research and innovation projects of 36 months duration, addressing one of the four priority areas below (subject to funded priority areas by participating funding organisations, see Annex): 

(1) Digital Twins of the Ocean at regional sub basin scale 

(2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructures 

(3) Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level  

(4) Blue Bioresources  

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. 

The proposals are expected to consider a minimum of two European sea basins and to assess the project proposal’s impact on various basins. Proposals can target European regional seas such as Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Arctic, Barents Sea, Celtic Sea, etc. but these regional seas must be from a minimum of 2 different European Sea basins which are: the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. 

The second co-funded call of this EU Partnership pools national and regional financial resources through the participation of 38 funding organisations from 26 countries combined with the contribution from the European Union. 20 Member-States, 5 Associated Countries and 1 Third Country are participating: Belgium, Brazil, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Tunisia, and Türkiye. The total estimated budget is about EUR 40 million.  

To be eligible, each consortium must be composed of eligible partners from at least three different countries participating in the call and requesting financial support from at least three different funding organisations participating in the call. In addition, the projects must involve at least two independent legal entities from two different EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries (as recipients of the financial support, at the time of the closing of the call by 10/04/2024) eligible for EU funding in this call for (pre-)proposal. 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.  

Applicants are strongly encouraged to involve stakeholders (i.e., small, and medium enterprises (SMEs), industries, authorities, public administrations, associations, as well as civil society organisations) as partners or self-funded partners (according to national/regional regulations) in their proposal. Stakeholder engagement in the research projects will enhance innovation, policy, and societal relevance and ultimately the impact of the projects. 

Looking for a partner or a project to join? Use the SBEP Partner Search Tool available here.

Applicants will have up to 10 April 2024 (15H00 CEST) to submit their pre-proposals. A first evaluation of pre-proposals will be organised and the deadline to submit full proposals is foreseen for November 2024. 

This call is co-branded as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which is coordinated by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO) on behalf of the UN system, with the aim that the funded research and innovation projects are endorsed as Ocean Decade projects. 

APPLY HERE

Informative Webinar 

A general information webinar was organised on the 15 February (14H00-16H30 CET) to answer your questions regarding the call. You can view the slides here.  

Brokerage Event 

Ten sessions of two hours will be organised from 26 February to 8 March. Sessions are scheduled between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM or 02:00 PM and 04:00 PM CET. The matchmaking event has the ambition to connect researchers, companies and stakeholders from marine and maritime communities interested in the Partnership's second transnational Call. To help you finding a project to join, or partners for your project, you have the possibility to set up 20 minutes meetings with other participants during the matchmaking sessions of the event. More information here.

For more information: We invite you to regularly consult our website and social media channels to be kept updated on this major research funding opportunity.  

Contact: sbep.call-secretariat@agencerecherche.fr

Annex List of Participating Funding Organisations – Budget and funded priority areas (provisional - updated 20.02.2024)
 

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