Five active networking Regional Portfolios, composed of projects funded by the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) and/or by a range of national, regional or EU funding streams, will be established — one for each EU sea-basin. Two waves of calls will be launched, starting with two sea-basins on 29 July 2026 (provisional date):

• Atlantic Ocean Regional Portfolio: ‘Addressing the Atlantic Ocean coastal Resilience in Practice’

• Black Sea Regional Portfolio: ‘Addressing knowledge gaps in the Black Sea: Information, Data
  Exchange and Good Practices in the Context of Climate Change’

   

The second wave will be launched on 9 September 2026 (provisional date), addressing:

• Mediterranean Sea Regional Portfolio: ‘Fostering Inclusive Governance and Multi-Use Coastal and
  Maritime Infrastructure for Sustainable Development in the Mediterranean Sea’ 
• Baltic Sea Regional Portfolio: ‘Improving the Baltic Sea Resilience: Resilience to Large-Scale Events,
  Infrastructure Resilience, and Ecosystem Resilience’

• North Sea Regional Portfolio: ‘Exploring Innovative Nature-Based Solutions to Mitigate Cumulative
  Stressors in the North Sea’

   

Each Regional Portfolio will run independently, producing its own implementation plan and roadmap of activities. With the Partnership's support, the Portfolios are expected to boost regional synergies, reduce duplication, strengthen collaboration with key stakeholders, and respond to challenges identified at the sea-basin level.

Some of the benefits of participating in the Regional Portfolios include:

• Increased visibility at the regional and international level
• Networking with regional and quadruple-helix stakeholders
• Career boost, especially for early-career scientists
• Identification of new cooperation opportunities
• Co-design of market-uptake plans
• Meetings with EU Commission experts
• Participation in Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership events

An informative webinar will be held on 7 October, from 13:00 to 14:30 CEST, via Webex, to present the Regional Portfolio Action and address questions from interested projects.

To participate:

• Projects must fall within the thematic scope of the chosen Portfolio.
• Projects must be active for at least 6 months between early 2027 and early 2029, and be recipients of a regional/national/EU grant.
• Projects must address the geographical area of the Portfolio, or prove their relevance to it. Projects interested in more than one Portfolio will be asked to select one.

• Applicants must prove their commitment, availability and capacity to engage (as self-funded).

   

To apply:

Coordinators, PIs, or alternates will complete a brief online questionnaire available on the SBEP website upon official launch. Applicants will have until 28 October 2026 (Atlantic Ocean and Black Sea) or 9 December 2026 (Mediterranean Sea, Baltic Sea and North Sea) to submit their interest (15:00 CET, provisional dates). A single-step selection process will apply; selected projects will be announced in December 2026 and January 2027, respectively.

Contact: Portfolio Secretariat (ANR, France) — sbep-portfolio@anr.fr

Please note that the information provided here is provisional. Changes may be made to the official call announcement.