Digitalisation and Innovation for Resilient Marine Ecosystems Businesses, and Communities to Strengthen the EU Blue Economy’s Competitiveness

Pre-proposal submission deadline: 17/11/2025, 15:00 CET (Brussels Time) 
Full proposal submission deadline (Provisional): 17/06/2026, 15:00 CEST (Brussels Time) 
The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is pleased to announce the launch of its third joint transnational call entitled ‘Digitalisation and Innovation for Resilient Marine Ecosystems Businesses, and Communities to Strengthen the EU Blue Economy’s Competitiveness’.

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 third co-funded call aims to support transnational research and innovation projects of 36 months duration, addressing one of the five priority areas below (subject to funded priority areas by participating funding organisations, see Annex B):

• Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs) at sub-basin scale
• Transitioning the blue economy sectors, and the development of the coexistence and the marine multi-use infrastructures
• Climate-Smart Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level
• Blue Bioresources; sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, and new bio-based products
• Resilient Coastal Communities and Businesses

Projects in this 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. Applicants are requested to propose an impact plan under the theory of change (see section 2.3 – Impact of the proposals, and Annex A).

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

The third co-funded call of this EU Partnership pools national and regional financial resources through the participation of 38 funding organisations from 28 countries combined with the contribution from the European Union (see Annex B for the full list of participating countries). The total estimated budget is about EUR 43.5 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 eligible for EU funding in this call for (pre-)proposal (as recipients of the financial support, at the time of the closing of the call by 17/06/2026). Self-funded partners, including partners from countries (and/or regions) not participating in this co-funded call, are allowed to participate 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 17 November 2025 (15:00 CET) to submit their pre-proposals. A first evaluation of pre-proposals will be organised and the deadline to submit full proposals is foreseen for 17 June 2026.

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 took place on 6 October to answer questions regarding the call. You can find the slides and recording here.

Brokerage Event

A matchmaking event will take place from Monday, 15 September, to Thursday, 13 November, and has the ambition to connect researchers, companies, and stakeholders from marine and maritime communities interested in the Partnership’s third transnational Call. To help you find 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.

Call for Experts

A call for experts to evaluate the pre-proposals submitted under the third joint transnational co-funded call will be launched at the end of September. You can find more information on the pre-announcement of the call for experts 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@uefiscdi.ro

Más información: Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership