Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) 2024 Call

SBEP is a co-funded European Partnership developed under the Horizon Europe (HE) Framework Program whose vision is to design, guide and support a fair and inclusive transition to a regenerative, resilient and sustainable blue economy. The partnership aims to drive the transformation to a climate-neutral, sustainable and productive blue economy by 2030, while creating and supporting the conditions for a sustainable ocean by 2050.

One of SBEP's main ambitions is to launch an annual Joint Transnational Call (JTC) co-financed by the EU, that addresses priority areas within the scope of the Partnership's Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda. The first JTC was launched in February 2023.

SBEP's 2024 JTC brings together 38 ministries and national and regional organizations supporting Research and Innovation (R&I) from 26 countries, which ensure a financial commitment of around 35 million euros. The FCT, the Regional Science and Technology Fund of the Regional Government of the Azores and the Regional Coordination and Development Commission of the Center, are the national organizations that participate in the second 2024 SBEP JTC.

Topics

SBEP's second CTC aims to support transnational R&I projects lasting 36 months and addressing one of the following four priority areas:

1. Priority area 1: Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTO) at regional sub basin scale

2. Priority area 2: Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructures

3. Priority area 3: Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level

4. Priority area 4: Blue Bioresources

Projects must contribute to the impact on the transformation of the blue economy towards a more resilient future that allows the objective of carbon neutrality to be achieved.

Projects must be developed at a pan-European level and in the different European maritime basins – the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean –, as well as establishing close intersectoral cooperation between science, innovation and economic sectors.

Who can apply

The following are individual or co-promotion beneficiaries:

a) Non-entrepreneurial entities of the R&I system, namely:

1. Higher education institutions, their institutes and R&D units;
2. State or international laboratories with head office in Portugal;
3. Non-profit private institutions whose main object is R&D activity;
4. Other non-profit public and private institutions developing or participating in scientific research activities.

b) Companies of any type and under any legal form.

The information contained in this section does not exempt you from consulting Article 3 of the "Regulation of projects financed exclusively by national funds"

The present call will fund projects submitted by transnational consortia. Applicants may only apply for funding to their respective national/regional funding agencies of the call. The transnational eligibility rules and national/regional eligibility rules relating to each funding agency, are detailed in the call documentation.

The following national/regional funding agencies are participating in this call:

Bélgica (BELSPO, F.R.S. – FNRS, FIO/VLAIO, FWO), Brasil (CONFAP), Chipre (RIF), Dinamarca (IFD), Estónia (ETAG, KLIM, REM), Ilhas Faroé (RCFI), Finlândia (AKA), França (ANR), Alemanha (BMBJ/PtJ), Grécia (GSRI), Islândia (RANNIS), Irlanda (MI), Itália (Regione Emilia Romagna, MUR), Letónia (LMT), Malta (MCST), Noruega (RCN), Polónia (NCBR), Portugal (CCDR-C, FCT, FRCT), Roménia (MCID), Eslovénia (MVZI), Espanha (AEI, CDTI), Suécia (FORMAS, SNSA), Holanda (LNV, lenW, NOW), Tunísia (MHESR), Turquia (TUBITAK)

To prepare your application you should

1. Consult the “Call Documents” area.
2. Consult the national/regional rules of the countries participating in the consortium (including the Portuguese) available in the national annexes. Partners that are considered ineligible may lead to the rejection of the entire consortium.
3. The consortium coordinator must submit the pre-proposal template in the submission system (see “Important links”) until 14:00 GMT, April 10th, 2024.
4. The Portuguese Researcher in Charge (RC) – main applicant or co-applicant – and his/her respective Portuguese Proposing Institution (PI) of each application requesting FCT funding must complete and submit, within 10 working days after the deadline for submitting the application, a Statement of Commitment duly signed by the Portuguese RC and by the legal representant of the PI. The Statement of Commitment should be sent to the email address indicated in the 'Contacts' tab. Portuguese applicants of transnational consortia that do not apply for funding from FCT do not need to submit the Statement of Commitment to FCT.

The information contained on this page constitutes only a summary of the joint call information and does not exempt the candidates from carefully reading all the joint call documents available on this page and on the call website (see “Important links”). 

Likewise, the information contained on this page refers only to the participation of FCT in this call, unless/when expressly indicated. In case of participation of other Portuguese funding agencies in the call, applicants should consult the information regarding the participation of each agency on its respective website.

Eligibility

The eligibility check of proposals is carried out at both stages of the call (pre-proposal submission stage and full proposal submission stage):

• National/Regional Funding Agencies check national eligibility of pre-proposals (when applicable) and full proposals, ensuring compliance with the formal requirements in the applicable national/regional regulations and other applicable documents (see “Regulation”, “Normas de Execução Financeira” and national annexes in the “Call Documents” area).
• Transnational eligibility check of pre-proposals and full proposals will be performed by the Call Secretariat, according to the transnational eligibility criteria presented in the “Call Text” in the “Call Documents” area;

Please mind: For a proposal to be declared eligible it must fulfil both the national and transnational criteria.

Evaluation

The call includes two evaluation phases:

• Pre-proposal evaluation stage
• Full proposal evaluation stage

Proposals will be evaluated according to the evaluation criteria described in the "Call Text" in the "Call Documents" area.

The Call Steering Committee (CSC), formed by national/regional funding agencies, will decide, according to the stage the call is at, which 1) pre-proposals to invite to submit a full proposal and which 2) proposals to recommend for funding.

• FCT financial commitment for the call: 500.000,00€
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese participation: 150.000,00 €
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese coordination: 250.000,00 €

Please mind:

• Portuguese institutions funding must follow FCT's “Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds” and “Normas de Execução Financeira”, both available in the "Call Documents" area. 
• if the consortium includes more than one Portuguese institution that requests funding from FCT, the funds will have to be shared between the participating institutions.
• if two or more Portuguese proposing institutions from the same transnational consortium request funding from FCT and CCDRC, the combined budget requested from the two agencies cannot exceed the maximum funding per consortium of €150,000.00 (Portuguese participation) or €250,000.00 (Portuguese coordination);
• The dedication (FTE) in transnational projects is not considered for the 100% (FTE) dedication to national projects.
• Under the terms of number 2 of Article 7 of the Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds, payments made directly or indirectly to companies through the Proposing Institution cannot exceed 50% of the total cost of the company’s participation.

Call website

Matchmaking platform

Application submission platform

Partnership website

Memorandum of Understanding (soon)

Pre-proposal template (soon)

Finantial Execution rules (soon)

Marta Norton

marta.norton@fct.pt

Tel: (+351) 213 911 565

This partnership is funded by the Horizon Europe Framework Programme under Grant Agreement ID 101086379.