European Partnership Sustainable Blue Economy launches 1st Joint Transnational Call

The European co-funded Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP), developed under the Horizon Europe Framework Program, launched its first Joint Transnational Call (JTC) on February 13, 2023, under the topic "The way forward: a thriving sustainable blue economy for a brighter future". The Call, organized in two phases, will have the first application submission phase until April 14, 2023 (14:00 GMT). Successful pre-proposals will be invited to submit a full application in the second application submission phase, by September 13, 2023 (14:00 GMT).

SBEP aims to design, guide and support a just and inclusive transition to a regenerative, resilient and sustainable blue economy, aiming to drive the necessary 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 the main objectives of this Partnership is the launch of CTCs, co-financed by the European Union, which address priority areas within the framework of the SBEP's Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).

The first SBEP CTC mobilizes national and regional financial resources through the participation of ministries and funding agencies from 23 countries responsible for funding research and innovation actions in the blue economy. FCT, the Regional Science and Technology Fund (FRCT, Azores) and the Centro Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-Centro) are the national organizations participating in the first edition of the Call, which is designed to support transnational research and innovation projects in one of the following five priority areas:

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. Ocean Digital Twin (ODT) test use cases at EU sea-basins and the Atlantic Ocean

The projects must contribute to the impact on the transformation of the blue economy towards a more resilient future and achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, and must be developed at a pan-European level and in the different European maritime basins - the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean - as well as establishing close cross-sectoral cooperation between science, innovation and the economic sectors.

See the Call page for more information.