Unified Paths to a Climate-Neutral, Sustainable, and Resilient Blue Economy: Engaging Civil Society, Academia, Policy, and Industry, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership

2024 Joint Transnational Co-Funded Call

Authors: Call Steering Committee

Contact info: sbep.call-secretariat@agencerecherche.fr

Publication: February of 2024

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0	Context and objectives of the Joint Call			1
2.0	Joint call description			3
	2.1	Requirements		3
	2.2	Priority areas		4
		2.2.1	Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs) at regional sub basin scale	4
		2.2.2	Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructures	5
		2.2.3	Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level	7
		2.2.4	Blue Bioresources	8
	2.3	Impact of the proposals		11
3.0	Funding			11
	3.1	Participating countries		11
	3.2	Financial commitment		12
	3.3	Funding decision		12
4.0	Procedures, eligibility, and selection criteria			12
	4.1	Call process		12
	4.2	Call timetable		13
	4.3	Confidentiality and conflict of interests		13
	4.4	Publishable information		14
	4.5	Privacy policy		14
	4.6	Eligibility criteria		14
		4.6.1	General eligibility criteria	15
		4.6.2	National/Regional Eligibility Criteria	16
		4.6.3	Recommendations for the applicants	16
		4.6.4	Ethical issues	17
	4.7	Submission procedure		17
		4.7.1	Step 1: submission of a Pre-Proposal (mandatory step)	18
		4.7.2	Step 2: submission of a Full Proposal (only for invited applicants)	18
	4.8	Evaluation of proposals		19
		4.8.1	The International Evaluation Committee (IEC)	19
		4.8.2	Evaluation procedures	19
		4.8.3	Evaluation criteria and scoring system	21
		4.8.4	Redress procedure	23
5.0	Project’s implementation			24
	5.1	Contractual relationships		24
	5.2	Consortium Agreement		24
	5.3	Project monitoring and reporting		24
	5.4	Dissemination requirements		25
6.0	Annex A – Theory of Change			26
7.0	Annex B – National Contact Points and National/Regional regulations			29
8.0	Annex C – List of beneficiaries of SBEP allowed to participate in the projects			80
9.0	Annex D – Pre-proposal form
10.0	Annex E – Full proposal form
11.0	Annex F – Open access and fair data

1.0 CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES OF THE JOINT CALL

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) is a Research and Innovation (R&I) Partnership started in 2022 under the Horizon Europe Programme. The vision of this European Partnership is to design, steer and support a just and inclusive transition to a regenerative, resilient, and sustainable blue economy. The SBEP intends 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 healthy ocean for the people by 2050.

The SBEP aims to deliver solutions to strengthen European Union (EU) and international science-policy interfaces in marine- and maritime-related domains of the EU Green Deal and Digital Europe strategies through aligning national, regional, and EU R&I priorities and bringing together science, industry, policy, and civil society. In addition, it will contribute to the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 20301 and Nature Restoration Law2, the Farm to Fork Strategy3, the EU mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”4, the Circular Economy Action Plan5, the zero pollution ambition and the transformation of Europe’s blue economy towards climate-neutral status by 2050, as also reflected in the communication on a new approach for a sustainable blue economy in the EU “Transforming the EU's Blue Economy for a Sustainable Future”6.

Europe has a historic relationship with the sea, as almost half of the EU population lives less than 50 Km from the sea7. For instance, in 2019, the EU blue economy directly employed close to 4.50 million people, generating more than € 671,3 billion in turnover. However, due to the global crisis caused by COVID-19, the total turnover decreased by 22% in 2020 (€ 523 billion) and employment decreased by 26% (3.34 million people) compared with 2019. In addition, the Russian invasion in Ukraine has affected the blue economic sectors in various ways, from increases in oil and marine diesel prices, to trade restrictions and supply chain bottlenecks. The continuous impact on the different sectors of the blue economy will depend on the extent and duration of the conflict8. Nevertheless, the UN Global Compact ‘Blue Resilience Brief’9 highlights how the challenges presented by the pandemic can advance science-industry collaboration to achieve a more resilient and sustainable recovery of the blue economy.

A study commissioned by the World Ocean Initiative predicts that the ocean can sustainably provide six times more food than it does today through better management and technological innovation10. On top of that, research has shown that restoring and protecting the world's large marine ecosystems would not only result in a healthier ocean, with associated positive impacts for coastal communities and livelihoods, but also transform several maritime sectors resulting in significant opportunities for job creation11. The potential of a climate-neutral and sustainable blue economy to deliver innovation, value creation and employment is high, and its role in addressing challenges as articulated in the European Green Deal and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, such as energy security, healthy productive and biodiverse ecosystems, human and animal health and well-being, climate change and sustainable food provision is considerable12.

The 2024 Joint Call is the second Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership call, bringing together financial resources at both national and regional levels, facilitated by Participating Funding Organisations (PFOs) from 26 countries and, with additional financial backing from the European Union. These PFOs play a crucial role in funding research and innovation initiatives related to the blue economy.

The Intervention Areas of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership link the high-level Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and the practical implementation through R&I calls and other activities. They provide actionable routes and concrete steps to approach the range of challenges, tensions, and opportunities that the Blue Economy is facing. Four Intervention areas were defined as the basis for Partnership activities for 2024: Digital Twins of the Ocean, Blue Economy Sectors, Managing Sea Uses, and Blue Bioresources13. These areas point to the need for R&I activities and investments that, each in their own way, support the necessary transition into a green and digital ocean economy.

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 selected funded research and innovation projects are endorsed as Ocean Decade projects. The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (the Ocean Decade) is calling for a transformation in the generation and use of ocean research. To reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health, the Ocean Decade strives for an increased understanding and sustainable management of the ocean, seas, and coasts. To that effect, it provides a convening framework for scientists and stakeholders from diverse sectors to co-design and co-deliver the scientific knowledge and the partnerships needed to accelerate advances in ocean science. The Ocean Decade has a focus on inclusive and transformative science and aims to ensure that no one is left behind.

The development of the knowledge and solutions needed to underpin a transition to a sustainable ocean economy is one of ten Ocean Decade Challenges that the Decade aims to achieve by 2030. The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is co-branding this call as a means of stimulating new initiatives in co-designed and co- delivered knowledge and solutions for a sustainable ocean economy as part of the Ocean Decade Action Framework.

The co-branding of this call with the Ocean Decade will ensure that funded projects that are endorsed as Decade Actions form part of a highly visible, shared, global effort that opens up opportunities to create new collaborations across disciplines, geographies and generations, and to establish access to new sources of support.

Evaluation of applications to this call will involve, as an observer, the Decade Coordination Unit that is housed within IOC/UNESCO, the UN agency leading implementation of the Decade. The involvement of the DCU will allow to estimate if the selected research projects align with the endorsement criteria for Decade Actions.

Proponents of endorsed Decade Actions will be able to use the Ocean Decade branding in their communications and awareness raising activities in accordance with Decade Brand Guidelines keeping in mind that the beneficiairies must respect the obligation to put the EU emblem and the other logos of the national funding agencies which are funding the project. Furthermore, proponents of the successful proposals will be invited to become members of the Ocean Decade Network. DCU will take care during the evaluation process to evaluate and attribute the endorsement as UN Ocean Decade Actions. Projects proposed for funding should contribute to the following endorsement criteria of the UN Ocean Decade which are shared with the objectives of the EU SBEP Initiative:

– Contribute to one or more Decade Challenges and one or more Decade objectives;
– Accelerate the generation or use of knowledge and understanding of the ocean, with a specific focus on knowledge that will contribute to the achievement of the SDGs and complementary policy frameworks and initiatives;
– Are co-designed and/or co-delivered by knowledge generators and users, and thus facilitating the uptake of science and ocean knowledge for policy, decision-making, management and/or innovation;
– Ensure that all data and resulting knowledge are provided in an open access, shared, discoverable manner;
– Strengthen existing or creates new partnerships across nations and/or between diverse ocean actors, including users of ocean science;
– Overcome barriers to diversity and equity, including gender, generational and geographic diversity;
– Collaborate with and engage local and indigenous knowledge holders.

Further information on the Ocean Decade and the endorsement process can be found here: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377082.locale=en

2.0 JOINT CALL DESCRIPTION

2.1 Requirements

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 (see section 2.3 – Impact of the proposals, and Annex A).

One of the SBEP expectations to be achieved for the 7-year duration of this European Partnership is the direct involvement of quadruple-helix14 (4-H) stakeholders in the projects to be funded by this partnership. Thus, following this SBEP ambition, a requirement for all applications is to involve a broad range of scientific disciplines, industry partners, society, and policy stakeholders to meet the quadruple-helix collaboration ambition. Each consortium should have at least one partner from the quadruple-helix and a description of how their proposal meets this ambition. Stakeholder engagement from the quadruple-helix in the research projects will be positively evaluated to enhance innovation, policy, and societal relevance and ultimately, to increase the impact of the projects.

Applications should describe how they relate to the different EU policies described in the context and objectives of the Joint Call (1.0). The proposals are expected to consider a minimum of two European sea basins and to assess the project proposal impact on various basins. Proposals can target European regional seas such as Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Arctic, Barents Sea, Celtic Sea, etc. but they 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.At the regional level, complementarities, and synergies with the lighthouses of the EU Mission ‘Restore our Oceans and Waters’ will be requested with their ongoing projects and also on joint possible valorisation of the outcomes of the projects. The users of the outcomes should be identified in the application and involved from the outset. Portfolios of projects will be developed by clustering projects which are addressing the same topics and issues whereever the funding are coming from to increase cooperation between different projects and to contribute faster to promote marine solutions to reach carbon neutrality.

As this partnership falls under Horizon Europe Programme, all proposals must be aligned accordingly with the EU Taxonomy15. Research and Innovation (R&I) produces the technologies and solutions of tomorrow and will therefore play an important role to help economic actors reach or go beyond the standards and thresholds set in the EU Taxonomy and help keeping the Taxonomy criteria up to date and consistent with the European Green Deal objectives. The EU Taxonomy sets performance thresholds (referred to as ‘technical screening criteria’) for economic activities that:

• Make a substantial contribution to at least one of six environmental objectives Do no significant harm (DNSH) to the other five objectives, and;
• Meet minimum social safeguards such as the OECD Guidelines on Multinational
• Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

2.2 Priority areas

The second Joint Co-funded Call within the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is entitled “Unified Paths to a Climate-Neutral, Sustainable, and Resilient Blue Economy: Engaging Civil Society, Academia, Policy, and Industry” and encompasses all the four Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Intervention Areas (IAs) converted for this call into four priority areas as follows:

– Priority area 1: Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTO) at regional sub-basin scale
– Priority area 2: Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructures
– Priority area 3: Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level
– Priority area 4: Blue Bioresources

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

DTOs, in SBEP, are developed at the sub-sea basin scale. They are local components of the whole EU system on DTO, in cooperation with the mission lighthouse. By nature, they are multidisciplinary approaches to answering local stakeholders’ needs. They aim at assessing the short to long-term consequences of current decisions with the help of 30/50 years forecasting models, for instance to estimate the potential impacts of climate change such as sea level rise, changes in sediment load and hydrodynamics, seafloor evolution, ecosystem states to multiple stressors, including the benthic-pelagic coupling. They should support the adaption of measures by managers, policy makers, industries, and citizens to mitigate environmental, industrial, and socio-economic risks.

The objective of DTOs is to build realistic digital representations which include the main processes of the targeted marine ecosystems. By combining mechanistic modelling approaches and data-driven models (hybrid models), DTO applications will allow users to build scenarios of the effects of natural processes and anthropogenic activities on the marine environment and blue economy activities. EU-co-funded DTOs should be designed in such a way as to support EU policy implementation and to help achieve EU policy objectives, in all relevant areas including environment, climate, energy, fisheries, transport. Specific policies which should benefit from DTO applications include the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Marine Spatial Planning, Common Fisheries Policy and the new approach for a Sustainable Blue Economy.

Study areas in the regional sea-basins must be selected based on the accuracy and availability of information for the proposed coastal areas. That may include the existing data of essential systems and their interactions such as: circulation and currents, waves, tides, seabed and sediments, coasts and estuaries, pollution levels, main trophic web components, ecosystems interactions, and socio-economic activities and impacts, inland water inputs, etc... Appropriate spatial and temporal scales retained must be justified.

The following targeted research directions, to be considered in the project formulation, are presented hereafter. A project needs, at a minimum, to address one or more of the following points including a multi-actor approach:

• Mapping and understanding the request of actors of the relevant communities (policymakers, managers, industries, citizens...) to define joint scenarios of the evolution of coastal ecosystems. Possible outputs for societal and economic benefits of a sustainable management of the sea-based activities to fulfil stakeholder requirements;
• Existing data collection and representation: Analysis of the available information, quality control and standard format of datasets to improve regional databases. Identifying and assessing data gaps and quantification uncertainties;
• Ecological Modelling of the key elements of the systems: Analysis of the existing ecological modelling, intercomparing existing models, selection of sets of coherent and suitable integrated models with development of new models, if necessary, including artificial intelligence (AI). Testing and validation of predictions models and visualisation of the outputs of the models for communication will be welcome;
• Propose a new monitoring scheme with new or existing sensors to fill previously identified data gaps and reduce uncertainty. Development of new sensors and techniques are eligible.

DTO development in the sea/oceanic-basin will be in complementarity to the lighthouses of the Mission “Restore our Oceans and Waters by 2030”, EDITO (European Digital Twin Ocean – EDITO) and ILIAD projects (https://www.ocean-twin.eu). If projects collect in-situ data and marine observations, beneficiaries must make them openly available through the European Marine Observation and Data network (EMODnet)16 and/or through the EDITO data lake and with other similar national or regional initiatives, based on FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principles. Duplication with Copernicus Marine Services (Home | CMEMS (copernicus.eu) and other operational services should be avoided. When relevant in function of the location and the regional issues of the DTO, it will be requested to make connections with the partnership Water4All, to consider inputs from the watershed and to be connected to their data sharing tools. Furthermore, close scientific and expert cooperation and coordination are requested to ensure appropriate timing, complementarities, convergence, and interoperability with other ongoing and planned DTO SBEP initiatives and other EU initiatives such as the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’ and its lighthouses and the Water4All partnership data sharing activities.

2.2.2 Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructures

The ocean industries are facing common challenges to boost their development including sustainability, safety in operation, and green and cost-efficient solutions. They are also facing new challenges to contributing to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation. In this broad landscape, the objective of this priority area is to boost technological innovations covering the entire blue economy sector in agreement with a green and digital transition. The development of multi-use infrastructures and activities at sea is one of the solutions which is expected to minimise conflicts of interests for the demand of space, to increase sustainability.

The Blue Economy sectors involve a multi-actor social-ecological system. The projects need to engage the different actors of the sectors including industrial partners and other relevant stakeholders. They should also include regulatory and legal aspects, economic and social aspects with social acceptance of the developments for existing and emerging sectors, socio-economic considerations for a just transition, and broad and inclusive approaches. Cross-sectoral issues need new approaches to demonstrate cumulative effects of co-existence of activities on environmental impacts including biodiversity but also safety, security, and risks.

• Transition of the Blue Economy: Emphasise technology and process development, solution orientation, and integrated approaches promoting minimising the pollution and circularity to develop the sustainable Blue Economy taking into consideration climate change, natural hazard challenges and biodiversity crisis. Projects should plan a clear path from new knowledge to innovative services and/or products. Nature-based solutions (NBS) will be promoted to reduce carbon emissions. Projects should address social, economic and environmental challenges which comprise actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage coastal and marine ecosystems.

The following points are focused for this call:

• Tools, techniques, processes, risks with proposed Nature-Based Solutions with a focus on seaweed; sea grasses, shellfish and low-trophic fish;
• Perform economic studies including markets opportunities and business models for the proposed innovative solutions;
• Rapid recent changes in energy systems highlight, on one side, the necessary reduction of energy, and the necessity to promote circularity and, on the other side, large development of carbon neutral energy sources with great expansion of large offshore windfarms along the coastline with fixed or floating systems. Their environmental impacts need further investigations to find remediation solutions to alleviate their negative impacts (marine habitats and ecosystems, migration routes for birds, marine mammals, fishes...);
• Decommissioning options in existing and upcoming platforms of the energy including business models to facilitate the re-use of installations addressed from a legal, environmental, social and economic perspective;
• Innovations for reducing environmental footprints with the development of new materials that are carbon frugal and NBS compatible, and to mitigate the impacts of new installations and of options for future decommissioning when installation, maintenance and reuse and recycling of materials.

• Improve co-existence and multi-use infrastructures. In view of the increasing demand for space, activities and functions at sea, multi-use spatial concepts, including multi-use infrastructures, bring a potential for synergistic benefits for associated sectors.

At the same time, the risk of conflicts and negative environmental effects needs to be minimised. Any multi-use of installations or space increases the complexity compared to a ‘single use’ situation and requires more studies on respective and cumulative impacts. Increasing the development of multi-use structures could deliver synergistic benefits for the different uses including for industrial sectors. Respective cost-benefit analysis is necessary to understand and valorise economic and social value chain to contribute to the decision process for a wider benefit for society. In conjunction, the social acceptance, and proposed solutions to solve competition or conflicts between the different users of the multi-use platforms or their surroundings will be important components to succeed in the multi-use’s offshore platform developments. Crowding of space may result in industrial activities moving to further offshore areas such as desalinisation of sea water, hydrogen production... In parallel climate change will generate a riskier environment for marine and maritime activities with more frequent extreme events.

The following points are focused for that call:

• Mechanisms to permit the development of sustainable and safe coexistence of several functions and activities within the legal, economic, social, managerial, and policy context;
• Combination of infrastructure, functions, and logistics: for example, energy produced at sea could be used for aquaculture farms, hydrogen production, desalinisation (subject to environmental impact assessment), and hydrogen could be used as a vector to transfer energy on shore, or to refuel ships propelled by hydrogen;
• Innovation and technological development of multi-uses structures must fit with the 4R conceptual approach: Reduce, Recycle, Reuse and Resistance to extreme environmental conditions;
• Combination with multi-uses platforms and regulation of fisheries, aquaculture activities and biodiversity conservation: No Take Zones (NTZ), Marine Protected Areas (MPA), Nature-Based solutions such as artificial reefs.... Association of active economic uses with nature and ecological functions including ecosystem services will be promoted. Integration of the EU Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) principle will be mandatory;
• Cumulative effects of the different offshore industries on the environment, such as the release of contaminants, or underwater noise and light pollution. Importance for impacts on biological components for associated aquaculture of healthy products and biodiversity conservation;
• Integrated models of the environmental conditions and the interactions between the different uses should be suitable to support decision-makers and industry and to propose options to reduce the different impacts;
• Development of monitoring and control systems for real time management of the multiuse platform including extreme events and potential accidents and spills for prevention and reduction of environmental damages.

Connection with projects from the ‘Mission Restore our Oceans and Waters’ and Water4All or Biodiversa+ partnerships will be established to avoid duplication. The projects will be complementary to the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP) focusing on high TRL (Technology Readiness Level) technologies. Direct engagement with stakeholders from industrial sectors and policy makers are encouraged to represent their willingness of development.

2.2.3 Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level

Innovative support for planning and managing Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), here below called ‘MSP initiative’, aims to resolve conflicting uses, and to minimise the respective impacts on marine ecosystems, at the regional levels. It addresses the need to develop innovative tools and approaches to the sustainable planning and management of sea- uses, interlinking maritime spatial planning (MSP), the marine strategy framework directive (MSFD), the Common Fishery Policy (CFP), and the marine protected areas (MPAs)/ Habitats and Birds Directives and Nature Restoration Law, in achieving Europe’s objectives of decarbonisation. The overarching goal of this priority area is to support science-based international decisions that consider environmental status, the legacy of human impacts, climate change trends, the development of the blue economy and future scenarios, considering multitude of pressures from the uses of marine space and marine resources.

The objective is to promote a new approach by integrating the national and/or local initiatives at the EU regional sea-basins level and the Atlantic Ocean-basin between the different bordering countries. It includes the common evolution of coastal environments for the identification of suitable areas for different uses, minimising conflicts, and maximising sustainable development.

The relevant scale of the SBEP MSP initiative must be well-defined and justified. It will have to be co-designed with competent authorities from local, regional and national structures of different countries. Participation of other stakeholders will be positively considered. Cross-border cooperation between different countries and close interaction with all relevant sectors at the regional/ national level will be mandatory to obtain a consensual integrated MSP at the basin or sub-basin scale. The projects will need to build and reflect on previous (local) MSP developed in the area.

The following targeted research directions, to be explored in the project formulation, are presented hereafter. A project needs, at a minimum, to address one or more of the following points, including a multi-actor approach:

• Fostering the full use of scientific knowledge for effective management and conservation

Innovative research on this topic will provide essential data for the identification of suitable areas for diverse uses, minimising conflicts. Ecosystem-based management, including MSP, requires high-resolution mapping of marine underwater morphology, and marine uses. It also requires the quantification of indicators describing ecosystem distribution, health and pressures caused by human uses, and ecosystem services, which will provide essential tools for ecosystem health assessment, spatial management of the marine domain, and implementation of restoration measures. All the physical and biological impacts will be analysed regarding to recent innovative results on sound effect on populations. The temporal evolution of the monitored variables, either abiotic (seafloor morphology, sediment dynamics, etc.) or biotic (community structure, and function, biodiversity hotspot.) are relevant for MSP, and other marine policies, notably the MSFD. Research will include the effects of the harm caused by diverse types of marine litter and alternative proposals of remediation will be welcome to be included in the MSP strategy.
• Changing environmental scenarios, co-designed with the relevant authorities, will be proposed, addressing climate change effects such as sea level rise, and shifting risks of coastal flooding. The time horizon should not be less than the next 50 years with application at the local level of (/downscaling from) International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios. The respective impacts of extreme events, erosion, sedimentation, subsidence, etc., on human activities will be forecasted to be integrated into the MSP initiative. Consequences of future changes of nutrients inputs to the maritime area will be analysed in relation to the future applicable regulations of the EU Common Agriculture Policy. Expected trends in the relevant freshwater hydrological regimes such as the increase of droughts in relation to climate change are important elements, for which the changes in ecosystem productivity of estuaries and coastal areas, should be addressed. These cumulative impacts will include changes of inputs from watershed to the coastal zone.
• Biodiversity conservation and restoration: In line with the Global Biodiversity Framework, ratified worldwide, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030’, all European countries are committed to increase the surface of their Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) with atarget of 30% of its marine area protected, including 10% with a high level of protection. In addition, the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) proposes binding targets to stop biodiversity loss in the EU. It aims to establish restoration measures on at least 20% of all EU land and sea areas by 2030, and support Member States and its regions to integrate NRL adaptation while promoting nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based adaption. The identification of the biodiversity hotspots to be protected is a main issue, as well as the implementation of an effective management to achieve this requirement for our continental European coasts, integrated approaches of that factor, in marine and coastal biodiversity conservation, permit avoiding harmful uses in, but also at the vicinity of the MPAs. Explore transboundary scenarios and multi-lateral solutions for international protected areas that could be proposed for highly mobile species and shared populations. Previous studies have demonstrated that connectivity of MPAs is an important element to maintain genetic diversity and to include all the stages of the life history of sessile species such as spawning grounds, nurseries, etc. The MSP initiative should address how ecological corridors between different MPAs are proposed to maintain genetic diversity. All the targets to maintain and to restore marine and coastal biodiversity should be integrated, at the proper scale, in the MSP initiative.
• All marine activities in the regional sea-basins will consider the sectoral aspects of marine and maritime space management: fisheries management, aquaculture zone, navigation, sediment removal, offshore wind farms, oil and gas extraction but also tourism, etc. A specific attention will be on overexploited fish populations with spatial component in the development of suitable population dynamics models to support a better sustainable management of sensitive fish species for recovery. The development of activities on land in these coastal zones, such as: industries, harbours, coastal cities, tourism, recreation, MPAs, terrestrial aquaculture, and agriculture effects etc., have to be estimated and evaluated with their potential impacts and quality requirements. The legacies of past impacts and their long-term effects on coastal environments in association with the possible future of these activities have to be considered in development scenarios. Therefore, industrial plants and their associated impacts (e.g., dumping sites) must be not ignored. Research may be undertaken to better implement integrated economical, ecological, and social impacts with indicators to measure the respective impacts in marine ecosystem management tools. Co-design, co-development, and co-use with MSP competent authorities at national and regional levels will ensure direct capitalisation of results and widen the information basis available to relevant authorities, particularly by including socio-economic data sources (DCR, regional and national data, Eurostat, OCDE).
• Space-based remote sensing tools enhance the ability of coastal-resource managers to keep pace with increasing population-pressure on coastal resources and improve climate change adaptation strategies. Remote sensing techniques allow assessments that are impossible to do with traditional methods.
• Development of innovative Decision Support Tools (DSTs): It is recommended that the MSP initiative contributes to the development of new Decision Support Tools (DSTs) including socio-economical components, making them amenable for transfer to competent authorities of the different countries, for their use. DSTs are aimed to facilitate interaction and decision-making with the stakeholders, policy makers and all the actors and citizens of the area using inter alia foresight scenarios at the relevant regional/international scale. DST will allow decision-makers to evaluate different scenarios and provide for a better-informed decision-making by considering the broader impacts and interdependencies among different sea-uses. Research on governance issues between the different regions and countries to implement a joint MSP will be welcomed and shared with the different actors. Advanced models for integrating multiple disciplines to create DST considering environmental processes, anthropogenic activities, socio-economic and socio-ecological aspects. Development of DST demonstrators will be welcome to show the concrete added value of DSTs for specific sector and to overcome technical and non-technical barriers in co-using advanced DSTs in institutional MSP processes.

2.2.4 Blue Bioresources

The EU Green Deal sets is driving Europe’s blue economy to become sustainable and climate-neutral by 2050. The Blue Bioresources represent an important component of the broader blue economy, delivering food, feed and biobased products for Europe and export markets. To achieve sustainability, it is important to consider all stages of the bioresources value chain, from production (fisheries, aquaculture) to seafood processing, including, biotechnology products, extracting value from waste streams and developing new types of biomasses, new food and non-food products, new products enabling innovative processes. Multi/trans-disciplinary approaches will be requested to address complex challenges, including social sciences and humanities and cooperation with the industry and relevant stakeholder, including citizen and consumers behaviour.

The Blue Bioresources component targets sustainable management of ocean resources to produce environmentally sustainable, high-quality, resilient, and climate-neutral seafood and feed and innovative marine biobased products. It will be focused on a just transition to the sustainable production and utilisation of blue bioresources, with emphasis on production and processes that minimise the environmental impacts including carbon emission while meeting the demand for healthy and affordable blue food, feed, and other biobased products.

• The reduction of bycatch, discards, and processing waste for fisheries and aquaculture products and how value can be created from unavoidable biomass side streams, in order to increase the efficiency and circularity of aquaculture and fisheries, including valorization of side stream materials for instance by using biotechnology methods.
• The exploration of the potential of low trophic species in fisheries and aquaculture – such as algae, shellfish, molluscs etc – for blue food and feed purposes;
• Increase the supply of blue food by utilising a larger proportion of fish catches for human consumption and by utilising new sustainable marine resources, such as algae.

The following targeted research questions, to be explored in the project formulation, are presented hereafter. A project needs, at a minimum, to address one or more of the following points, including a multi-actor approach:

• Sustainable Fisheries and Harvesting

Overexploitation and the cumulative impact of overfishing with climate change and other drivers on susceptible species and ecosystems is leading to unsustainable scenarios for the next decades. To bring Europe's fish stocks back to sustainable levels, there are important challenges remaining such as improvement of management of overfished stocks, optimised fishing technologies and practices to reduce bycatch and discards, and increased fishing of underutilised species. A forward-looking ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach have to reduce adverse impacts of fishing and harvesting on marine ecosystems, particularly sensitive species, and on vulnerable habitats. New digital tools, ecosystem modelling, and artificial intelligence tools can optimise both small- and large-scale fishing operations with the development of sustainable management practices. Assessments and solution scenarios should consider the impact and social implications of combined drivers such as habitat degradation, warming, water stratification and acidification, as well as their effects, such as changes in ecosystem composition and modification of spatial migration.

Activities should take into consideration projects funded under the Mission to Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 and could address the following aspects:

All possible innovative approaches to avoid or drastically reduce bycatch and discards can be considered. It will include integrated components of innovation for fishing vessels, fishing gears, vessel operations and fishing practices to avoid catching undersized and non-commercial or protected species. Innovative ways to address selective fishing, for example based on light, smell or all the ways to attract the targeted species, based on its feeding practice or hunting behaviour.

• Projects could address the development of innovative fishing gears and fisheries technologies, addressing the 2 challenges: reduction of the fisheries’ carbon footprint (fuel consumption) and reduction of fishing impacts on the marine biodiversity and habitat destruction. Exploring and co-developing with industry the potential of these new fishing techniques on new resources with a focus on small-scale fisheries, and on seaweed harvesting;
• Development of more selective fishing gears that reduce environmental impact, particularly in the bottom-contact fisheries. Particular attention will be brought on small scale fisheries to remain efficient and developing its competitivity;
• Development on knowledge of recreational fisheries to manage their impact on fish and shellfish biomasses;
• Research on migratory fish stocks that spend different parts of their life cycle in different jurisdictions. This is a critical issue for the EU Common Fisheries Policy and co-management of stocks between EU and third countries;

Harvesting of a wide range of low trophic marine species may provide an opportunity for increased sustainable valorisation and production of Blue Food and feed, including valorisation of side streams materials for instance by using biotechnology methods. Sustainability of the possible targeted harvesting has to be demonstrated as environmental sustainability and reduction of carbon footprints. The example of the mesopelagic ecosystem can be addressed taking into consideration the outcomes of relevant Horizon 2020 projects e.g., SUMMER and MEESO. Development of recycling with innovative new products and technologies with low energy consumption allows to increase sustainable supply of food production. They will include utilisation of side streams and residues from fish processing industries as well as unwanted wastes by catch and discards, the use of low-value fish species for healthy and sustainable food and algae for innovative use for food and feed for human consumption, pets or farmed animals or for production of high-value products;

• Understanding the social and economic drivers of change in commercial fisheries to inform both fisheries, economic and regional development policy and planning. Include the fisheries policy in alignment with other policy domains (MSP, MSFD, WFD) and the implications of measures associated with the EU Nature Restoration Law on fishing and fishers.

• Sustainability in aquaculture

Production of safe, secure food and sustainable aquaculture, has a margin for improvement in respect to diversification, competitiveness, environmental performance including invasive species and carbon-neutral production. Aquaculture production should take care of the growing consumer demand for blue organic food, and the need for innovative blue biobased products, while the responsibilities of aquaculture production face new challenges on the social, economic, and environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality of the production.

This requires targeted technological advancements and diversification of the production with new species, in particular the production of organisms of the primary and/or low trophic levels, like plankton, algae, and shellfish. Economical components and consumer behaviour will be large critical elements conditionals to the success of the new aquaculture products. Integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA), offshore production, closed systems, or land-based infrastructure with use of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), are options for culturing of established and new species if they have achieved to reduce their energy consumption and if they are coupled to green energy.

The development of multi-uses offshore platforms will give opportunities for massive aquaculture development. Solutions for recycling discards and wastes, and technology improvement with digital and IA development will favour a new mechanisation system for production and processing after harvest. The latest and modified technological and digital systems should favour and promote the farmed products' health, welfare, and quality farmed products' health, welfare, and quality.

Activities should take into consideration projects funded under the Mission to ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030’ and could cover the following aspects:

– Challenges and opportunities associated with further development and expansion of seaweed and shellfish production, spread of invasive species, risk of genetic pollution, food safety challenges due to possible bioaccumulation of heavy metals; algae diseases and new methods for processing harvested seaweed; Development of biologically, technically, and economically feasible onshore recirculating aquaculture systems opportunities for fish, shellfish, and seaweed with development of biorefinery to optimise recirculation issues; challenges and opportunities associated with mollusc production, including but not limited to harmful algal blooms as potential threats for food safety; cost/benefits to move offshore for longer distance. Estimation of the costs, the risks and social acceptance of this migration;
– Challenges and opportunities for growth in fed mariculture, including to sustainable organic and healthy feed, fish health optimization environmental concerns, and food safety issues due to bioaccumulation and biomagnification of xenobiotics in parallel with a low environmental footprint including a decrease of fuel energy consumption;
– Research projects need to be developed by, or in close cooperation with the private sector. A focus on the refinement or the development of new innovative solutions of production processes in sustainable and integrated aquaculture while increasing food quality, carbon neutrality and potential development in relation with long term forecasting of climate change;
– Methods to ensure traceability of aquaculture products along the whole chain to answer to the consumer request on the origin, contamination of hazardous substances on the healthy products with analysis of the life cycle of the processes to reduce carbon footprint in aquaculture.

• Blue Biotechnology:

Utilisation of the whole diversity of aquatic organisms for production of a variety of new biobased products: food, feed, chemical, medical with recycling from wastes or side streams (by-catch, rest raw materials etc.), and extraction of new products from marine life including seaweed and plankton. High-value molecules or products can be developed through different innovative processes such as biorefinery approach which is also contributing to minimise waste by maximising the use of the different components of the bioresource and enhancing the value chain. Exploration of the synergies between blue (aquatic farming) and green (agriculture) in a fully circular blue bioeconomy.

Activities should address the following aspects:

• Development of new sustainable biobased molecules or products for food, feed, chemical, pharmaceutical, medical,cosmetics and material,
• Post-harvest or processing technology for good conservation of marine products to avoid any degradation to increase quality of innovative products.
• Use of digitalisation to support of traceability of biobased products from marine sources.
• Socio-economic effects of the proposed innovations and their social acceptance by the actors from aquaculture and fisheries and also by the citizens consumers including request of evolution of policy to support reform with respect to regulations on use of waste and discards.

Synergies and complementarity of the projects are requested with EU partnerships such as: FutureFoodS which will focus on the post-farming and fishing part of food systems, and Animal Health and Welfare. Coordination with the projects under the Mission ‘Restore our Oceans and Waters’ (Mission Ocean); the Circular biobased Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE-JU) and Waterborne platform will be organized by SBEP portfolios.

2.3 Impact of the proposals

With Horizon Europe, the EU Members-States and Associated Countries, want to generate impact-driven R&I projects and to create significant societal and environmental impacts, contributing also to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), whose implementation is coordinated by IOC/UNESCO. In line with this perspective, it is requested to include a plan that describes what impact the research is expected to achieve in the long run and how it contributes to the overall impacts defined for the call:

• the potential for impact beyond the academic world, such as in societal, technical, environmental, economic, policy-making, or behavioural realms;
• how relevant stakeholders can be involved in, and/or benefit from, the design and achievement of the research project;
• to what extent the project addresses the uptake of research findings into decision-making processes and policy-making;
• how approaches for achieving impact are integrated into the research design and conducted by the consortium.

One way to make such a plan is to establish a methodology of Theory of Change (ToC) with a related Impact Pathway (IP) to describe the research process, mentioning well-specified outputs and outcomes. Please refer to the Annex A: Theory of change, for more information on how to set up a Theory of Change, as well as to a workshop from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), which is freely accessible: https://impact.nwo.nl/en/working-with-an-impact-plan.

The integration of the above elements will be considered in the evaluation of the proposals. In particular, it will be considered whether the proposal ensures that the project consortium, in its composition, sufficiently reflects the project’s stated aims in relation to output, outcome and impact creation, i.e., that its initial Theory of Change is realistic and achievable by the consortium partners.

3.0 FUNDING

3.1 Participating countries

A total of 38 PFOs from 26 countries (20 Member-States, 5 Associated Countries and 1 Third Country) have agreed to launch the second Joint Call for R&I proposals. The list of countries is as follows: 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.

Table 1: Provisional funding commitment for the second call
		Funded Priority areas
Country	PFOs Acronym	Digital Twins of the Oceans at regional sub basin scale	Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructures	Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level	Blue Bioresources	Indicative budget in euro (provisional)
Belgium	BELSPO	×	×	×		500.000
Belgium	F.R.S. – FNRS	×	×	×	×	300.000
Belgium	FIO/VLAIO	×	×	×	×	1.000.000
Belgium	FWO	×	×	×	×	700.000
Brazil*	CONFAP	×	×	×	×	1.250.000 (TBC)
Cyprus	RIF	×	×	×	×	1.300.000
Denmark	IFD	×	×	×	×	1.300.000
Estonia	ETAG	×	×	×	×	300.000
Estonia	KLIM	×	×			100.000
Estonia	REM		×		×	100.000
Faroe Islands	RCFI	×	×	×	×	135.000
Finland	AKA	×		×		850.000
France	ANR	×	×	×	×	2.000.000
Germany	BMBF/ PtJ	×	×	×		1.500.000
Greece	GSRI	×	×	×	×	1.000.000
Iceland	RANNIS	×	×		×	600.000
Ireland	MI	×	×	×	×	1.000.000
Italy	RER	×		×	×	300.000
Italy	MUR	×	×	×	×	3.500.000
Latvia	LCS	×	×	×	×	600.000
Lithuania	LMT	×	×	×	×	420.000
Malta	MCST	×	×	×	×	500.000
Norway	RCN	×		×	×	2.200.000
Poland	NCBR	×	×	×	×	1.000.000
Portugal	CCDRC	×	×	×	×	400.000
Portugal	FCT	×	×	×	×	500.000
Portugal	FRCT	×		×	×	100.000
Romania	MCID	×	×	×	×	1.000.000
Slovenia	MVZI	×	×	×	×	900.000
Spain	AEI	×	×	×	×	1.200.000
Spain	CDTI	×	×		×	400.000
Sweden	FORMAS	×	×	×	×	2.000.000
Sweden	SNSA	Information to come				TBC
The Netherlands	LNV, lenW, NWO	×	×	×	×	2.000.000
Tunisia	MHESR	×	×	×	×	400.000
Türkiye	TÜBİTAK	×	×	×	×	400.000

3.2 Financial commitment

A total of approx. 40 million EUR have been provisionally allocated for this Joint Transnational Call by the participating PFOs combined with the contribution from the European Union (EU) (Table 1). These funds will be used for R&I activities carried out by researchers, institutions, and companies according to the funding rules and legal frameworks of their respective PFOs (Annex B).

Partners applying in a consortium cannot request more than the maximum amount stated by the PFO from which they seek funding in Annex B of the national/regional regulations to this Call Announcement.

3.3 Funding decision

The choice of transnational projects to be funded will then be taken by the Call Steering Committee (CSC) strictly following the ranking list established by the International Evaluation Committee (IEC) and by budgetary considerations. Final funding decisions are made by the PFOs.

4.0 PROCEDURES, ELIGIBILITY, AND SELECTION CRITERIA

4.1 Call process

The Joint Call will be advertised online from the following web pages:

– Online Submission Tool: https://proposals.etag.ee/sustainable-blue
– Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Website: https://www.bluepartnership.eu/funding-opportunities
– PFOs web pages and on the EC Funding & Tenders portal.

The application process consists of two consecutive steps:

STEP 1

The Consortium Coordinator must submit a pre-proposal on behalf of the consortium, providing key data on the proposed project. The deadline for the submission of the pre-proposal is 10/04/2024, 15.00 CET (Brussels time). Submission of pre-proposals is mandatory; it is not possible to enter the procedure at a later stage.

STEP 2

The Consortium Coordinator must submit a full proposal (upon invitation) on behalf of the consortium. The deadline for full proposal submission is 06/11/2024, 15.00 CET (Brussels time). Deadline to be confirmed after Step 1.

4.2 Call timetable

Table 2: Second call timetable
17th January 2024	Pre-announcement
1st February 2024	Official launch – Call Publication
10th April 2024, 15.00 CET	Deadline for submission (pre-proposals)
11th April to early May 2024	First eligibility checks by Joint Call Secretariat and National Contact Points (NCPs)
Mid-July 2024	Results of the pre-proposal evaluation Invitation to submit full proposals
Mid to end-July 2024	Period for appeal (redress procedure)
Early to mid-August 2024	Evaluation of the appeals and communication of decisions to the applicants
6th November 2024, 15:00 CET	Submission of the Full Proposals
7th November to end-November 2024	Second eligibility check by Joint Call Secretariat and NCPs
End-February 2025	Results of the full proposal evaluation (ranked list of proposals)
Early-March 2025	Projects recommended for funding by the Call Steering Committee (CSC) Announcement of results to applicants
Early to mid-March 2025	Period for appeal (redress procedure)
Mid-March 2025 to early-April 2025	Evaluation of the appeals and communication of decisions to the applicants
1st May to 31th August 2025	Start of funded projects
30th April to 30th August 2028	End of funded projects

4.3 Confidentiality and conflict of interests

The SBEP PFOs are committed to avoiding any Conflict of Interest and safeguarding good scientific practice. A Code of Conduct related to Conflict of Interests, confidentiality and non-disclosure is defined and applies to the CSC, Independent Observer and IEC. An important aspect of this code is the avoidance of any conflicts between personal interests and the interests of the applicants. The CSC and related National Contact Points (NCPs), the independent observer, and the IEC will perform their work impartially and take all measures to prevent any situation where the impartial and objective implementation of the work is compromised for reasons involving economic interest, political or national affinity, family or emotional ties or any other shared interest (‘conflict of interests’).

The following situations will automatically be considered as a conflict of interest:

– Being involved in (the preparation of) any pre- and/or full proposal;
– Having submitted a proposal as a principal investigator or a team member, under the call;
– Being director, trustee or partner or in any way involved in the management of an applicant;
– Being employed or contracted by one of the applicants;
– Having close professional proximity, e.g., being a member of the same scientific institution with a hierarchical or department relation or impending change of the IEC member to the institution of the applicant in a position with a hierarchical or department relation or vice versa;
– Having close family ties (spouse, domestic or non-domestic partner, child, sibling, parent etc.) or other close personal relationships with the applicants of the proposal;
– Having (or have had during the last five years) a close scientific collaboration with an applicant of the proposal;
– Having (or have had) a relationship of scientific rivalry or professional hostility with an applicant of the proposal;
– Having (or have had), a mentor/mentee relationship with a principal investigator of the proposal;
– Having a current or prior (past 5 years) activity in advisory bodies of the applicant’s institution, e.g., scientific advisory boards;
– Having direct or indirect benefit if any proposal submitted is accepted or rejected;
– Having personal economic interests in the funding decision. Other situations preventing the IEC members or reviewers from participating in the evaluation impartially could be considered a conflict of interest and should be reported as such by the IEC members.

Applicants included in a (pre-)proposal submitted to this call (including all the team members) may not serve as IEC members.

At the implementation level, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Consortium partners that might apply to the co-funded calls are completely excluded from the work of call preparation, selection and project follow-up and monitoring. All related information is kept non-accessible to these Consortium members. In that way, the possibility for research units belonging to these organisations to participate in the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership calls for proposals is safeguarded. To ensure complete transparency and inform the recipients of calls, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Consortium partners that may apply to the co-funded calls are explicitly listed in Annex C, emphasizing their absolute extraneousness to the process of preparing the calls both in terms of defining the priority areas of the call and the procedures for evaluating and selecting project proposals. Concrete measures to avoid potential Conflicts of Interest or unequal treatment of applicants are ensured.

4.4 Publishable information

A list of the funded projects will be published at the end of the call process (once the projects have been selected) on the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Website and on the Ocean Decade website and the Ocean Decade Network. Therefore, applicants should be aware that the following information from the proposals may be published by the SBEP, IOC/UNESCO and the PFO for promotional purposes: (1) Project Title and Project Acronym, (2) Publishable abstract, (3) Duration of the project, (4) Total costs and total funding of the research project, (5) Organisation name and country of each partner, (6) Name of the Project Coordinator.

Each of the funding organisations will subsequently handle projects approved for funding. Projects approved for funding will be governed by the confidentiality rules in the national law of the funding organisations.

4.5 Privacy policy

By applying, the Consortium Coordinator and partners agree to the use, share (for specific purposes: e.g., evaluation, for the future nomination of experts, Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership-specific communication) and the storage of projects-related information according to the Privacy Policy and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Online Submission Tool presents further information on the Privacy Policy (https://proposals.etag.ee/sustainable-blue).

4.6 Eligibility criteria

When applying to this call, the applicants must be aware that their (pre-) proposals must meet both (i) general eligibility criteria, summarized in Table 2, and (ii) national/regional eligibility criteria (Annex B).

A (pre-)proposal that does not fulfil all the general eligibility criteria will be declined without any further review.

Each partner involved in the project will be funded by its national/regional funding organisations. The consortium must therefore also comply with all the relevant national/regional eligibility rules (Annex B). It is particularly important to note that some funding organisations may require the submission of national documents in addition to the international (pre-)proposal. Besides, national/regional funding bodies may not fund all types of organisations.

Please note:

– If the partner acting as the consortium coordinator is not eligible, the whole proposal will be considered ineligible and will not be evaluated;
– If any other partner (not applicable to the coordinator) is declared ineligible:
- – The ineligible partner could participate in the consortium as a self-funded partner;
- – The other partners could engage themselves to cover the tasks of the ineligible partner;
- – The ineligible partner could be replaced by another partner that will request funds from a PFO with an undersubscription ratio. The list of the PFOs with an undersubscription ratio will be provided to coordinators invited to submit a full proposal at the end of the first step selection process.
- – The ineligible partner cannot be replaced by a self-funded partner.

At Step 2, if the consortium coordinator and/or any other partner is declared ineligible for funding by a PFO, the whole proposal will be considered ineligible and will not be evaluated.

Any change in the consortium composition must conform to the general eligibility criteria defined in 4.6.1 and be validated by the relevant funding organisations.

Before applying, every partner should verify their corresponding national/regional regulations and check their eligibility with their National Contact Points (NCPs). The Consortium Coordinator should verify that all partners of the consortium verified their eligibility. NCPs will provide support about national/regional rules and requirements (Annex B).

(Pre-)proposals that fulfil all requirements i.e., general eligibility criteria and all relevant national/regional eligibility criteria, will enter the evaluation process described in 4.8. The JCS on behalf of the CSC, will communicate the results of the eligibility check and the decisions taken to the coordinator of each consortium.

The case of beneficiaries of Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership’ participating in R&I call for proposals:

Research teams of some beneficiaries of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership may participate in this co-funded call; the list of the beneficiaries of the SBEP allowed to participate in the projects’ consortia is indicated in Annex C. For those beneficiaries, firewall measures have been foreseen to mitigate the risk of, perception of, or de facto conflict of interest or unequal treatment of applicants, including clear segregation of duties. All other beneficiaries of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership may not apply for funding under the co-funded call for proposals.

4.6.1 General eligibility criteria

The general eligibility criteria are described in Table 3. (Pre-)proposals that do not meet all these criteria will be considered ineligible and thus will not be considered for funding.

Table 3: General eligibility criteria
Scope	(Pre-)proposals must address one main priority area. It is not compulsory to address all sub-themes within the priority area.
Consortium composition	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 PFO participating in this call. In addition to the abovementioned condition, the projects must involve at least two independent legal entities from two different EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries1 eligible for EU funding for this call for (pre-)proposal (as recipients of the financial support, at the time of the closing of the call by 10th April 2024). Specific requirements regarding self-funded partners, i.e.* partners that do not require funding:** – Self-funded partners must demonstrate the willingness to self-fund their activities or show evidence that other partners are willing to fund their activities; – A letter of intent/commitment must be submitted with the full proposal at Step 2; – A self-funded partner cannot act as the consortium coordinator; – Self-funded partners are not counted for the minimum requirement of eligible partners and countries.
Consortium coordinator	In each (pre-)proposal, one entity must act as the consortium coordinator; – The consortium coordinator must be eligible for funding by a funding organisation of this call; – The consortium coordinator has the responsibility for submitting the (pre-)proposal; – The principal investigator (PI) of the entity acting as consortium coordinator must be employed by an eligible organisation in one of the countries participating in the call according to the terms and conditions of the participating funding organisation from which he/she applies for support; – A person can act as consortium coordinator only in one proposal.
Requested funding	Partners from the same country cannot request more than 60% of the total funding requested by a proposal.
Duration	The projects must be 36 months; The start date and end date of the researcher groups within the consortium must be aligned as far as possible.
(Pre-) proposals submission	A two-step process will apply, with a mandatory submission of pre-proposals at the Step 1 and submission of full proposals upon invitation to Step 2. (Pre-) proposals must: – be written in English – be submitted electronically with the Electronic Proposal Submission System (EPSS) before the set deadlines at https://proposals.etag.ee/sustainable-blue – Instructions for electronic submission will be available on the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership website at https://www.bluepartnership.eu/funding-opportunitiesin February 2024. – be complete, respect page limits and the number/type of attachments allowed, including CV templates that are in line with sound principles for research assessment according to the (pre-)proposals forms (Annexes D and E) and information provided in the EPSS.

X Noot

https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/list-3rd-country-participation_horizon-euratom_en.pdf

4.6.2 National/Regional Eligibility Criteria

In addition to the general eligibility criteria, each project partner must ensure that its contribution to the overall project conforms to:

– Where applicable, the relevance of the (pre-)proposal to the priority areas funded by national/regional PFOs;
– Compliance with national/regional funding eligibility criteria and regulations as reported in the Annex B. The table in Annex B describes important restrictions related to each national/regional regulation;
– Compliance with limits to budget requests;
– Where requested by the national funding organisation, submission of additional national documents by national rules.

4.6.3 Recommendations for the applicants

All partners within a consortium should take into consideration the following recommendations for setting up their project (pre-)proposals:

Scope

• (Pre-)proposals should go beyond the state of the art by providing high-quality R&I and, when appropriate, make use of innovative technologies, approaches, and concepts to do so;
• (Pre-) proposals should be scientifically excellent and relevant to policies framed under Blue Economy and consider ongoing research activities funded by other EU Missions, instruments, programmes, or projects. Cooperation with these activities is of high importance to avoid redundancy, favour complementarity and increase synergies;
• (Pre-)proposals should contribute to cross-cutting themes such as the open data policy, development of capacity-building activities and ocean literacy activities, promote the inclusion of young people in the activities and knowledge transfer, follow partnership communication guidelines using a common visual identity, to promote equal opportunities for participation of women and men in the research consortia and comply with EC ethics self-assessment principles;
• (Pre-) proposals are strongly encouraged to cover a broad geographic scale. Projects are expected to cover at least two EU sea basins and assess the impact of the projects on several EU sea basins.

Consortium composition:

• All (pre-)proposals are encouraged to consider geographical balance and implementation in appropriate geographic settings and according to the objectives of the proposal, including in low- and middle-income countries/regions, and underperforming countries;
• Self-funded participation of legal entities from countries (and/or regions) participating in the call, is welcome;
• Project partners that are not eligible for funding may participate as self-funded if they have their separate source of funding;
• It is strongly encouraged to involve stakeholders from the quadruple-helix (i.e., small, and medium enterprises (SMEs), industries, authorities, public administrations, associations, as well as civil society organisations) as partners or self-funded partners. The modalities of participation of stakeholders are defined in the national/regional eligibility criteria. Stakeholder engagement in the research projects will enhance innovation, policy, and societal relevance and ultimately the impact of the projects;
• All proposals should integrate the gender dimension 17 of R&I activities;
• Every partner in a (pre-)proposal, including a self-funded partner, needs a Participant Identification Code (PIC) from the EC to be included in the submission. The applicants must check their PIC or ask for the creation of a PIC well in advance of the submission 18 . The same request applies to subcontractors.

Budget:

– There is no specific limit to the total budget for proposals;
- • The requested total budget of proposals is only limited by the number of eligible partners and by the budget of each partner. Please consider the national regulations of each research funding organisation about the specific budget limitations and the general eligibility criteria, the section on Requesting Funding.

Data management:

Please note that you will be requested to produce data management plans (DMP) and regularly update them during the project. The guide in Annex F “Open access and FAIR data” presents the core requirements for the establishment of a DMP and the expectations at the step of (pre-)proposals and awarded projects.

4.6.4 Ethical issues

The evaluation criteria of this call for (pre-)proposals include the evaluation of compliance with relevant ethical requirements. Applicants should always describe any relevant ethical aspects in their research plans. If a research permit or a statement by an ethics committee is required for the implementation of the project, applicants should provide information on the permits or permit proposals.

Researchers are required to adhere to the principles of good scientific practice and to follow the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity by ALLEA19 (All European Academies) and the Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings20. Projects must comply with the "Do no significant harm principle" 21.

Any proposal which seems to contravene fundamental ethical principles will not be selected and may be excluded from the selection procedure by the IEC. Judgment of the significance of ethical issues will be made by using the criteria published by the European Commission in its guidelines on ‘How to Complete your Ethics Self-Assessment’22.

4.7 Submission procedure

A two-step procedure will apply to this Joint Transnational Call; at Step1 the submission of pre-proposals is mandatory, and at Step 2, applicants must submit full proposals upon invitation.

(Pre-)proposals must be submitted electronically using the Electronic Proposal Submission System (EPSS): https://proposals.etag.ee/sustainable-blue.

Instructions for electronic submission will be available on the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership website at https://www.bluepartnership.eu/funding-opportunities, in February 2024.

For any technical questions regarding the submission procedure using the EPSS, please contact the SBEP EPSS technical helpdesk: epss.sbep@g.etag.ee.

Please note that:

– The online system may experience high traffic volumes in the last hours before the submission deadline and it is therefore highly recommended to submit the final version of the pre/full proposal well in advance of the deadline to avoid any last-minute technical problems;
– The submission system will close at 15:00 CET of the deadline date set for both Step 1 and Step 2. Please note that the JCS can only ensure responses to email support requests up to noon CET;
– Requests for extensions of the deadline due to last-minute technical problems will not be considered. Any proposals not correctly submitted at this moment will be declared ineligible;
– All complete proposals will be submitted automatically when the platform closes, to avoid a situation where an applicant does not have time to click on the submit button. In this situation, the proposal will be evaluated as it stands;
– Some partners of the consortia may also be required to submit an application to their respective national/regional funding organisations. Please consult the national/regional regulations (Annex B) and contact the designated NCPs, for further information about the procedures to follow.

4.7.1 Step 1: submission of a Pre-Proposal (mandatory step)

Applicants must submit pre-proposals in Step 1 as it is not possible to enter the procedure at a later stage. Applicants must also submit any national documentation required by each participating funding organization according to national rules.

A pre-proposal eligibility check will be carried out both at the international level (by the JCS, based on the general eligibility rules) and at the national/regional level (by the NCPs) according to the funding organisations’ rules. The eligible pre-proposals will be sent to the scientific evaluation.

Submission on the EPSS:

– The consortium coordinator (PI) creates an account on the EPSS ( https://proposals.etag.ee/sustainable-blue );
– The consortium coordinator can enter, edit, and save the electronic forms, add partners and self-funded partners to the consortium, upload the project description (5 pages), the required budget for each partner and submit the proposal. Partners can enter and edit their own data only. Each partner and self-funded partner must connect itself to the EPSS before the submission deadline, to validate its participation with the project consortium;
– All information must be written in English. The proposal is a self-contained document. Links and hyperlinks are not allowed;
– Information entered or uploaded on the platform can be updated until the submission deadline;
– It is very important to note that the information given in the pre-proposals is binding. It is not possible to change the content of the project between step 1 and step 2.

If applicants have successfully passed the Step 1 (eligibility checks and evaluation), they will be invited to submit a full proposal at Step 2.

4.7.2 Step 2: submission of a Full Proposal (only for invited applicants)

Only invited applicants can submit full proposals: information (in English) on the project consortia, a 16-page description of the project and the required budget for each partner must be submitted on the EPSS. All rules described in Step 1 also applies to Step 2.

Applicants should note the important following information:

– Information on the core data (including Partners details, funding requested, PFO to which financial request is made, cannot be changed in full proposals, unless explicitly requested by evaluators, by a PFO or by the CSC. They, however, must comply with the general rules of the call and the rules of the relevant PFO. Any request for changes must be addressed by email to the JCS and the NCPs and will be reviewed by all PFOs involved in the proposal. The change(s) will have to be declared on the EPSS.
– In addition, as indicated in Step 1, the information given in the pre-proposals is binding. No major changes regarding the proposals’ content will be allowed by the CSC between the pre-proposals and full proposals; Minor changes may be possible to improve your proposal if the objectives remain unchanged. Applicants must explicitly indicate in their full proposal and into the EPSS the changes made as compared to the pre-proposals;
– Minor changes to the budget must be allowed by the relevant PFO; there is no need to inform the JCS. The change(s) will have to be declared on the EPSS.
– Regarding changes in the composition of the consortium i.e. changes (addition, removal or replacement) of Partners and Self-funded Partners (as institutions): no change will be allowed, except in case of force majeure or if explicitly requested by the CSC for the particular cases of i) ineligibility of a partner and/or ii) invitation to add a partner that will request funds to an undersubscribed PFO; the list of the undersubscribed PFO will be provided to coordinators invited to submit a full proposal at the end of the first step selection process.
– No change in the PI of the project Coordinator will be allowed, except in case of force majeure.
– In terms of process, the request for the change must be submitted to the JCS, at least one week before the deadline set for the submission of full proposals, it will be discussed on a case-by-case basis by the CSC. Any change in the composition of the consortium must comply with the general eligibility rules of the call, and the national/regional regulations of the relevant PFOs. The eligibility of the new Partners must be verified with the relevant PFOs before submitting the proposal. The change(s) will have to be declared on the EPSS.

Please indicate the acronym of your project when contacting the JCS and/or your NCP.

4.8 Evaluation of proposals

A two-step evaluation procedure will apply at both Step 1 (for the pre-proposals evaluation) and Step 2 (for the full proposal evaluation).

4.8.1 The International Evaluation Committee (IEC)

The CSC will establish an international evaluation committee (IEC). The composition of evaluation committees will consider the gender and geographical balance.

The IEC will comprise international scientific experts from the relevant research areas covered in this call including experts in ethics. The IEC composition should allow covering, as far as possible, the range of priority areas of the present call.

IEC members will have to sign a confidentiality, non-disclosure and conflict of interest policy and will have to declare all their potential conflicts of interest with submitted pre-proposals at Step 1 and with submitted full proposals at Step 2. The JCS will also check that no conflict of interest exists concerning the proposals evaluated.

IEC members cannot be applicants in the joint call and cannot evaluate proposals with which they declared a conflict of interest, to ensure a fair evaluation process and equal treatment of applicants. The IEC will be headed by a Chair and a viceChair. The Chair and the viceChair will be regular members of the IEC with the added duties of moderating the IEC meeting and conveying the results of the discussions to the CSC. The Chair and viceChair of the IEC will be selected from a country not represented within the CSC to avoid as much as possible conflicts of interest. Members take part in the IEC as independent experts and do not represent any organisation, nor can they send any replacements. This means that their work on this Committee does not represent any organisation or nation. An independent observer is invited to the IEC meeting to assess the conformity of the general procedure with the EU regulation.

All eligible proposals will be subject to a scientific evaluation by IEC members, one of the IEC members will be nominated as a rapporteur. They must assess the proposal and prepare individual written evaluation reports, in advance of the IEC meeting. Details about the assessment criteria and scoring of proposals are detailed in 4.8.3.

During the IEC meeting, the evaluation results for each proposal will be presented by the evaluators. The IEC will discuss the proposals, agree on the final individual score for each criterion and the overall score for each proposal and establish the final ranking of proposals based exclusively on the set of criteria defined.

The decisions of the IEC should be taken collectively, preferably by consensus or by a simple majority of the panel members in case consensus cannot be reached. The IEC will produce a final Evaluation Summary Report for each proposal, which will be transmitted to the applicants (without scores).

4.8.2 Evaluation procedures

Step 1 (pre-proposals)

1. Eligibility checks

Pre-proposals will be checked for eligibility at both the international level by the JCS (see criteria defined in 4.6.1) and at the national/regional level by the relevant funding organisations according to their national/regional criteria (see national/regional regulations; Annex B).

2. Scientific Evaluation

The eligible pre-proposals will be evaluated by a minimum of two independent evaluators of the IEC, and as far as possible, by three independent evaluators of the IEC who will be assigned by matching expert profiles with the need for pre-proposals evaluation. One of the IEC members will be nominated as a Rapporteur.

The evaluation of each pre-proposal will be based on the following criteria:

– Excellence (Threshold: 3/5)
– Impact (Threshold: 3/5)

During the IEC meeting, the evaluators will present the evaluation results of each pre-proposal. The IEC will discuss pre-proposals and agree on the final scores for each criterion.

The final score will be calculated by summing up the calculated average scores of the two criteria given by the IEC members for each criterion.

A ranking list of pre-proposals will be produced, including only pre-proposals that meet the minimum threshold, i.e., 3 out of 5 in each criterion.

3. Decision

This Step 1 aims to identify the best proposals to proceed to step 2 and to ensure a balance between requested and available funds at the national level.

The ranked eligible pre-proposals will be sent to the CSC and be divided into 3 groups, according to their scores: Group A (highest evaluation scores), Group B (medium evaluation scores), and Group C (under the threshold scores). All pre-proposals in Group A will be invited to Step 2. Among the pre-proposals in Group B, proposals will be selected for step 2, considering the ranking list, the representativeness of all PFOs, and the funding ratio limits. Group C will be dismissed for their low ranking and unavailability of funding.

Consortium coordinators will be informed of the outcomes by the Joint call secretariat and, if appropriate, invited to submit a full proposal on the EPSS as well as any national documentation required by each PFO according to national rules.

Step 2 (full proposals)

1. Eligibility checks

After the submission deadline for full proposals, the submitted full proposals will be checked (by the JCS, and NCPs) to ensure that they meet the eligibility criteria. Full proposals not meeting the formal conditions will be rejected without further review.

2. Scientific evaluation

All eligible full proposals will be subject to a scientific evaluation by at least three independent reviewers of the IEC who will be assigned by matching expert’s profiles with the need for full proposals evaluation. One of the IEC members will be nominated as a rapporteur.

The evaluation of each full proposal will be based on the following criteria:

• Excellence (Threshold: 3/5)
• Impact (Threshold: 3/5)
• Quality and efficiency of implementation (Threshold: 3/5)

During the IEC meeting, the evaluators will present the evaluation results of each proposal. The IEC will discuss full proposals and agree on the final scores for each criterion.

The final scores will be calculated by summing up the calculated average scores of the three criteria given by the IEC members for each criterion.

The threshold on the final score is 10/15: no project with a lower score will be funded.

The final ranking list will be produced based on the final scores, including only full proposals that meet the minimum threshold, i.e., 3 out of 5 in each criterion, and threshold on the final score i.e., 10 out of 15.

3. Decision

The final ranking list will be forwarded to the CSC, which will meet to decide on the projects to be recommended for funding by PFOs.

For this decision, the CSC will strictly follow the order of the ranking list from the IEC and the funding availability.

The projects with the same final scores will be prioritised by the CSC taking into consideration the following principles. The CSC can decide how to use these principles providing that they are used uniformly for all proposals:

• Maximizing the total number of projects funded and thus optimizing the amount of EU financial support to the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership call.
• Maximizing the number of countries/regions involved in the projects funded;
• Ensuring a balance between sea-basins involved in the projects funded;
• Assuring a good balance between different priority areas of the call;
• Promoting the allocation of the EU financial support pro rata, based on the actual contributions of the PFOs involved in the proposals.

Official letters on evaluation results will be sent to Consortium coordinators.

4.8.3 Evaluation criteria and scoring system

The evaluation criteria (and sub-criteria) used by the IEC are summarised in the table below.

Table 4: Evaluation criteria
Excellence (Step 1 and 2) Threshold: 3/5	Fit to the scope: clarity and pertinence of the project’s objectives to the call priority areas. • Is there adequacy between the proposal’s objectives and research questions and the thematic priorities of the present call? Novelty of research • The extent to which the proposed work is ambitious, and goes beyond the state of the art? • To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original concepts? • Is the proposal contributing to and/or increasing the advancement of its field and across different fields? • Does the proposal contribute to scientific excellence and significant progress toward the state of the art? • Does the proposal take scientific and/or technological risks? Does the proposal have a potential breakthrough despite this risk-taking? Addressing the knowledge gaps • Are the methodology and research design clear, feasible and suitable to answer the identified knowledge gaps and/or achieve the proposed objectives? • Are risks properly identified and managed? • The soundness of the proposed methodology, including the underlying concepts, models, assumptions, interdisciplinary approaches, appropriate consideration of the ethical issues according to the EU "Do no significant harm” principle (DNSH), gender dimension in research and innovation content, and the quality of open science practices, including sharing and management of research outputs and engagement of citizens, civil society and end users where appropriate.
Impact (Step 1 and 2) Threshold 3/5	The credibility of the pathways to achieve the expected outcomes and impacts specified in the call text, and the likely scale and significance of the contributions to the project. • Is the plan for impact clear and does it follow logically from the expected results of the project? • Is it suitably ambitious with regard to solving the problem addressed? • Is there a strategic impact on reinforcing competitiveness and/or on solving societal or environmental problems at the European and international levels? Suitability and quality of the measures to maximise expected outcomes and impacts, as set out in the dissemination and exploitation plan, including communication activities component of ocean literacy. • Are there feasible exploitation and dissemination plans of the scientific project results (including management and Intellectual Property Rights – IPR) • Are the expected results or the knowledge acquired of importance for economic/ societal sectors and economic development? • Is there a clear communication plan? The added value of European transnational cooperation and networking. • Does the proposal identify the right actors to make successful use of the results possible? • Is there a clear plan for interactions with /exchange and transfer of results within the consortium, to stakeholders or civil society? • Does the proposal present complementarities and synergies with the EU Missions of Horizon Europe and other European partnerships? The quadruple-helix ambition • Are quadruple-helix stakeholder organisations part of the consortium? • Does the project plan include clear activities and an effort to liaise with the different stakeholders of the quadruple helix? • Does the project plan foresee a clear impact on society and industry? • Does the project successfully link science, politics, industry and society together? European Sea basins • Did the project proposal cover at least 2 European basins? • Does the project proposal have an impact on the various European basins? EU Taxonomy compliance • Does the project proposal comply with the following performance thresholds set by the EU Taxonomy? ○ Make a substantial contribution to at least one of six environmental objectives (1. Climate change mitigation, 2. Climate change adaptation, 3. The sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, 4. The transition to a circular economy, 5. Pollution prevention and control and 6. The protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems); ○ Do no significant harm (DNSH) to the other five objectives, and; ○ Meet minimum social safeguards such as the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Quality and efficiency of the implementation (Step 2 only) Threshold 3/5	Quality and effectiveness of the work plan, assessment of risks, appropriateness of the effort assigned to work packages, and the resources overall. • Is the proposed organisation and management of the scientific project effective and efficient? • Are the management structures and procedures, including risk and innovation management, appropriate? • Are the resources assigned to the work packages in line with their objectives and deliverables? Capacity and role of each participant, and the extent to which the consortium brings together the necessary expertise. • Are participants in the proposal well-suited to the tasks assigned to them (necessary expertise)? • Is their role well-defined and do they complement each other well? • Is their role well-defined and do they complement each other well? • Are tasks well balanced among partners? Appropriateness of the partners and justification of the resources to be committed (budget, staff, equipment ...) • Is the estimated effort/allocation of resources appropriate? • Is it ensured that all participants have a valid role and adequate resources in the project to fulfil that role? • Do the work and financial plans plus the schedule show prospects for success? • Is there a balance of scientific and financial contributions from the respective countries' partners?

Individual scores will be attributed only to the three main criteria, even though the IEC experts will evaluate all sub-criteria described below in the scoring system.

Each criterion will be scored out of 5 (no half marks allowed) based on the following scoring system. The threshold for each criterion is 3 out of 5. Any project with a lower score for one of the criteria or an overall score lower than 10 at Step 2 will not be considered for funding.

Evaluators will identify strengths and weaknesses (if any) and provide context for their comments based on the application, i.e., evaluators will be asked to score (pre-)proposals as they were submitted, rather than on their potential if certain changes were to be made. When an evaluator identifies substantial shortcomings, he/she must reflect this by awarding a lower score for the criterion concerned. There should be consistency between the numerical scores and written comments.

Scoring system:

0 – LIMITED – The (pre-)proposal fails to address the criterion or cannot be assessed due to missing or incomplete information.

1 – POOR – The criterion is inadequately addressed, or there are serious inherent weaknesses.

2 – FAIR – The (pre-)proposal broadly addresses the criterion, but there are significant weaknesses.

3 – GOOD – The (pre-)proposal addresses the criterion well, but several shortcomings are present.

4 – VERY GOOD – The (pre-)proposal addresses the criterion very well, but a small number of shortcomings are present.

5 – EXCELLENT – The (pre-)proposal successfully addresses all relevant aspects of the criterion. Any shortcomings are minor.

4.8.4 Redress procedure

Applicants can challenge the evaluation outcome if they suspect a breach in the application of the evaluation and selection procedures. This redress procedure only covers the procedural aspects of the evaluation and/or eligibility checks, including the national eligibility checks. The redress will not call into question the scientific or technical judgement of appropriately qualified experts.

In this case, they shall submit their request for redress to the JCS (sbep.call-secretariat@agencerecherche.fr) via email, up to 14 calendar days after the date of dispatch of the evaluation outcome email by the JCS at the end of each step (first or second step). The (pre-)proposal outcome email containing the results of the evaluation will give information on the redress procedure, which is described below.

Admissibility of request for redress

For a request for redress to be admissible the following conditions must be met:

– The request for redress must be submitted by the coordinator of the (pre-)proposal to which the request for redress relates
– Only one request for redress per (pre-)proposal will be considered
– The request for redress must be addressed to the IEC Chair
– The request for redress must be submitted via email within the 14 calendar days deadline.
– The request for redress must contain the following minimum information:
- • The name of the call for (pre-)proposals;
- • The (pre-)proposal number;
- • The acronym and the title of the (pre-)proposal;
- • A description of the alleged shortcomings of the evaluation procedure.

The request for redress must demonstrate a procedural irregularity, factual error, manifest error of assessment, misuse of powers, or a conflict of interests. Requests for redress that do not meet the above conditions do not deal with the evaluation of a specific (pre-) proposal or express mere disagreement with the result or the reasoning of the evaluation might be judged as not suitable for redress.

Procedure

Upon receipt of a request for redress, an acknowledgement of receipt will be sent by the JCS within 7 calendar days. The acknowledgement shall report the redress process and the anticipated date by which a decision on the request for redress will be communicated to the coordinator of the (pre-)proposal.

All requests for redress received by the 14 calendar days deadline will be processed together and the decision will be communicated to the coordinator of the (pre-)proposal within 14 calendar days from the deadline for submitting the requests for redress.

The IEC Chair will establish an internal redress committee chaired by the IEC Chair and comprised of the Independent Observer, and one representative of the consortium. The role of the redress committee is to evaluate the requests for redress according to the procedure, ensuring fair and equal treatment of applicants, with the support of the JCS (or the Chair of the CSC) and one representative per research funding organisation concerned by the proposal requesting a redress procedure, if needed. The Committee will provide its opinion on the implementation of the evaluation procedure, based on the available information related to the proposal and its evaluation, and will make a recommendation to the IEC Chair, who is in charge of deciding, except for national eligibility.

A negative national eligibility check of a PFO cannot be overruled by the IEC Chair. Requests for redress on national eligibility decisions will be assessed by the PFO responsible for the national eligibility check, which will justify its decision to the Chair, to prove that national funding rules listed in the call text have been applied correctly.

For Step 1:Pre-proposals which were originally considered ineligible or not admissible to submit a full proposal, but which the IEC Chair found to be eligible will be allowed to participate in Step 2. This will not lead to a change in the deadline for the full proposal submission.

For Step 2:The redress procedure may lead to a re-evaluation of all or part of the proposal by independent experts not involved in the previous evaluation or to the confirmation of the initial evaluation.

A re-evaluation will only be carried out if the request for redress shows that the selection procedure was flawed by a breach which affects the evaluation outcome and the final decision on whether to fund a proposal. This means, for example, that a problem relating to one evaluation criterion will not lead to a re-evaluation if the proposal has failed anyway on another criterion or if even by adding the maximum points for this criterion, the final score remains below the funding threshold.

The score following any re-evaluation will be regarded as definitive. It may be lower than the original score. All requests for redress will be treated in confidence and will not prejudice future applications.

5.0 PROJECT’S IMPLEMENTATION

5.1 Contractual relationships

This SBEP call is a collaboration between funding organisations with the aim of establishing transnational research collaboration. The contracts with project partners are the responsibility of the national/regional PFOs.

Because of the fragmented nature of the funding, care will be taken to ensure that the individual contracts are synchronised both in time and content so that the project consortium can deliver transnational outputs as described in the project proposal. The national/regional PFOs must ensure that common SBEP conditions are met (e.g., the common start date of a given project, reporting requirements, etc.).

For the whole duration of the contract, it is the responsibility of the Project Coordinator to inform the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership consortium about any changes in the project, i.e., modifications of the work plan, the project consortium, or the contract. The communication should be transmitted through the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Monitoring Group.

Any financial issue is under the responsibility of each national/regional PFO involved in the approved project.

5.2 Consortium Agreement

All project partners including self-funded partners are required to sign a Consortium Agreement (CA) before the official project starts or in any case no later than three months after the project starts. The CA should address matters on the management of project activities, finances, IPR and how to avoid and solve disputes which might be detrimental to the completion of the project. It will be the responsibility of the project coordinators to draw up a CA suitable for their own group.

Upon request, the CA must be made available to the national or regional PFOs, together with any other information required by national or regional regulations. Funding organisations might require the CA to release the funds. Support for the preparation of a consortium agreement can be found on the DESCA webpage http://www.desca-2020-eu.

5.3 Project monitoring and reporting

Funded projects will be required to submit via the Project Coordinator a mid-term report and a final report on research and activity progress (submission procedure will be specified at the kick-off of the projects). Some PFOs may request additional specific reports.

The funded projects must be completed within a maximum of three years and are part of an international research programme (SBEP) for which some joint activities will be organised, in particular:

– a Kick-Off meeting, at the beginning of the funding period (approx. Autumn 2025), to explain objectives and expected results;
– a mid-term meeting (approx. Spring 2027) to present and discuss the mid-term reports, preliminary results, and future work;
– a final meeting (approx. Autumn 2028), to present and disseminate the project results and main outcomes.

The coordinators of the funded projects are expected to actively engage in these three joint activities. Accordingly, the cost of attendance at the physical meetings should be foreseen in their proposals´ budget.

The objectives of these joint activities are the monitoring of the projects funded through the SBEP and the provision of networking and future collaboration opportunities. When possible, the meetings will be organised back-to-back with other relevant workshops/events.

Besides this, on behalf of the consortium, the Project Coordinator will be required to submit two written progress reports (mid-term and final). All consortium partners will have to deliver input for these reports. The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership will provide a template for this task.

Funding recipients must ensure that all outcomes (publications, etc.) of transnational SBEP projects include a proper acknowledgement of the SBEP. All the publications resulting from funded projects must be published in adherence to the EC Open Science Policy (see Annex F).

5.4 Dissemination requirements

Dissemination of project outputs is obligatory and is the responsibility of the funded project partners. Detailed plans for dissemination of the results must be described in the proposals and are considered in the evaluation procedure. This can be organised in the form of various communication routes such as scientific papers, posters, course or training material, web-based tools, stakeholder involvement, workshops, or direct intervention towards end users. Dissemination to national end-users is necessary for all partner countries. A dissemination plan will be requested for the full proposal and should specify how the planned activities will contribute to the impact of the project.

Further, the project partners must acknowledge the transnational funding of the SBEP under Horizon Europe and the individual national/regional funding organisations in any document that is published (in written, oral, or electronic form) within the research project.

6.0 ANNEX A – THEORY OF CHANGE

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7.0 ANNEX B – NATIONAL CONTACT POINTS AND NATIONAL/REGIONAL REGULATIONS

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8.0 ANNEX C – LIST OF BENEFICIARIES OF SBEP ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PROJECTS

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9.0 ANNEX D – PRE-PROPOSAL FORM

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10.0 ANNEX E – FULL PROPOSAL FORM

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11.0 ANNEX F – OPEN ACCESS AND FAIR DATA

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ANNEX A – THEORY OF CHANGE

With Horizon Europe the EC and members and associated countries want to generate impact-driven R&I projects and to create significant societal and environmental impacts. In line with this perspective, it is requested to include a plan that describes what impact the R&I project, either driven by academia or industry, is expected to achieve in the long run and how it contributes to the overall impacts defined in the call:

– the potential for impact beyond the academic world, such as in societal, technical, environmental, economic, policy-making, or behavioural realms.
– how relevant stakeholders can be involved in, and/or benefit from, the design and achievements of the R&I project.
– to what extent the project addresses the uptake of research findings and innovative outputs into decision-making processes and policymaking.
– how approaches for achieving impact are integrated into the R&I design and conducted by the consortium.

To better consider these different aspects, it is requested to include a plan that describes what impact the R&I process is expected to achieve in the long run and how it contributes to the overall impacts defined in the call. One way to make such a plan is to establish a methodology of Theory of Change (ToC) with a related Impact Pathway (IP) to describe the research process, mentioning well-specified outputs and outcomes. See below a summary with further information on the Theory of Change, as well as freely accessible online workshop proposed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO): https://impact.nwo.nl/en/working-with-an-impact-plan.

The integration of the above elements will be considered in the evaluation of the proposals. In particular, it will be considered whether the proposal ensures that the project consortium, in its composition, sufficiently reflects the project’s stated aims in relation to output, outcome and impact creation, i.e., that its initial Theory of Change is realistic and achievable by the consortium partners.

A training session will also be organized at the beginning of the funded projects (back-to-back to the kick-off meeting) to exchange best practices related to Theory of Change principles.

Using a theory of change:

A Theory of Change is a logical framework that can be used as a tool to write a good R&I proposal with the aim to have societal impact (see box 1 for a schematic overview). It describes how the research and innovation process can contribute to societal, economic and, environmental change, considering the context, and all actors involved and describing the sequence of logically linked consequential relations. A Theory of Change contains of two parts, a Problem Analysis and an Impact Pathway.

The Problem Analysis is a joint effort with research partners as well as stakeholders which allows for making explicit which (and whose) problem is being tackled and how the desired change is perceived to happen through research efforts. You start by clearly defining the societal problem and the desired impact. Next, the causes are discussed, and the knowledge gaps are identified. This part should form a logical chain to the project, hypotheses, methodology and work plan.

The Impact Pathway is the visualisation of the change process following research execution as described in the Theory of Change. It makes explicit how the research activities will lead to results (output) and how the exchange of knowledge and the uptake of research output will contribute to desired changes in behaviour, relationships, actions and activities of partners and stakeholders (outcome) that are considered essential to achieving the desired impact.

Any projections on expected change will of course be based on a myriad of assumptions, which can differ from person to person, between organizations or groups and even over time. Making assumptions explicit helps to create a shared vision and documenting these assumptions allows for reflection on whether and how expected pathways to impact remain adequate.

Given its construction based on logical-linked outputs and outcomes, a Theory of Change is also used as part of the monitoring, evaluation and learning trajectory.

An important element are productive interactions:

Exchanges between researchers and stakeholders in which knowledge is produced and valued that is both scientifically robust and socially relevant. No change can be made without exchanging information AND people acting on that information. Interactions can be direct/personal, indirect, or financial. The quantity as well as quality of the productive interactions forms an indicator for the potential for societal impact. Examples of productive interactions are:

– Co-design: formulation of research questions and approaches jointly with potential end-users;
– Co-creation: joint execution of research projects with stakeholders and interactive dialogue on research results.

A Strategic Activity Planning spells out how the proposed productive interactions contribute to achieving outcomes. Outputs do not automatically lead to outcomes; thus, strategies are needed of the research consortium to plan and monitor how their efforts will enhance the potential for outcomes.

This planning should include specific activities for:

• Stakeholder engagement: Who are the relevant stakeholders to engage with according to context analysis, how and when are the productive interactions organised?;
• Communication strategy: How are engagement dialogues organised and results exchanged and translated, and whose responsibility is it?;
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning: How are results of activities monitored and evaluated, such that assumptions can be tested and activities adjusted accordingly and whose responsibility is it?;
• Capacity strengthening: How are required capacities (of consortium partners and stakeholders) strengthened to achieve the outcomes, how is this organised and whose responsibility is it?
• A Risk assessment entails a description of potential risks for the successful execution of your project and options for handling or mitigating these risks.

Box 1: Defining output, outcome and impact
Research and innovation outputs relate to the direct and immediate insights obtained by a research project or programme. Research and innovation outcomes relate to the changes in behaviour, relationships, actions, or activities of stakeholders because of sharing and uptake of research. This starts during the project but continues after the end of the project. Research and innovation impact is defined as changes in economic, environmental, and social conditions that a project or programme is aiming at. The actual impact is often long after the project ends.

ANNEX B – NATIONAL CONTACT POINTS AND NATIONAL/REGIONAL REGULATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ANNEX B – National Contact Points and National/Regional Regulations			29
	1.1	BELGIUM – BELSPO	29
	1.2	BELGIUM – FIO/VLAIO	30
	1.3	BELGIUM – F.R.S. – FNRS	31
	1.4	BELGIUM (Flanders) – FWO	31
	1.5	BRAZIL – CONFAP	32
	1.6	CYPRUS – RIF	35
	1.7	DENMARK – IFD	35
	1.8	ESTONIA – ETAG	36
	1.9	ESTONIA – KLIM	39
	1.10	ESTONIA – REM	42
	1.11	FAROE ISLANDS – RCFI	45
	1.12	FINLAND – AKA	45
	1.13	FRANCE – ANR	45
	1.14	GERMANY – BMBF/Ptj	47
	1.15	GREECE – GSRI	47
	1.16	ICELAND – RANNIS	49
	1.17	IRELAND – MI	50
	1.18	ITALY – REGIONE EMILIA ROMAGNA	51
	1.19	ITALY – MUR	52
	1.20	LATVIA – LCS	53
	1.21	LITHUANIA – LMT	54
	1.22	MALTA – MCST	55
	1.23	NORWAY – RCN	56
	1.24	POLAND – NCBR	57
	1.25	PORTUGAL – CCDRC	59
	1.26	PORTUGAL – FCT	60
	1.27	PORTUGAL – FRCT	62
	1.28	ROMANIA – MCID	63
	1.29	SLOVENIA – MVZI	64
	1.30	SPAIN – AEI	67
	1.31	SPAIN – CDTI	70
	1.32	SWEDEN – FORMAS	71
	1.33	SWEDEN – SNSA	71
	1.34	THE NETHERLANDS – LNV, lenW, NWO	72
	1.35	TUNISIA – MHERS	73
	1.36	TÜRKİYE – TÜBITAK	74
2.0	Summary		74

1.1 BELGIUM – BELSPO

	Funding Organisation: http://www.belspo.be/	Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO)
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Koen Lefever David Cox	koen.lefever@belspo.be +32 2 238 35 51 david.cox@belspo.be +32 2 238 34 03
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 500.000 €	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Max 275.000 €/Partner
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources □
Eligible Institutions	The whole Belgian scientific community: universities, colleges of higher education, public scientific institutions, and non-profit research centres. European and foreign organisations established in Belgium are not eligible.
Eligible Applicants	Applicants affiliated to an eligible institution.
Eligible Costs	Staff: Pre-tax wages associated with increases in the cost of living, employers’ social security and statutory insurance contributions, as well as any other compensation or allowance due by law and secondary to the salary itself and taxfree scholarships. The staff costs are limited to a maximum amount of: – 4.750 €/month FTE for a technician/bachelor (regardless of years of experience) – 6.700 €/month FTE for a scientist with a Master's degree (regardless of years of experience) – 8.250 €/month FTE for a scientist with a PhD (regardless of years of experience) BELSPO prefers staff to be hired under a labour contract. The total number of taxfree scholarships per project is limited to max. 50% of the number of staff financed by BELSPO within said project. In any case, there shall not be more than 2 taxfree scholarships/project. Taxfree scholarships refer to a grant subject to tax exemption under the tax laws. General operating costs: this includes day-to-day/usual supplies and products for the laboratory, workshop and office, documentation, shipments, use of day-to-day software and IT facilities, organisation of internal meetings, etc. The budget envelope for this category may not exceed 15% of the staff. The amounts claimed must correspond to actual expenditures strictly related to the project, even if supporting documents are not requested. The institution must keep these invoices in its accounts in the event of an audit. Specific operating costs: this includes operating costs specific to the execution of the project tasks, such as costs for project analyses, maintenance and repair of equipment purchased by the project, use of specific IT facilities and software, costs for surveys, open data publications, organisation of workshops and events, etc.... Overheads: Institutions’ general overheads that cover, in one lump sum, administration, telephone, postal, maintenance, heating, lighting, electricity, rent, machine depreciation, and insurance costs. The total amount of this item is set as 5% of the total staff and operating costs. Equipment: Purchase and installation of scientific and technical apparatus and instruments, including computer hardware. Equipment needs to be purchased in the first half of the project. Subcontracting: Expenses incurred by a third party to carry out tasks or provide services that require special scientific or technical competences outside the institution’s normal area of activity. The amount may not exceed 25% of the total budget allocated to the Belgian partner concerned.
Additional eligibility criteria	Partners must be involved in the research and innovation activities of the project.
Relevant documents
Additional Information
Useful Links

1.2 BELGIUM – FIO/VLAIO

	Funding Organisation: www.vlaio.be	FIO/VLAIO
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Jozef Ghijselen	Email and Phone: jozef.ghijselen@vlaio.be +32 2 432 42 40
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 1.000.000 €	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Min. 25.000 € (experimental development) Min. 100.000 € (industrial research) Max. 1.000.000 €
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Organisations other than Flemish companies (incl. research organisations) should be subcontracted to the applicants.
Eligible Applicants	Flemish companies with sufficient economic activities in the region of Flanders, Belgium, only.
Eligible Costs	Personnel, overhead, operations, subcontractors, small investments
Additional eligibility criteria	Flemish applicants are required to contact NCP before submission to SBEP. Core data (company data, economic impact for Flanders, budget details) to be submitted to VLAIO together with pre/full proposal. Costs and activities should fit our programmes of industrial R&D. Sufficient economic impact for Flanders should be demonstrated.
Relevant documents	Industrial R&D manual: https://www.vlaio.be/nl/media/668 Cost model manual: https://www.vlaio.be/nl/media/1760
Additional Information	Experimental development: https://www.vlaio.be/nl/subsidies-financiering/ontwikkelingsproject Industrial research: https://www.vlaio.be/nl/subsidies-financiering/onderzoeksproject
Useful Links

1.3 BELGIUM – F.R.S. – FNRS

(Country Flag to be added)	Funding Organisation: https://www.frs-fnrs.be/fr/	F.R.S.-FNRS
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Florence Quist	Email and Phone: international@frs-fnrs.be +32 2 504 9351
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 300.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner 300.000
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Universities, public research organisations All eligibility rules and criteria can be found in the PINT-MULTI regulations (see Annex 1)
Eligible Applicants	All eligibility rules and criteria can be found in the PINT-MULTI regulations
Eligible Costs	Personnel costs Small equipment Operational costs Subcontracting All eligibility rules and criteria can be found in the PINT-MULTI regulations. Please note that personnel costs (Article III.6) have an annual average cap of 80,000 euros for this call. “Overhead” is not an eligible cost. If the project is selected for funding, these costs will be subject to a separate agreement between the institution of the beneficiary and the F.R.S.-FNRS.
Additional eligibility criteria	All eligibility rules and criteria can be found in the PINT-MULTI regulations
Relevant documents
Additional Information	Applicants to F.R.S.-FNRS funding must provide basic administrative data by submitting an administrative application on e-space within 5 working days after the general deadline of the SBEP call to be eligible. Please select the “PINT-MULTI” funding instrument when creating the administrative application. Proposals invited to the second stage will be able to complete the pre-proposal form and provide information for the full proposal upon validation by the F.R.S.-FNRS.
Useful Links	https://www.frs-fnrs.be/fr/calendrier-des-appels

1.4 BELGIUM (Flanders) – FWO

	Funding Organisation: The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO)
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Toon Monbaliu (general) Kristien Peeters (SBO)	Email and Phone: +32 (0)2 550 15 70 +32 (0)2 550 15 95 Europe@fwo.be
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 700.000 EUR	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded project or Partner 350.000 EUR
Funded priority area (s)	The FWO *funds all priority areas* mentioned in the call text, if they fit the integrated FWO funding channels: Priority area 1: Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub basin scale Priority area 2: Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructures Priority area 3: Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level Priority area 4: Blue Bioresources
Eligible Institutions	The FWO integrates two of its ‘national’ funding channels within this multilateral framework. The choice of funding channel depends on the type of project (e.g. exploration of basic mechanisms, strong focus on valorisation) the researchers from Flanders wish to undertake. The eligibility of institutions and its researchers can be verified in the relevant and respective chosen funding channels regulations, which can be consulted on the FWO website: FWO Research Projects (FO) Strategic Basic Research (SBO)
Eligible Applicants	See ‘Eligible Institutions’ above.
Eligible Costs	The respective funding channel regulations apply (see links to national rules above; i.e. FO and SBO)), and both are capped at max. 350.000 EUR per project/consortium (incl. overhead, for which the calculation method diverges per funding channel). The FWO foresees a budget of 700.000 EUR in total, which allows for the funding of at least two projects. For the overhead calculation, the fundamental (FO) and strategic research projects (SBO) entail the same approach. A structural overhead rate should be applied on the project costs, with an overhead rate of 6% for ‘FO’ projects, and a 17% overhead rate for ‘SBO’ projects. Some practical examples: FO: the sum of all costs (personnel, consumables, travel, subcontracting, etc.) amounts to 200.000 EUR, then the overhead will amount to 12.000 EUR (6% of 200.000 EUR) and the total requested cost is 212.000 EUR. This total requested cost may never exceed the max. available amount of 350.000 EUR. SBO: the sum of all costs (personnel, consumables, travel, subcontracting, etc.) amounts to 200.000 EUR, then the overhead will amount to 34.000 EUR (17% of 200.000 EUR) and the total requested cost is 234.000 EUR. This total requested cost may never exceed the max. available amount of 350.000 EUR.
Additional eligibility criteria	! NEW! Applicants for FWO funding must submit a mandatory administrative application via the FWO e-portal. For fundamental research projects (FO) select the application type “Research projects – European programme fundamental research”. For strategic basis research projects (SBO) select the application type: “Research projects – European programme strategic basic research”. In case the consortium includes more than one partner requesting funding from FWO, a single online form should be submitted containing all relevant information from the different Flemish partners. The deadline to submit this administrative application to the FWO is identical to the deadline of the joint transnational call (preproposal stage). To ensure the eligibility of the proposal, it is recommended to consult the FWO administration at least one week in advance. Failure to comply with these requirements can lead toineligibility. Participation in this call does not interfere with the ‘regular/national’ project submission framework, and is consequently not taken into account for calculating the max. available number of new applications and running projects combined. However, researchers can only participate within 2 different international consortia in this call. Projects aiming at the development of a spin-off company are not eligible in this context. The project duration is limited to 36 months, which implies the funding has to be budgeted and spent accordingly. An automatic prolongation and using positive (financial) balances after the end date is not applicable in this framework. As such article 28 of the FWO Research Projects and article 14 of the Strategic Basic Research (SBO) regulations do not apply here. The PI, for each of the participating institutions applying for FWO funds, must hold an appointment that fully covers the duration of the research project. Linked to the above, when it comes to the FWO research project regulations (FO): article 10, §7 is not applicable in this call. I.e. supervisors (-spokespersons), or coordinators/consortium partners in this context, who are granted emeritus status during the calendar year of submission of the project application or during the duration of the project, are not eligible.
Relevant documents	A mandatory administrative application has to be submitted at regional level, via the FWO e-portal (also see ‘Additional eligibility criteria’).
Additional Information	It is strongly advised to contact the FWO contact points mentioned above, in order not to jeopardize any research projects/consortia.
Useful Links	FWO European Programmes

1.5 BRAZIL – CONFAP

	Funding Organisation: CONFAP – Brazilian National Council of State Funding Agencies Largo da Matriz 45–52, 9500-094 Ponta Delgada Centro Empresarial Norte – Setor de Rádio e TV Norte Quadra 701, Conjunto C, Ala B, Sala 213 – Asa Norte, 70719-903, Brasília – DF, Brazil Website: confap.org.br
Regional Contact Point (RCP)	Name: Elisa Natola Advisor for International Cooperation			Email and Phone: Phone: +55 61 996138850 Email: elisa.confap@gmail.com
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) € 1.250.000 Total to be updated			Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Detailed for each participating State Funding Agency – FAP in item below: “Additional Info”, indicating within the maximum budget, the maximum number of projects which may be supported (if applicable). Applicants must verify with the funding agency involved, the maximum amount, also in local currency.
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Eligible Institutions Public or private (non-profit) Higher Education and Research Institutions, Scientific Institutions, Technology and Innovation Institutions, eligible for the involved funding agencies – FAPs.
Eligible Applicants	Applicants must have a doctoral or equivalent degree, and be linked to a Research Institution located in Brazilian States participating in the call and have scientific or technological production evaluated by Curriculum (Lattes Curriculum).
Eligible Costs	As a general rule, Brazilian Funding Agencies finance scholarships, mobility and grants, related to scientific, technological and innovation projects.
Additional eligibility criteria	Applicants must necessarily comply to the specific eligibility rules and financing modalities, which shall be defined and informed by the participating FAPs.
Relevant documents	Specific Guidelines may be published by the participating FAPs.
Additional Information	Brazilian applicants may be supported by the State Funding Agencies – FAPs, participating to the call, listed below. Applicants based in the States participating to the call should firstly consult their respective FAPs. Details on the Brazilian State Funding Agencies supporting the call, including amount of total funding, maximum number of projects (when defined) and contact points in each FAP are detailed below:
	FAPs	State	Budget Euros	Max. no. of projects within the max. allocated budget	Contacts
	Fundaç ão Araucá ria	Paraná	90.000	2	Eliane Segati RiosInternacionalizacao@fundacaoara ucaria.org.br
	FACEP E	Pernamb uco	20.000	1	igor.cavalcanti@facepe.br helen.khoury@facepe.br
	FAPEA L	Alagoas	60.000	2	Daniel Carvalho Paulo Victor de Oliveira pesquisafapeal@gmail.com
	FAPEM A	Maranhã o	TBC	TBC	TBC
	FAPEM AT	Mato Grosso	TBC	TBC	TBC
	FAPEPI	Piauí	TBC	TBC	TBC
	FAPER GS	Rio Grande do Sul	60.000	Not defined	Daniela Ziani dec@fapergs.rs.gov.br
	FAPERJ	Rio de Janeiro	100.000	2	Ana Beatriz assessoria.internacional@faperj.br
	FAPES	Espírito Santo	100.000	2	Rosa Maria Trevas Azevedo parcerias@fapes.es.gov.br
	FAPES B	Bahia	200.000	2	Adriele Almeida adriele.almeida@fapesb.ba.gov.br
	FAPES C	Santa Catarina	100.000	2	Pedro Valentim Internacional@fapesc.sc.gov.br
	FAPES P	São Paulo	400.000	Not Defined	Virgínia Sanches Subiñas vsubinas@fapesp.br
	FAPES PA	Pará	40.000	1	Ana Cláudia Barata dicet@fapespa.pa.gov.br
	FAPES Q	Paraíba	20.000	1	polyana@fapesq.rpp.br patricia@fapesq.rpp.br ruth@fapesq.rpp.br
	FUNCA P	Ceará	60.000	2	direc@funcap.ce.gov.br
Useful Links	CONFAP website: confap.org.br Links to FAPs websites – for more details on eligibility rules: Fundação Araucária: http://www.fappr.pr.gov.br FACEPE: http://www.facepe.br FAPEAL: http://fapeal.br FAPEMA: https://www.fapema.br FAPEMIG: http://www.fapemig.br FAPEPI: http://www.fapepi.pi.gov.br FAPERGS: https://fapergs.rs.gov.br FAPERJ: http://www.faperj.br FAPES: www.fapes.es.gov.br FAPESP: https://fapesp.br/ FAPESB: http://www.fapesb.ba.gov.br FAPESC: www.fapesc.sc.gov.br FAPESPA: https://www.fapespa.pa.gov.br FAPESQ: http://fapesq.rpp.br FUNCAP – https://www.funcap.ce.gov.br/

1.6 CYPRUS – RIF

	Funding Organisation: https://www.research.org.cy/	Research and Innovation Foundation
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Anna Maria Christoforou	Email and Phone: amchristoforou@research.org.cy +357 22205043
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) € 1.300.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner € 250.000
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Legal entities established and based in the areas, which are under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus. Research Organisations, Enterprises (small, medium, large), Other Private Sector Organisations, Other Public and Broader Public Sector Organisations
Eligible Applicants	According to RESTART 2016–2020 Work Programme for the period 05-2022 and 12-2023.
Eligible Costs	Research & Development Cost Categories Personnel Cost Costs for Instruments and Equipment Costs for External Services Consumables Other Specific Costs Overheads The calculation of the Proposal Budget will be based on the simplified cost method “Personnel costs plus 40% on Personnel Costs for covering the rest of the Project costs”.
Additional eligibility criteria	Please check National Regulations at: www.research.org.cy https://iris.research.org.cy/
Relevant documents	Please check National Regulations at: www.research.org.cy https://iris.research.org.cy/
Additional Information
Useful Links	RPF Website: www.research.org.cy IRIS Portal: https://iris.research.org.cy

1.7 DENMARK-IFD

	Funding Organisation: www.innovationsfonden.dk
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Thorbjørn M Gilberg	Email and Phone: Thorbjoern.moth.gilberg@innofond.dk +4561905050
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 1.300.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner The maximum amount per Danish partner is EUR 300,000. The maximum amount for all Danish partners, if the project has two or more Danish partners, is EUR 500,000.
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy infrastructure sectors, development of marine multi-use ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Registered legal Danish entities are eligible for investments from IFD. Foreign entities not funded by their national authorities can be subcontractors to Danish partners after approval by IFD.
Eligible Applicants	IFD can fund all types of Danish partners actively participating in the projects.
Eligible Costs	Salaries, equipment other project-related costs, external services and overhead (depending on partner e.g. enterprise or public organisation)
Additional eligibility criteria
Relevant documents
Additional Information	Danish applicants should consult the Danish Rules and Guidelines for International Projects.
Useful Links	Guidelines

1.8 ESTONIA – ETAG

	Funding Organisation: (add website link)	Name of the funding organisation
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Katrin Saar	Email and Phone: Katrin.saar@etag.ee +372 53335625
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 100.000 € if project partner 300.000 € if project coordinator	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner 100.000 € if project partner 300.000 € if project coordinator
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	The Host Institution may be any legal entity that is registered and located in Estonia and has an Estonian bank account. The Host Institution (the final recipient) is the institution to which the grant will be allocated. After the submission deadline (in case of two-stage application, after the preproposal deadline) and upon the notice from the Funding Organisation, the Host Institution must confirm to the Funding Organisation in the written form that the project can be carried out on their premises in Estonia and that they will employ the Principal Investigator during the proposed project, should the project receive funding. If the Host Institution is a for-profit institution, the State aid and de minimis aid regulations must be taken into account.
Eligible Applicants	The Principal Investigator is a researcher who acts as the Estonian team leader in the project proposal. He/she will be responsible for how the grant is used and how the Estonian part in the project is executed. The Principal Investigator: 1.2.1 must have an updated public profile in the Estonian Research Information System (ETIS) by the submission deadline; 1.2.2 must hold a doctoral degree or an equivalent qualification. The degree must be awarded by the submission deadline of the grant application at the latest; 1.2.3 must have published at least three articles that comply with the requirements of Clause 1.1 of the ETIS classification of publications, or at least five articles that comply with the requirements of Clauses 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 or 3.1, within the last five calendar years prior to the proposal submission deadline.1 International patents are equalled with publications specified under Clause 1.1. A monograph (ETIS Clause 2.1) is equalled with three publications specified in Clause 1.1 if the number of authors is three or fewer. If the applicant has been on pregnancy and maternity or parental leave or performed compulsory service in the Defence Forces, or has another good reason, they can request the publication period requirement to be extended by the relevant period of time. If the Principal Investigator has received the PhD degree outside Estonia, its correspondence to an Estonian doctoral degree must be recognised by either the Estonian ENIC-NARIC Center or the Host Institution in accordance with the Regulation of the Government of the Republic of April 6, 2006, No. 89 "Evaluation and academic recognition of documents proving foreign education and the name of the qualification awarded in the foreign education system terms and conditions of use". The Funding Organisation may ask for a relevant Evaluation Report. If several Estonian institutions participate in a proposal, all institutions must have a Principal Investigator who meets the national eligibility requirements.
Eligible Costs	If several Estonian institustions are applying in one proposal, the total requested budget can be still max 100.000 € per proposal or 300.000 € per proposal in case if one Estonian institution is the coordinator. 2. Budget 2.1 Research expenses consist of direct costs (personnel costs, travel costs and other direct costs) and subcontracting costs. The research expenses must be used to carry out the project and be separately identifiable. 2.2 Direct costs 2.2.1 Personnel costs are monthly salaries with social security charges and all other statutory costs of the project participants, calculated according to their commitment and in proportion to their total workload at their Host Institution. 2.2.2 Other direct costs are: – travel costs that may cover expenses for transport, accommodation, daily allowances and travel Insurance only for travels abroad; – consumables and minor equipment related to the project; – publication and dissemination of project results; – organising meetings, seminars or conferences (room rent, catering); – fees for participating in scientific forums, conferences and other events related to the project; – patent costs; – all other costs that are identifiable as clearly required for carrying out the project (e.g. translation, copy editing, webpage hosting, etc.) and comply with the eligible costs. 2.2.4 Subcontracting costs should cover only additional or complementary research related tasks (e.g. analyses, conducting surveys, building a prototype, etc.) performed by third parties. Subcontracting costs should not be included in the overhead calculation. The activities and budget should be described in the proposal. Core project tasks should not be subcontracted. Subcontracting costs may not exceed 15% of the total costs. 2.4 Indirect costs (overhead) may not exceed 15% of the personnel costs and should cover the general expenses of the Host Institution. Costs for equipment and services intended for public use (e.g. a copy machine or a printer that is publicly used, phone bills, copy service, etc.) should be covered from the overhead. 2.5 Double funding of activities is not acceptable. 2.6 If several Estonian institutions participate in one proposal, the sum of their requested budgets may not exceed the maximum contribution of the respective national Funding Organisation indicated in the call documents.
Additional eligibility criteria	State Aid EU Regulations on State aid and de minimis aid must be taken into account when requesting funding from the Estonian Research Council (ETAG). Support is not considered to be State aid for research and development, if the project has ties to the non-economic activities of the Research (or Host) Institution, as long as the research and development activities and the related costs, funding and revenue can be clearly separated, thus avoiding the cross subsidisation of economic activity. The criteria defined in Clauses 17–22 of Communication from the European Commission – Framework for State aid for research and development and innovation (2014/C 198/01) forms the basis for determining whether the activities carried out are economic activities and whether the Host Institution is an undertaking who is considered to be a State aid recipient when it receives support. When an entity applies for State aid or de minimis aid, it has to fill in the State aid form. No tax arrears are allowed on the proposal submission date. If State aid and de minimis aid are given, the documents related to giving the support must be kept for 10 years as of the date when the agreement was entered into. State aid pursuant to the Block Exemption Regulation If the support is considered to be State aid, then support is given on the basis of Article 25, 25a or 25c of Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty (OJ L 187, 26.6.2014, p. 1–78) (hereinafter the Block Exemption Regulation), and the provisions of the Commission Regulation and Section 34² of the Estonian Competition Act apply. State aid is not given in cases specified under Articles 1(2) to (5) of the Block Exemption Regulation. If State aid is given on the basis of Article 25, the eligible costs of the project activities must comply with the requirements specified under Article 25(3) of the Block Exemption Regulation (except clause (c)), and the maximum aid intensity must comply with Articles 25(5) and (6). For State aid given on the basis of Articles 25a or 25c, see rules laid down in mentioned Articles accordingly. If the support applied for can be considered to be State aid, the application must include the information specified in Article 6(2) of the Block Exemption Regulation, and the application has to be submitted before the start of the activities. If State aid is given, then the costs of the activities carried out before application submission will not be eligible for aid. De minimis aid If support is considered de minimis aid, then giving support is subject to Commission Regulation (EU) No 1407/2013 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid (OJ L 352, 24.12.2013, p. 1–8) (hereinafter the De Minimis Aid Regulation), and the provisions of the Regulation and Section 33 of the Estonian Competition Act apply. De minimis aid is not given in cases specified under Article 1(1) of the De Minimis Aid Regulation. In case of de minimis aid, the maximum aid intensity must comply with Article 3 of the De Minimis Aid Regulation. De minimis aid given to the Host Institution together with de minimis aid applied for as support cannot exceed 200,000 euros during the current financial year and the two previous financial years. Article 5 of the De Minimis Aid Regulation applies to cumulating de minimis aid. A single undertaking is an undertaking specified in Article 2(1) of the De Minimis Aid Regulation. Grant Agreement If a positive funding decision is made, the Estonian Research Council enters into a grant agreement with the Host Institution. Information on the transnational project must be entered into ETIS once the agreement has been signed. The Consortium Agreement should be signed at the latest six months after the grant agreement has been signed. If one year has elapsed and the CA has not been signed, the next instalment of funding will not be paid out. Research Involving Human Subjects or Animal Testing If human research or animal testing are intended in the project, a positive resolution by the Human Research Ethics Committee or the Authorisation Committee for Animal Experiments must be submitted to the Estonian Research Council by the start of the relevant activities. Nagoya Protocol By applying for funding by the Estonian Research Council, the applicants agree to consider the relevance of the Nagoya protocol for their research, and to submit the Due Diligence Declaration, if applicable.
Relevant documents	National Eligibility Criteria for grant applications in partnership calls for transnational research projects: https://etag.ee/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Vastavusnouded-RV-uhiskonkurssidel_-EN_veebr.2023.pdf Guidelines for the applicants: https://www.etag.ee/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Juhend-ERA-NET-toetuse-taotlejale_ETAg-juuni-2018-1.pdf
Additional Information	It is expected that publication of results should carried out in accordance with the Horizon programme policy on Open Access. It is strongly advised to contact the contact point before submitting the application. The State aid form must be sent to the contact point before submitting the application.
Useful Links	https://etag.ee/en/cooperation/horizon-europe/eu-partnerships/era-nets/

1.9 ESTONIA-KLIM

	Ministry of Climate (https://kliimaministeerium.ee )
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Irja Truumaa	Email and Phone: irja.truumaa@kliimaministeerium.ee +372 654 1047
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 100.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner 100.000
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level □ (4) Blue Bioresources □
Eligible Institutions	The Host Institution may be any legal entity that is registered and located in Estonia and has an Estonian bank account. The Host Institution (the final recipient) is the institution to which the grant will be allocated. After the submission deadline (in case of two-stage application, after the preproposal deadline) and upon the notice from the Funding Organisation, the Host Institution must confirm to the Funding Organisation in the written form that the project can be carried out on their premises in Estonia and that they will employ the Principal Investigator during the proposed project, should the project receive funding. If the Host Institution is a for-profit institution, the State aid and de minimis aid regulations must be taken into account.
Eligible Applicants	The Principal Investigator is a researcher who acts as the Estonian team leader in the project proposal. He/she will be responsible for how the grant is used and how the Estonian part in the project is executed. The Principal Investigator: 1. must have an updated public profile in the Estonian Research Information System (ETIS) by the submission deadline; 2. must hold a doctoral degree or an equivalent qualification. The degree must be awarded by the submission deadline of the grant application at the latest; 3. must have published at least three articles that comply with the requirements of Clause 1.1 of the ETIS classification of publications, or at least five articles that comply with the requirements of Clauses 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 or 3.1, within the last five calendar years prior to the proposal submission deadline. International patents are equalled with publications specified under Clause 1.1. A monograph (ETIS Clause 2.1) is equalled with three publications specified in Clause 1.1 if the number of authors is three or fewer. If the applicant has been on pregnancy and maternity or parental leave or performed compulsory service in the Defence Forces, or has another good reason, they can request the publication period requirement to be extended by the relevant period of time. If the Principal Investigator has received the PhD degree outside Estonia, its correspondence to an Estonian doctoral degree must be recognised by either the Estonian ENIC-NARIC Center or the Host Institution in accordance with the Regulation of the Government of the Republic of April 6, 2006, No. 89 "Evaluation and academic recognition of documents proving foreign education and the name of the qualification awarded in the foreign education system terms and conditions of use". The Funding Organisation may ask for a relevant Evaluation Report2. If several Estonian institutions participate in a proposal, all institutions must have a Principal Investigator who meets the national eligibility requirements.
Eligible Costs	If several Estonian institutions are applying in one proposal, the total requested budget can be still max 100.000 € per proposal. Research expenses consist of direct costs (personnel costs, travel costs and other direct costs) and subcontracting costs. The research expenses must be used to carry out the project and be separately identifiable. Direct costs 1. Personnel costs are monthly salaries with social security charges and all other statutory costs of the project participants, calculated according to their commitment and in proportion to their total workload at their Host Institution. 2.Other direct costs are: – travel costs that may cover expenses for transport, accommodation, daily allowances and travel Insurance only for travels abroad; – consumables and minor equipment related to the project; – publication and dissemination of project results; – organising meetings, seminars or conferences (room rent, catering); – fees for participating in scientific forums, conferences and other events related to the project; – patent costs; – all other costs that are identifiable as clearly required for carrying out the project (e.g. translation, copy editing, webpage hosting, etc.) and comply with the eligible costs. 3. Subcontracting costs should cover only additional or complementary research related tasks (e.g. analyses, conducting surveys, building a prototype, etc.) performed by third parties. Subcontracting costs should not be included in the overhead calculation. The activities and budget should be described in the proposal. Core project tasks should not be subcontracted. Subcontracting costs may not exceed 15% of the total costs. Indirect costs (overhead) may not exceed 15% of the personnel costs and should cover the general expenses of the Host Institution. Costs for equipment and services intended for public use (e.g. a copy machine or a printer that is publicly used, phone bills, copy service, etc.) should be covered from the overhead. 4. Double funding of activities is not acceptable. 5. If several Estonian institutions participate in one proposal, the sum of their requested budgets may not exceed the maximum contribution of the respective national Funding Organisation indicated in the call documents.
Additional eligibility criteria	State Aid EU Regulations on State aid and de minimis aid must be taken into account when requesting funding. If the State aid or de minimis aid regulations apply, the funding will not be granted to a Host Institution who has been subject to a funding withdrawal decision pursuant to a previous European Commission decision that deemed the aid illegal and incompatible with the common market, if that decision has not been complied with. The funding is not considered State aid for research and development, if the project has ties to the non-economic activities of the Research (or Host) Institution, if the research and development activities and the related costs, funding and revenue can be clearly separated, thus avoiding the cross subsidisation of economic activity. The criteria defined in Clauses 17–22 of Communication from the European Commission – Framework for State aid for research and development and innovation (2014/C 198/01) forms the basis for determining whether the activities carried out are economic activities and whether the Host Institution is a company that is considered to be a State aid recipient when it receives funding. If the institution applies for State aid or de minimis aid, it must fill in the State aid form. No tax arrears are allowed on the proposal submission date. If State aid or de minimis aid is given, the documents related to the funding must be kept for 10 years as of the date when the agreement was entered into. State aid pursuant to the Block Exemption Regulation If the funding is considered to be State aid, then it is given on the basis of Article 25 or 25c of the Commission Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014 that declares certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty (OJ L 187, 26.6.2014, pp. 1–78) (hereinafter the Block Exemption Regulation), and the provisions of the Commission Regulation and Section 34² of the Estonian Competition Act apply. State aid is not given in cases specified under Articles 1(2) to (5) of the Block Exemption Regulation. In case of State aid, the eligible costs of the project activities must comply with the requirements specified under Article 25(3) of the Block Exemption Regulation (except clause (c)), and the maximum aid intensity must comply with Articles 25(5) and (6). If applicable the State aid is given according to the rules specified in Article 25c – aid involved in co-funded research and development projects. If the funding can be considered to be State aid, the application must include the information specified in Article 6(2) of the Block Exemption Regulation, and the application has to be submitted before the start of the activities. If State aid is given, then the costs of the activities carried out before application submission will not be eligible for aid. De minimis aid If the funding is considered de minimis aid, then it is subject to Commission Regulation (EU) No. 1407/2013 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid (OJ L 352, 24.12.2013, pp. 1–8) (hereinafter the De Minimis Aid Regulation), and the provisions of the Regulation and Section 33 of the Estonian Competition Act apply. De minimis aid is not given in cases specified under Article 1(1) of the De Minimis Aid Regulation. In case of de minimis aid, the maximum aid intensity must comply with Article 3 of the De Minimis Aid Regulation. De minimis aid given to the Host Institution together with de minimis aid applied for must not exceed 200,000 euros during the current financial year and the two previous financial years. Article 5 of the De Minimis Aid Regulation applies to cumulating de minimis aid. A single undertaking is an undertaking specified in Article 2(1) of the De Minimis Aid Regulation. Grant Agreement If a positive funding decision is made, the Funding Organisation enters into a grant agreement with the Host Institution. Information on the transnational project must be entered into ETIS once the agreement has been signed. The Consortium Agreement should be signed six months after the grant agreement has been signed at the latest. If one year has elapsed and the CA has not been signed, the next instalment of funding will not be paid out. Research Involving Human Subjects or Animal Testing If human research or animal testing are intended in the project, a positive resolution by the Human Research Ethics Committee or the Authorisation Committee for Animal Experiments must be submitted to the Funding Organisation by the start of the relevant activities. Nagoya Protocol By applying for funding by the Funding Organisation, the applicants commit to consider the relevance of the Nagoya protocol for their research, and to submit the Due Diligence Declaration, if applicable.
Relevant documents
Additional Information	It is mandatory for all Estonian applicants to follow the national eligibility criteria. Please note that if one of the partners is not eligible, the entire proposal might be considered ineligible.
Useful Links

1.10 ESTONIA – REM

	Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture ( www.agri.ee )
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Maarja Malm	Email and Phone: maarja.malm@agri.ee +372 625 6250
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 100.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner 100.000
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale □ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level □ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	The Host Institution may be any legal entity that is registered and located in Estonia and has an Estonian bank account. The Host Institution (the final recipient) is the institution to which the grant will be allocated. After the submission deadline (in case of two-stage application, after the preproposal deadline) and upon the notice from the Funding Organisation, the Host Institution must confirm to the Funding Organisation in the written form that the project can be carried out on their premises in Estonia and that they will employ the Principal Investigator during the proposed project, should the project receive funding. If the Host Institution is a for-profit institution, the State aid and de minimis aid regulations must be taken into account.
Eligible Applicants	The Principal Investigator is a researcher who acts as the Estonian team leader in the project proposal. He/she will be responsible for how the grant is used and how the Estonian part in the project is executed. The Principal Investigator: 1. must have an updated public profile in the Estonian Research Information System (ETIS) by the submission deadline; 2. must hold a doctoral degree or an equivalent qualification. The degree must be awarded by the submission deadline of the grant application at the latest; 3. must have published at least three articles that comply with the requirements of Clause 1.1 of the ETIS classification of publications, or at least five articles that comply with the requirements of Clauses 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 or 3.1, within the last five calendar years prior to the proposal submission deadline. International patents are equalled with publications specified under Clause 1.1. A monograph (ETIS Clause 2.1) is equalled with three publications specified in Clause 1.1 if the number of authors is three or fewer. If the applicant has been on pregnancy and maternity or parental leave or performed compulsory service in the Defence Forces, or has another good reason, they can request the publication period requirement to be extended by the relevant period of time. If the Principal Investigator has received the PhD degree outside Estonia, its correspondence to an Estonian doctoral degree must be recognised by either the Estonian ENIC-NARIC Center or the Host Institution in accordance with the Regulation of the Government of the Republic of April 6, 2006, No. 89 "Evaluation and academic recognition of documents proving foreign education and the name of the qualification awarded in the foreign education system terms and conditions of use". The Funding Organisation may ask for a relevant Evaluation Report2. If several Estonian institutions participate in a proposal, all institutions must have a Principal Investigator who meets the national eligibility requirements.
Eligible Costs	If several Estonian institutions are applying in one proposal, the total requested budget can be still max 100.000 € per proposal. Research expenses consist of direct costs (personnel costs, travel costs and other direct costs) and subcontracting costs. The research expenses must be used to carry out the project and be separately identifiable.
	Direct costs 1. Personnel costs are monthly salaries with social security charges and all other statutory costs of the project participants, calculated according to their commitment and in proportion to their total workload at their Host Institution. 2. Other direct costs are: – travel costs that may cover expenses for transport, accommodation, daily allowances and travel Insurance only for travels abroad; – consumables and minor equipment related to the project; – publication and dissemination of project results; – organising meetings, seminars or conferences (room rent, catering); – fees for participating in scientific forums, conferences and other events related to the project; – patent costs; – all other costs that are identifiable as clearly required for carrying out the project (e.g. translation, copy editing, webpage hosting, etc.) and comply with the eligible costs. 3. Subcontracting costs should cover only additional or complementary research related tasks (e.g. analyses, conducting surveys, building a prototype, etc.) performed by third parties. Subcontracting costs should not be included in the overhead calculation. The activities and budget should be described in the proposal. Core project tasks should not be subcontracted. Subcontracting costs may not exceed 15% of the total costs. Indirect costs (overhead) may not exceed 15% of the personnel costs and should cover the general expenses of the Host Institution. Costs for equipment and services intended for public use (e.g. a copy machine or a printer that is publicly used, phone bills, copy service, etc.) should be covered from the overhead. 4. Double funding of activities is not acceptable. 5. If several Estonian institutions participate in one proposal, the sum of their requested budgets may not exceed the maximum contribution of the respective national Funding Organisation indicated in the call documents.
Additional eligibility criteria	State Aid EU Regulations on State aid and de minimis aid must be taken into account when requesting funding. If the State aid or de minimis aid regulations apply, the funding will not be granted to a Host Institution who has been subject to a funding withdrawal decision pursuant to a previous European Commission decision that deemed the aid illegal and incompatible with the common market, if that decision has not been complied with. The funding is not considered State aid for research and development, if the project has ties to the non-economic activities of the Research (or Host) Institution, if the research and development activities and the related costs, funding and revenue can be clearly separated, thus avoiding the cross subsidisation of economic activity. The criteria defined in Clauses 17–22 of Communication from the European Commission – Framework for State aid for research and development and innovation (2014/C 198/01) forms the basis for determining whether the activities carried out are economic activities and whether the Host Institution is a company that is considered to be a State aid recipient when it receives funding. If the institution applies for State aid or de minimis aid, it must fill in the State aid form. No tax arrears are allowed on the proposal submission date. If State aid or de minimis aid is given, the documents related to the funding must be kept for 10 years as of the date when the agreement was entered into. State aid pursuant to the Block Exemption Regulation If the funding is considered to be State aid, then it is given on the basis of Article 25 or 25c of the Commission Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014 that declares certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty (OJ L 187, 26.6.2014, pp. 1–78) (hereinafter the Block Exemption Regulation), and the provisions of the Commission Regulation and Section 34² of the Estonian Competition Act apply. State aid is not given in cases specified under Articles 1(2) to (5) of the Block Exemption Regulation. In case of State aid, the eligible costs of the project activities must comply with the requirements specified under Article 25(3) of the Block Exemption Regulation (except clause (c)), and the maximum aid intensity must comply with Articles 25(5) and (6). If applicable the State aid is given according to the rules specified in Article 25c – aid involved in co-funded research and development projects. If the funding can be considered to be State aid, the application must include the information specified in Article 6(2) of the Block Exemption Regulation, and the application has to be submitted before the start of the activities. If State aid is given, then the costs of the activities carried out before application submission will not be eligible for aid. De minimis aid If the funding is considered de minimis aid, then it is subject to Commission Regulation (EU) No. 1407/2013 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to de minimis aid (OJ L 352, 24.12.2013, pp. 1–8) (hereinafter the De Minimis Aid Regulation), and the provisions of the Regulation and Section 33 of the Estonian Competition Act apply. De minimis aid is not given in cases specified under Article 1(1) of the De Minimis Aid Regulation. In case of de minimis aid, the maximum aid intensity must comply with Article 3 of the De Minimis Aid Regulation. De minimis aid given to the Host Institution together with de minimis aid applied for must not exceed 200,000 euros during the current financial year and the two previous financial years. Article 5 of the De Minimis Aid Regulation applies to cumulating de minimis aid. A single undertaking is an undertaking specified in Article 2(1) of the De Minimis Aid Regulation. Grant Agreement If a positive funding decision is made, the Funding Organisation enters into a grant agreement with the Host Institution. Information on the transnational project must be entered into ETIS once the agreement has been signed. The Consortium Agreement should be signed six months after the grant agreement has been signed at the latest. If one year has elapsed and the CA has not been signed, the next instalment of funding will not be paid out. Research Involving Human Subjects or Animal Testing If human research or animal testing are intended in the project, a positive resolution by the Human Research Ethics Committee or the Authorisation Committee for Animal Experiments must be submitted to the Funding Organisation by the start of the relevant activities. Nagoya Protocol By applying for funding by the Funding Organisation, the applicants commit to consider the relevance of the Nagoya protocol for their research, and to submit the Due Diligence Declaration, if applicable.
Relevant documents
Additional Information	It is mandatory for all Estonian applicants to follow the national eligibility criteria. Please note that if one of the partners is not eligible, the entire proposal might be considered ineligible.
Useful Links

1.11 FAROE ISLANDS – RCFI

(Information to come)

1.12 FINLAND – AKA

	Funding Organisation: Research Council of Finland (formely Academy of Finland) Research Council of Finla – Research Council of Finland (aka.fi)
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Jaana Lehtimäki Päivi Kolu	Email and Phone: jaana.lehtimaki@aka.fi, +358295335060; paivi.kolu@aka.fi, +358295335028
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 850.000 €	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded project or Partner Max. 300.000 € (partner)/ Max. 400.000 € (coordinator)
	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure □ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources □
Eligible Institutions	Research funding is granted to Finnish entities, primarily universities or research institutes. As a rule, funding is not intended to support economic activity. However, in exceptional cases where it aligns with EU’s state aid rules, funding may be provided for economic activity in the form of de minimis aid. It is important to note that due to actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, the European Union and/or the United Nations have imposed, and may continue to impose sanctions through their legislation or by decisions of their institutions. Consequently, funding recipients are obligated to adhere to the restrictive measures imposed on Russia and Belarus by the European Union or the United Nations particularly those related to economy and financing, which are in force in the European Union.
Eligible Applicants	In addition to holding a doctoral degree, the principal investigator (PI) for the proposed sub-project must have other noteworthy scientific achievements. Usually, the PI is a researcher at the professor or docent (adjunct professor) level.
Eligible Costs	Funding is provided under the full cost model, where the Council’s funding can account up to 70% of the total project costs. Funding can be used to cover both direct project costs (such as direct salaries) and indirect costs (such as costs for premises), with the same percentage applied to both funding types. Funding can be used to cover various aspects of the research team’s activities, encompassing working hours (salaries), research expenses, travel, national and international collaboration and mobility, work and researcher training abroad, as well as preparation of international projects and publishing. Research teams are eligible to apply for this funding, which is primarily intended to support salaries of full-time researchers engaged in the projects and other associated research costs.
Additional eligibility criteria	Finnish applicants, both partners and coordinators, are restricted from submitting more than one application.
Relevant documents	Research Council of Finland’s annually updated document funding terms and conditions How to use funding – Research Council of Finland (aka.fi)
Additional Information	Before submitting and application, applicants should contact to contact the Research Council of Finland. Following the evaluation of all proposals, the successful Finnish candidates will be invited by the Research Council of Finland to submit their proposal through the online service. In this submission, it is essential to specify the funding share of the site of research, constituting a minimum of 30% of total costs. This ensures that the funding requested from the Council, limited to the maximum 70% of total costs, is accurately accounted for in the proposal.
Useful Links

1.13 FRANCE – ANR

	Funding Organisation: https://anr.fr/	Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Coraline Chapperon	Email: sbep.call-secretariat@agencerecherche.fr
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 2.000.000 €	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner The maximum amount that can be requested from ANR by each proposal with French applicant(s) is: 350.000 € (if Coordinating Partner is requesting funding from ANR and eligible for funding by ANR) 300.000 € (for standard French Partners) The minimum amount per beneficiary is 15.000 €. If there are several French partners requesting funds from ANR, the total requested funding from ANR (300.000 €, extended to 350.000 € if the coordinating partner is requesting funding to ANR) must be split among them. For calculation of overheads, please check the ANR Funding Regulations for at: https://anr.fr/fr/rf/.
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	ANR may fund research organisations and undertakings, as defined by the EC regulation on State aid for research, development and innovation (see the ANR Funding regulations for further reference). Only research organisations that have their primary establishment in France may be funded. As for undertakings, ANR may fund those that have their real head office in an EU member State and an establishment (primary or secondary) in France. In this call, to be eligible, the consortium must include at least one French public research organization (EPA, EPSCP, EPST, EPIC). The involvement of an enterprise is encouraged but not mandatory. If a non-French enterprise is involved in a project and requests funds from a funding organisation other than ANR, it is mandatory to involve a French enterprise; otherwise the French partners requesting funding from ANR will be declared ineligible. Partners from countries subject to sanctions applicable to the research field by the European Union authorities are excluded from this call for ANR. ANR will declare Partners requesting its support ineligible if they apply with Partners established in these countries. At the date of publication, these exclusions concern Partners from the following countries: Russia, Belarus. This list may evolve in case of new sanctions decided by the European Union. See more information on the eligibility of institutions on the ANR Funding Regulations https://anr.fr/fr/rf/.
Eligible Applicants	See Above
Eligible Costs	Please check the ANR Funding Regulations at: https://anr.fr/fr/rf/ .
Additional eligibility criteria	Additional eligibility criteria: To be eligible, a proposal must not be deemed similar to another proposal still undergoing evaluation in another ANR call, or already funded. Depending on the consortium composition, a Consortium Agreement may be mandatory for ANR at the funding stage for successful applications. Please refer to the ANR funding regulations for more details: https://anr.fr/fr/rf/ Regarding project partners’ commitment: • Access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources • Ethics and scientific Integrity • Publications and Open Science Policy • Scientific, Technical and Industrial Culture • GDPR • “PPST” Please consult the complete terms and conditions for French Partners on the ANR website for more details (Document “Modalités pour les Partenaires sollicitant une aide de l’ANR)
Relevant documents	National Funding Regulations https://anr.fr/fr/rf/ Document “Modalités pour les Partenaires sollicitant une aide de l’ANR»: ANR website
Additional Information
Useful Links

1.14 GERMANY – BMBF/Ptj

	Funding Organisation: (add website link)
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Stefanie Pietsch Christin Lambertz	Email and Phone: Email: s.pietsch@fz-juelich.de Tel: +49 30 20199 3152 Email: c.lambertz@fz-juelich.de Tel: +49 381 20356 284
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 1,500,000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner A maximum of two German partners per project will be funded. Maximum funding per awarded project partner: EUR 250,000. Minimum funding per project partner: EUR 50,000 Maximum funding per awarded project (for the maximum of two project partners together): EUR 350,000. The distribution of funds between the two partners is left up to them. Minimum funding per awarded project (for the max. two project partners together): EUR 100,000
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources □
Eligible Institutions	Proposals may be submitted by Germany-based universities, non-university research institutes, civil society organisations, public authorities, municipalities, commercial companies.
Eligible Applicants	For information regarding the EU's standard definition of SMEs, please visit https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/smes/sme-definition_en Research institutions, which receive joint basic funding from the Federal Government and the Länder, can only be granted project funding supplementary to their basic funding for additional expenditure under certain preconditions.
Eligible Costs	Personnel costs (Personalausgaben / -kosten) Operational costs (Verwaltungsausgaben / -kosten) Indirect costs Subcontracting (Vergabe von Aufträgen) Travel costs (Dienstreisen) Investment costs (investive Maßnahmen) Projektpauschale: Universities should consider 20% lump sum (“Projektpauschale”) already in the preparation of the proposal. Applicants are strongly advised to consult the BMBF guidelines on eligible costs (Richtlinien für Zuwendungsantraege (AZA/AZK)
Additional eligibility criteria	Only two German partners in a consortium are eligible. The prerequisite for two German partners in a consortium is that at least one partner can be classified as company. If there is no German company in the consortium, only one German partner per consortium can participate – either as a coordinator or partner.
Relevant documents	We recommend, that applicants regard the BMBF strategy “Research for Sustainability” (FONA) Strategy and the BMBF funding priority “Costal, Marine and Polar Research for Sustainability (MARE:N)”.
Additional Information	No submission of preproposals (Projektskizzen) at the national level. Submission of proposals (Projektantraege) via the national application system easy-online (applicants selected for submission of a proposal will be informed about the link for submission)
Useful Links	https://www.fona.de/de/themen/meeres-und-polarforschung.php https://www.ptj.de/projektfoerderung/mare-n

1.15 GREECE – GSRI

	Funding Organisation: https://gsri.gov.gr/en/
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Sofia Dimitropoulou		Email and Phone: s.dimitropoulou@gsrt.gr 00302131300187
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 1.000.000		Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Upper limit of the total public funding will be 200.000 € per project (including indirect costs). Please note that this amount can be increased to 250.000 € per project if Greek partner assumes the project coordination. The maximum state aid intensity will be calculated according to the provisions of the European state aid rules and regulations in force (type of research activity, size of the participating enterprise, collaborative research).
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	• Aid intensity Public research Institutes and Universities: the aid intensity can reach 100% for performing non-economic activities in accordance with point 19, article 2.1.1 of the «Framework for State aid for research and development and innovation» (2014/C 198/01). Private Sector: (a) 50% of the eligible costs for industrial research; (b) 25% of the eligible costs for experimental development; (c) 50% of the eligible costs for feasibility studies. – The aid intensities for industrial research and experimental development may be increased up to a maximum aid intensity of 80% of the eligible costs as follows: (a) by 10 percentage points for medium-sized enterprises and by 20 percentage points for small enterprises; (b) by 15 percentage points if one of the following conditions is fulfilled: (i) the project involves effective collaboration: – between undertakings among which at least one is an SME, or is carried out in at least two Member States, or in a Member State and in a Contracting Party of the EEA Agreement, and no single undertaking bears more than 70% of the eligible costs, or – between an undertaking and one or more research and knowledge-dissemination organisations, where the latter bear at least 10% of the eligible costs and have the right to publish their own research results; (ii) the results of the project are widely disseminated through conferences, publication, open access repositories, or free or open source software. – The aid intensity for feasibility studies may be increased by 10 percentage points for medium-sized enterprises and by 20 percentage points for small enterprises.
Eligible Applicants	Applicants may submit, if they are enterprises, up to two (2) proposals from the same enterprise in the current call, and for Public research Institutes and Universities up to (2) proposals at the level of the same Laboratory or School or Institute or Department. TRL3-(8) in compliance with the (COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2021/1237 of 23 July 2021 amending Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty, page 3, article 13)
Eligible Costs	Foreseen cost categories: (a) personnel costs: researchers, technicians and other supporting staff to the extent employed on the project. (b) costs on fixed assets i.e. b1) costs of instruments and equipment to the extent and for the period used for the project. Where such instruments and equipment are not used for their full life for the project, only the depreciation costs corresponding to the life of the project, as calculated on the basis of generally accepted accounting principles are considered as eligible and b2) costs for buildings and land, to the extent and for the duration period used for the project. With regard to buildings, only the depreciation costs corresponding to the life of the project, as calculated on the basis of generally accepted accounting principles are considered as eligible. For land, costs of commercial transfer or actually incurred capital costs are eligible. (c) costs of contractual research, knowledge and patents bought or licensed from outside sources at arm's length conditions, as well as costs of consultancy and equivalent services used exclusively for the project. (d) additional general costs and other operating expenses, including costs of materials, supplies, travel expenses, organization of meetings, dissemination/publicity costs, audit costs, incurred directly as a result of the project implementation. (e) indirect costs = 25% of direct costs. Indirect costs are eligible for all legal entities and include costs that do not incur directly as a result of the project implementation (e. g. administrative and management costs, utility costs). In compliance with the (COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2021/1237 of 23 July 2021 amending Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty.
Additional eligibility criteria	b) Funding rates Maximum funding percentages:
		Industrial/Applied Research	Experimental development/innovation
	Large Enterprises	50–65	25–40
	Medium Enterprises	60–75	35–50
	Small Enterprises	70–80	45–60
	Universities, public research organisations	100	100
	Public authorities with R&D activities	100	100
	Associations without economic activities, NGOs (according to corresponding type of enterprise (small, medium, large))	Large 50–65 Medium 60–75 Small 70–80	Large 25–40 Medium 35–50 Small 45–60
Relevant documents
Additional Information	At national level, only eligibility check is conducted and not a full peer review at pre-proposal and full proposal stages. We rely on the evaluation made by the Call Evaluation Committee and external reviewers.
Useful Links	https://gsri.gov.gr/en/ https://eur-lex.Europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32014R0651&from=EN https://eur-lex.Europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L:2021:270:TOC

1.16 ICELAND – RANNIS

(Provisional)

	Funding Organisation: www.rannis.is	The Icelandic Centre for Research
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Sigurður Björnsson Elísabet Andrésdóttir Katrín Jónsdóttir	Email and Phone: sigurdur.bjornsson@rannis.is elisabet.m.andresdottir@rannis.is katrin.jonsdottir@rannis.is +354 515 5800
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 600.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Max: 300.000 per project
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level □ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	TBD
Eligible Applicants	TBD
Eligible Costs	TBD
Additional eligibility criteria	TBD
Relevant documents	TBD
Additional Information	TBD
Useful Links	TBD

1.17 IRELAND – MI

	Marine Institute https://www.marine.ie/
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Veronica Cunningham	Email and Phone: Veronica.Cunningham@marine.ie +353 91 387532 or +353 91 387200
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) € 1,000,000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner € 90,000 min per partner € 300,000 max per partner for Public RPO (€ 200,000 max partner for Industry/Private RPO) Rates apply for funding of 36 months Limit two Irish partners per project
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Legal entities in the Republic of Ireland with the appropriate scientific and technical qualifications and expertise can be funded as partners in a joint proposal.
Eligible Applicants	The eligible partners are Higher Education Institutions, Other Public Research Performing Organisations (RPOs), Industry and Private RPOs in the Republic of Ireland.
Eligible Costs	Personnel costs (permanent/temporary) Eligible staff costs include gross salary and employer’s PRSI (pay-related social insurance) and employer’s pension costs (max 20% of gross salary). Temporary or contract research staff are eligible for Higher Education Institutions and Other Public RPOs, but staff costs for permanent staff are not. Both temporary and permanent staff costs are eligible for Industry/Private RPO partners. Master’s and PhD student costs (current rates – student stipend € 25,000 per annum and college fees € 6,000 per annum). Masters and PhD must be registered, on a full-time basis, for a higher degree at an eligible Higher Education Institution. Research costs (travel, consumables, etc.) Project-related travel and consumables are allowable costs e.g. travel and subsistence for project fieldwork and meetings, workshops, conferences, laboratory supplies, computer supplies, software, etc. Equipment The purchase and installation of small-scale scientific equipment and instruments for the project is allowable. Depreciated cost reimbursed with be either 36 or 60 months. The purchase of a personal computer/laptop is eligible at a maximum cost of € 2,000 per researcher, and must be used solely for carrying out the project work. Overheads Maximum overheads allowed is 30% of all costs excluding Equipment and Subcontracting. Subcontracting Subcontracting to a third party for specialist resources/skills is allowable, subject to normal procurement guidelines. Subcontracting costs are limited to 20% maximum. The maximum Grant-Aid reimbursement for Industry is 50% for Large Scale Enterprises and 75% for Small-Medium Sized Enterprises of eligible costs. Grant-Aid reimbursement for Higher Education Institutions and Other Public RPOs is up to 100% of eligible costs.
Additional eligibility criteria	Projects with Irish partners should address requirements under national strategies and policies (see below). Irish project partners will be required to sign a Grant Agreement with the Marine Institute, if their proposal is successful under this call. Projects that receive funding from the Marine Institute are required to submit progress and final reports pursuant to their Grant Agreement with the Marine Institute. Projects that receive funding from the Marine Institute are required to follow Open Access/Research guidelines. Marine Institute researchers may participate as partners in proposals, but not co-ordinators.
Relevant documents	The Marine Institute manages the National Marine Research Programme, which provides funding to the Irish marine sector through competitive calls. Funding is provided for marine research that addresses national strategic priorities as stated Climate Action Plan for Ireland, Food Vision 2030 and Impact 2030.
Additional Information	Applicants must contact their National Contact Point (details above) prior to submission of any application under this call.
Useful Links	Further details published on the Marine Institute website at: https://www.marine.ie/site-area/research-funding/research-funding/current-funding-opportunities Email queries can also be sent to: funding@marine.ie

1.18 ITALY – REGIONE EMILIA ROMAGNA

	Funding Organisation: www.regione.emilia-romagna.it
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Regione Emilia-Romagna Direzione Conoscenza, Ricerca, Imprese	Email and Phone: Elisabetta.maini@regione.emilia-romagna.it +390515276551
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 300,000.00	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Max 100,000 € for projects
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	See “eligible applicants” section.
Eligible Applicants	The following entities are eligible for funding, provided that they have stable organization in Emilia-Romagna Region: 1. Universities; 2. Small and Medium Enterprises; 3. Private and Public research institutions 4. Research organizations (public and private) in accordance with EU Reg. n. 651/2014 of the European Commission – June 17, 2014. Partners from the same country cannot request more than 60% of the total funding requested by a proposal.
Eligible Costs	All activities classifiable as industrial research and experimental development are eligible for funding. All costs incurred during the lifetime of the project under the following categories are eligible: Personnel, Equipment, Consulting and equivalent services, Consumables, Travel expenses, dissemination and Overheads. Overheads (“Spese generali”) shall be calculated at a flat rate of 15% of eligible personnel costs (as provided for in art. 54 letter b of Reg.2021/1060). The amount of funding which can be granted to each beneficiary is maximum 70% for Research Organization and according to the Reg. (EU) n. 651/2014 for SMEs: 50% for activities of Industrial Research 25% for experimental development. Alternatively max 60% with De minimis regulation
Additional eligibility criteria	Legal/administrative/financial conditions The participant must be: legal and or operative site in Regione Emilia-Romagna, in case of enterprises must be registered at the Chamber of commerce research centres or institutions must be registered at the High Technology Network or at the "Anagrafe Nazionale delle Ricerche" The project shall be consistent with the strategy, contents and specific objective of the Emilia-Romagna ERDF 2021–2027 Regional Programme Project shall be consistent with the Emilia-Romagna Smart Specialization Strategy 2021–2027 the Project shall comply the principle of DNSH The participant must not be subject to bankruptcy proceedings as of art. 5, comma 4, letter b) of DM 593/2016 or must not be a company in difficulty according to the definition under number 18) of article 2 "Definitions" of Regulation (EU) no. 651/2014. The participant must follow the obligations laid down in the Italian contributory and social security regulations (DURC). The judicial and pending records of the legal representative of the participant are negative.
Relevant documents	For the preparation of the proposal relevant Emilia-Romagna documents are: EDRF 2021–2027 Regional Programme Regional Smart Specialization Strategy (2021–2027) All documents relevant documents for submission will be available at regional website: Regional website: https://fesr.regione.emilia-romagna.it/2021-2027/
Additional Information	In addition to the project proposal, which shall be submitted at European level, the regional participants from Emilia-Romagna are requested to submit further documentation to Regione Emilia-Romagna, through the regional web platform, SFINGE 2020. These regional additional documents must be submitted by the same deadline established for the pre-proposal phase submission as defined in the transnational call. Any participant who does not submit its regional documents by the deadline of the pre-proposal phase will be considered not eligible for funding. Any regional participant to a transnational project proposal, is strongly recommended to contact the Regional Contact Persons already in early stage of project preparation. Funded participants will be requested to submit financial and scientific reports to Regione Emilia-Romagna through the platform Sfinge 2020. The criteria and provisions provided herewith are intended only for informative purposes. The complete list of criteria and provisions legally valid, which must be respected by all the regional participants from Emilia-Romagna, is included in the “Avviso integrativo regionale”, which will be published on the Regione Emilia-Romagna website, and in the applicable Italian laws and ERDF regulation.
Useful Links	Regional website: https://fesr.regione.emilia-romagna.it/2021-2027/ Regional Platform: SFINGE 2020

1.19 ITALY – MUR

	Funding Organisation: MUR www.ricercainternazionale.miur.it		Ministry of Universities and Research
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Mr Aldo Covello Mrs Yasmine Iollo Mrs Francesca Cantarella		Email and Phone: aldo.covello@mur.gov.it yasmine.iollo@est.mur.gov.it francesca.cantarella@est.mur.gov.it
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 3.5 Meuro of National Funds		Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Maximum funding per project: International projects coordinated by an Italian entity: 500.000 euro; Projects not coordinated by an Italian entity: 350.000 euro
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-useinfrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	The following entities are eligible for funding, providing that they have stable organization in Italy: Universities, research institutions, research organizations in accordance with EU Reg. n. 651/2014 of the European Commission – June 17, 2014; enterprises, foundations and other not-for-profit legal entities (including associations and NGOs provided they are registered legal entities) local and regional administrations and their investee/in-house companies,
Eligible Applicants
Eligible Costs	All R&D activities considered as: Basic research, Industrial/Applied research and Experimental development are eligible for funding. However, Basic Research and Industrial/Applied research activities must be predominant with respect to Experimental development activities (in terms of budget share). All costs incurred during the lifetime of the project under the following categories are eligible: A) Personnel, B) Consulting and equivalent services (subcontracting) C.1) Travel and subsistence C.2) Equipment C.3) Other goods and Services E) Indirect Costs/Overheads (“Spese generali”) calculated at 25% flat rate of all direct costs excluding cost category B) Consulting and equivalent services [E) = 25% of A) + C.1) + C.2) + C.3]. Value added tax (VAT) actually and definitively incurred by the beneficiaries is an eligible expense only if it is not recoverable. Funding rates Maximum funding percentages:
	Basic research	Industrial/Applied Research	Experimental development / innovation
	70%	70%	25%
Additional eligibility criteria	Legal/administrative/financial conditions Applicants shall: not be defaulting with regard to other funding received by the Ministry of University and Research; not have requested/got any other funding for the same project; be compliant to the Italian law "D.Lgs. n 159 del 6/09/2011 e successive modificazioni ed integrazioni"; not be subject to bankruptcy proceedings as of art. 5, comma 4, letter b) of DM 1314/2021 or must not be a company in difficulty according to the definition under number 18) of article 2 "Definitions" of Regulation (EU) no. 651/2014; be in compliance with the obligations laid down in the contributory and social security regulations (DURC); Applicants shall demonstrate their viability and financial soundness regarding their own contribution to the project. For any private entity, if the following financial criteria, calculated using the data reported in the last approved balance sheet, are not fulfilled, the applicant can be funded only if a bank guarantee is provided: a) CN > (CP – I)/2 Where: CN = net assets (Capitale netto) CP = sum of the costs of all the projects for which public funding has been requested by the participant during the year I = sum of the contributions received, approved or requested for the same projects b) OF/F < 8% Where: OF = financial charges (Oneri finanziari) F = turnover (Fatturato)
Relevant documents	The admission for funding is subject to the adoption of the necessary accounting and administrative measures for the allocation of the resources. Funded participants will be requested to submit financial and scientific reports to MIUR. The criteria and provisions provided herewith are intended only for informative purposes. The complete list of criteria and provisions legally valid, which must be respected by all the Italian participants, is included in the “Avviso integrativo nazionale”, to be published on the dedicated web page on MUR website: http://www.ricercainternazionale.miur.it/era/European-partnership-2021-27/sbep.aspx Applicable laws and rules: (http://www.ricercainternazionale.miur.it/evidenza/normativa-prog-internazionali.aspx): DL 22 giugno 2012, n. 83, convertito, con modificazioni, dalla Legge 7 agosto 2012, n. 134, articoli 60, 61, 62 e 63 di cui al Titolo III, Capo IX "Misure per la ricerca scientifica e tecnologica" DM n. 1314 del 14 dicembre 2021 – Nuovo sistema di concessione delle agevolazioni del MUR alle attività di ricerca DM n. 1368 del 24 dicembre 2021 – Modificazioni all'articolo 15 del decreto n. 1314 del 14 dicembre 2021 Information available at: http://www.ricercainternazionale.miur.it/era/European-partnership-2021-27/sbep.aspx
Additional Information	In addition to the project proposal, which shall be submitted at European level, the Italian participants are requested to submit to MUR a national integrative application signed by the legal representative person or a person delegated for this task, through the national web platform, available at the following link: https://banditransnazionali-miur.cineca.it. These national integrative application must be submitted by the same deadline established for the pre-proposal phase submission as defined in the international call. Any participant who does not submit its national integrative application by the deadline of the pre-proposal phase will be considered not eligible for funding.
Useful Links	–

1.20 LATVIA – LCS

	Funding Organisation: https://www.lzp.gov.lv/lv
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Aiga Salmiņa Lāsma Brenča	Email and Phone: aiga.salmina@lzp.gov.lv lasma.brenca@lzp.gov.lv
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 600.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Max 300.000 per partner not exceeding Max 100.00 per year
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	1) Research institutions registered in the Latvian Registry of Scientific Institutions, e.g. – Research Institutes – Universities and must have the status of Research and knowledge dissemination organization (Regulation EC 651/2014) 2) Business enterprises entered into the Latvian Commercial registry as companies, assumed they are eligible to do the specific research and have specific capacity and resources to do the research in Latvia and have their main activity in Latvia. Limitations of EU legislation apply (R651/2014) together with financial reporting requirements, in this case this is state aid. Two previous statements with sworn auditor’s approval should be provided and they must reflect the correspondence to the regulation as well as evidence of previous scientific activity and presence of capacity. Any other type of participant is not covered by LZP funding mandate
Eligible Applicants	Latvian beneficiaries are institutions as defined in previous point. The research group is represented by a leading researcher (PI) from the respective research institution who is mandated to participate in the application.
Eligible Costs	Personnel costs incl. taxes; Consumables; Subcontracts (up to 25% of direct costs), needs detailed justification, includes all external services, project core activities cannot be subcontracted; Equipment (only depreciation costs during project directly attributable to project tasks); Travels (according to travel plan); Indirect costs (up to 25% of direct costs excluding subcontracting).
Additional eligibility criteria	TRL9 is not funded
Relevant documents	Support is provided according to Provisions Nr 259, 26.05.2015 of the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers https://likumi.lv/ta/id/274671-atbalsta-pieskirsanas- At the contract phase - https://www.lzp.gov.lv/lv/atbalsts-starptautiskas-programmas-projektiem To receive funding by LZP, Consortium agreement duly signed should be presented. Annual financial and scientific reporting is mandatory. Enterprises shall provide audited statements of 2 previous closed financial periods on request. Final audit according to the LZP regulations
Additional Information	Support is provided according to Provisions Nr 259, 26.05.2015 of the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers https://likumi.lv/ta/id/274671-atbalsta-pieskirsanas-kartiba-dalibai-starptautiskas-sadarbibas-programmas-petniecibas-un-tehnologiju-joma These provisions should be respected without exceptions. The maximum rates should respect the Provisions. The requirements in the provisions to specific applicant groups must be respected. LZP cannot fund implementation support, nor training activities. LZP is funding only research
Useful Links	www.lzp.gov.lv

1.21 LITHUANIA – LMT

	Funding Organisation: www.lmt.lt
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Viktoras Mongirdas	Email and Phone: viktoras.mongirdas@lmt.lt +370 676 19613
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) € 420.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner up to € 150.000 for partner up to € 200.000 for coordinator
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Eligible implementing institution – Lithuanian research and higher education institution which is included in the Register of Education and Research institutions
Eligible Applicants	The Project Leader or the Principal investigator (PI) must have completed a doctoral degree and have corresponding qualifications.
Eligible Costs	Personal, travel, purchase (assets, services), subcontracting, overheads 20% of eligible costs
Additional eligibility criteria	Time dedicated to the project by the PI (including the project leader) must be at least 20 hours, multiplied by the duration of the project in months.
Relevant documents	No national official paperwork until positive financing decision
Additional Information	Any public or private legal entity can be a partner of the implementing institution, which, together with the implementing institution, creates the conditions for the implementation of the project.
Useful Links	General information https://www.lmt.lt/lt/mokslo-finansavimas/Europos-partnerystes-era-net-ir-kitos-koordinavimo-veiklos/2329

1.22 MALTA – MCST

	Funding Organisation: Home – MCST (gov.mt)
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Martina VELLA	Email and Phone: martina.vella.5@gov.mt +365 2360 2113
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 500.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner N/A
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	• Malta-based applicants that are Eligible Undertakings, with an Operating Base in Malta, which plans to carry out Fundamental, Industrial Research and/or Experimental Development projects are eligible for funding, subject to the terms and conditions laid out in the latest version of the National Rules for Participation (State Aid). Eligible Undertakings can be: a) a partnership constituted under the Companies Act, being a partnership en nom collectif, en commandite or a limited liability company; or b) be duly registered as a co-operative society under the Co-Operative Societies Act, or c) professional body; or d) NGO; or e) Non-profit making entity (including Foundation). • Any Public Entity or Public Research or Knowledge-Dissemination Organisation registered in Malta, that do not carry out an economic activity within the meaning of Article 107 TFEU, will be eligible for funding subject to the terms and conditions laid out in the latest version of the National Rules for Participation (Non-State Aid).
Eligible Applicants	• Malta-based applicants that are Eligible Undertakings, with an Operating Base in Malta, which plans to carry out Fundamental, Industrial Research and/or Experimental Development projects are eligible for funding, subject to the terms and conditions laid out in the latest version of the National Rules for Participation (State Aid). Eligible Undertakings can be: a) a partnership constituted under the Companies Act, being a partnership en nom collectif, en commandite or a limited liability company; or b) be duly registered as a co-operative society under the Co-Operative Societies Act, or c) professional body; or d) NGO; or e) Non-profit making entity (including Foundation). • Any Public Entity or Public Research or Knowledge-Dissemination Organisation registered in Malta, that do not carry out an economic activity within the meaning of Article 107 TFEU, will be eligible for funding subject to the terms and conditions laid out in the latest version of the National Rules for Participation (Non-State Aid).
Eligible Costs	Eligible costs and rates of funding depend on the type of Malta-based entity applying for aid, and the funding modality chosen (de minimis route, General Block Exemption Regulation route, non-state aid route). Eligible costs include the following: personnel; equipment; instruments, specialised equipment, and research consumables; IP and knowledge transfer activities; travel and subsistence; subcontracting and overheads. Detailed information on the aid intensity and which costs are eligible under different funding modalities can be found in the detailed National Rules accessible from MCST website.
Additional eligibility criteria	Further information can be found in the detailed National Rules accessible from the MCST website.
Relevant documents	The national application form together with the required annexes can be downloaded from the MCST website and must be sent to eusubmissions.mcst@gov.mtby the deadline specified in the detailed National Rules.
Additional Information	For further information and assistance with partner search, applicants can contact the MCST lead call manager Ms. Martina Vella (martina.vella.5@gov.mt) and/or the alternate call manager Ms. Christy Baldacchino (christy.baldacchino.2@gov.mt)
Useful Links	Funding Opportunities – MCST (gov.mt)

1.23 NORWAY – RCN

	Funding Organisation: The Research Council of Norway (forskningsradet.no)
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Jon Øygarden Flæten	Email and Phone: jof@rcn.no +47 99 53 54 75 (+32) 470 04 69 98
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 2.200.000 €	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner The RCN will fund up to 250.000 € per project proposal.
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure □ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Applicants for project funding must be affiliated with an academic institution, company/industry, the public sector or an NGO. See definition and specification here: https://www.forskningsradet.no/en/apply-for-funding/who-can-apply-for-funding
Eligible Applicants	The Project Leader (PL) or the Principal investigator (PI) must have completed a doctoral degree or have corresponding qualifications.
Eligible Costs	The participation must follow RCN's General Terms and Conditions for Research projects or for R&D Projects. See: Budget (forskningsradet.no) The budget applied for shall be stated in Euro. Conversion from Euro to Norwegian kroner is based on the official exchange rate per application date for preproposals. The official exchange rate can be found here: InforEuro, the exchange rate of the Euro currency (europa.eu) Applicants that are private companies, that is an actor that carries out an economic activity consisting of offering products or services on a given market, must be aware that their funding will be given within the limits set by the State Aid Rules; State aid (forskningsradet.no). State aid awarded by the Research Council is granted under the General Block Exemption Regulation for state aid, Article 25: Aid for research and development projects. To ensure that support is awarded in compliance with the state aid rules, the Research Council asks all applicants selected for conditional allocation of funding to provide supplementary information. The Project Owner must be able to document that its own institution and all its partners (all recipients of state aid) are eligible to receive state aid. Support from the Research Council constitutes state aid when it is awarded to an "undertaking", i.e., an actor that carries out an economic activity consisting of offering products or services on a given market.
Additional eligibility criteria
Relevant documents	For more general information about Norwegian conditions for funding, please read: https://www.forskningsradet.no/en/apply-for-funding/funding-from-the-research-council/
Additional Information	Norwegian applicants shall not submit any proposal at the national level before a funding decision is made and their project is funded. After the funding decision, and in case your project is funded, RCN's National Contact Person will e-mail the applicants the information and the link they need to submit their formal application to RCN.
Useful Links	General information: https://www.forskningsradet.no/en/ Project reporting to the RCN: Project reporting (forskningsradet.no)

1.24 POLAND – NCBR

	Funding Organisation: https://www.gov.pl/web/ncbr			The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR)
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Monika Włoszek			Email and Phone: monika.wloszek@ncbr.gov.pl +48 515 061 531
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 1.000.000 EUR			Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Maximum funding for a project partner – up to 300.000 € per project.
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	N/A
Eligible Applicants	Enterprises1 – SME and Large, Research organisations (research and knowledge-dissemination organisations)2, Groups of entities composed of at least two enterprises, Groups of entities composed of at least one research organisation and at least one enterprise, Group of entities composed of at least two research organisations. – minimum one research organisation and minimum one enterprise (micro, small, medium or large) or – minimum two enterprises (micro, small, medium or large) or minimum two research organisations.
Eligible Costs	1. personnel costs (researchers, technicians and other supporting staff to the extent employed on the research project); 2. costs of subcontracting, costs of consultancy and equivalent services used exclusively for the research activity; this cost type cannot account for more than 70% of all eligible costs of a project; the subcontracting can be obtained from consortium partner only in justified case, this need will be verified by a national experts panel; 3. operating costs including (depending on the type of eligible institution): Research Organizations: • costs of instruments and equipment, technical knowledge and patents to the extent and for the period used for the research project; if such instruments and equipment are not used for their full life for the research project, only the depreciation costs corresponding to the life of the research project, as calculated on the basis of good accounting practice, shall be considered eligible; • costs for buildings and land, to the extent and for the duration used for the research project; with regard to buildings, only the depreciation costs corresponding to the life of the research project, as calculated on the basis of good accounting practice shall be considered eligible; for land, costs of commercial transfer or actually incurred capital costs shall be eligible; • other operating costs including: costs of materials, supplies and similar products incurred directly as a result of the research activity; training costs; travels costs including conference fees; costs of project promotion (e.g. articles, project webpage); Enterprises: • costs of instruments and equipment, technical knowledge and patents to the extent and for the period used for the research project; if such instruments and equipment are not used for their full life for the research project, only the depreciation costs corresponding to the life of the research project, as calculated on the basis of good accounting practice, shall be considered eligible; • costs for buildings and land, to the extent and for the duration used for the research project; with regard to buildings, only the depreciation costs corresponding to the life of the research project, as calculated on the basis of good accounting practice shall be considered eligible; for land, costs of commercial transfer or actually incurred capital costs shall be eligible. 4. additional overheads incurred indirectly as a result of the research project (depending on the type of eligible institution); Research Organizations: additional overheads for research organizations should account 25% of all eligible direct costs; That costs (4) are counted as a multiplication by percentage given above (called x%) and the rest of direct costs for research organizations, excluding subcontracting (2); It means 4=(1+3)25%. Enterprises:* additional overheads for enterprises include also other operating costs, eg. costs of materials, supplies and similar products incurred directly as a result of the research activity, training costs; travels costs including conference fees; costs of project promotion (e.g. articles, project webpage). That costs should account 20% of all eligible direct project costs; Additional overheads (4) are counted as a multiplication by percentage given above (called x%) and the rest of direct costs for enterprises; It means 4=(1+2+3)*20%. Projects requesting more than PLN 3 million funding are entitled to claim the cost of the audit. For more details on eligible costs, please check the guidelines in the call announcement on NCBR webpage.
Additional eligibility criteria	Research organisations: all types of research may be funded. Basic research must not exceed 10% of value of national requested budget. Other types of activities (e.g. coordination, dissemination, management) are not eligible for funding as separate WP/Task. Enterprises: Only Industrial/Applied Research and Experimental Development will be funded. Other types of activities (e.g. coordination, dissemination, management) are not eligible for funding as separate WP)/Task. National funding rates: Funding quota of Polish participants can be up to 100% for research organisations. In the case of enterprises, funding quota will be decided on a case-by-case basis depending on the size of the company, type of research/development, risk associated with the research activities and commercial perspective of exploitation. The following maximum funding quotas apply:
	Type of Organization Type of Activity	Micro/Small Enterprises	Medium Enterprises	Large Enterprises	Research Organizations
	Fundamental/ Basic Research	n/a	n/a	n/a	Up to 100%
	Industrial Research	Up to 50+20+5/15/25 (max 80%)	Up to 50+10+5/15/25 (max 80%)	Up to 50+5/15/25 (max 75%)	Up to 100%
	Experimental development	Up to 25+20+5/15/25 (max 70%)	Up to 25+10+5/15/25 (max 60%)	Up to 25+5/15/25 (max 50%)	Up to 100%
Relevant documents	All proposals must be aligned with national regulations, inter alia: • The Act of 20 July 2018 – Law on Higher Education and Science; • The Act of 30 April 2010 on the National Centre for Research and Development; • The Regulation of the Minister of Science and Higher Education of 19 August 2020 on granting state aid by the National Centre for Research and Development, which is in line with the Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014; • The Regulation of the Minister of Science and Higher Education of 17 September 2010 on the detailed mode of performance of tasks of the National Centre for Research and Development.
Additional Information	• Polish applicants shall declare the TRL of their research in the pre-proposals and full proposals. • Applicant must conduct its business, R&D or any other activity on the territory of the Republic of Poland, confirmed by an entry into the relevant register • For enterprises it is strongly advised to state in the Pre-proposal application form the KRS number of the enterprise and the size of the enterprise (micro/small, medium, large). • A condition for the participation of a group of entities as the Applicant in the call is its formal existence on the date of submission of the pre-proposal, confirmed by its members concluding, at least conditionally, agreement on the creation of a group of entities. • If more than one Polish entity participates in the project, the national application is submitted by a consortium (group of entities) of all Polish entities. • After international evaluation of full proposals and the selection of projects to be funded, Polish participants will be invited to submit a National Application Form (NAF) with required attachments. The NAFs will be examined for the appropriateness of funding requested. The Polish participants are obliged to use the rate of exchange of the European Central Bank dated on the day of opening of the call.
Useful Links	Detailed information about scope, financial rules, national procedure and national regulations is available on the NCBR’s homepage: https://www.gov.pl/web/ncbr/wniosek-krajowy

X Noot

defined in Annex I to Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty (hereinafter referred to as “Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014”);

X Noot

Defined in Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014;

1.25 PORTUGAL – CCDRC

	Funding Organisation: https://www.ccdrc.pt/	CCDRC
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Sophie Patrício Carlos Silveira	Email and Phone: Phone: +351 239 400 127 Phone: +351 239 400 143 Mail: ccdrc.projects@ccdrc.pt
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call(in €) 400.000 EUR	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Maximum 250.000 EUR per Consortium with regional coordination ----- Maximum 150.000 EUR per consortium with regional participation Budget must be shared by all regional partners participating in a consortium and requesting funding to CCDRC. If two or three Portuguese applicants from the same international consortium apply for funding from FCT and CCDRC, the total budget to be requested to these two agencies cannot exceed the cumulative sum per consortium of 150.000 EUR (Portuguese Project Applicant) or 250.000 EUR (Portuguese Main Applicant). This rule does not apply to institutions from Região Autónoma dos Açores applying for funding to FRCT Azores and participating in a consortium with institutions applying for funding from FCT and/or CCDRC.
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Eligible Institutions: – Non-entrepreneurial entities from the regional Research and Innovation System – SMEs – Other organisations; can participate only if partnering up with one (or more) regional institutions from the typologies listed above Note: Only entities from NUTS II Centro or the ones that can assure that the investment will be made in Centro Region can apply to CCDRC’s funding. We advise all regional applicants to contact CCDRC’s team before applying.
Eligible Applicants	All institutions listed above. The eligibility of partners, as beneficiary institutions, must be verified in the following articles of Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital: – For projects led by companies, consult article 46 of Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital to have concrete information about the eligible beneficiaries and the eligibility criteria that must be fulfilled; – For projects led by non-entrepreneurial entities from the regional research and innovation system (HEI and research organizations), consult article 139 of Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição DigitalI to have concrete information about the eligible beneficiaries and the eligibility criteria that must be fulfilled. When checking eligibility of projects the following articles should also be considered: – For projects led by companies, articles 42 and 47 of Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital; For projects led by non-entrepreneurial entities, article 138 of Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital.
Eligible Costs	For eligible costs verify the article 9 of Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital. The following articles should also be considered: – For projects led by companies, article 50 of Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital; – For projects led by non-entrepreneurial entities from the regional research and innovation system (HEI and research. organizations), article 143 of Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital. The maximum funding rates to be considered are the following: – Research organisations and Higher Education Institutions (HEI): maximum funding rate – 85% – SME: micro and small enterprises – maximum funding rate 80% \| medium enterprises – maximum funding rate 75% Non for-profit organisations and patient organisations – can participate only if partnering up with one (or more) regional institutions from the typologies listed above (maximum funding rate – 85%). ATTENTION: 1) The funding rates presented are the maximum (possible) values. For projects led by companies, consult funding rates at article 49 of Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital. For projects led by non-entrepreneurial entities from the regional research and innovation system (HEI and research organizations), consult funding rates at article 141 of Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital. 2) Large companies will not be considered eligible in the context of this call.
Additional eligibility criteria	To all other criteria and conditions not explicit in this annex, please consult Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital (https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/portaria/328-b-2023-223573621?_ts=1700139369853). When applying to the transnational call, all regional stakeholders must fill in and sign a Declaration: – For projects led by companies: https://ris3.ccdrc.pt/index.php/ris3-documentacao/declaracao-de-compromisso-sbep-2024-si-i-d/download – For projects led by non-entrepreneurial entities: https://ris3.ccdrc.pt/index.php/ris3-documentacao/declaracao-de-compromisso-sbep-2024-saccct/download The Declaration must be sent within 10 working days after the submission of the pre-proposal to ccdrc.projects@ccdrc.pt.
Relevant documents	Ordinance No. 328-B/2023, of October 30
Additional Information	Regulamento Específico da Área Temática Inovação e Transição Digital (https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/portaria/328-b-2023-223573621?_ts=1700139369853)
Useful Links	https://ris3.ccdrc.pt/index.php/iniciativas/111-parceria-sbep-sustainable-blue-economy-partnership/175-parceria-sbep

1.26 PORTUGAL – FCT

	Funding Organisation: www.fct.pt	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Marta Norton	Email and Phone: Marta.norton@fct.pt + 351 21 391 1565
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 500.000 EUR	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Maximum 250.000 EUR per Consortium with PT coordination ----- Maximum 150.000 EUR per consortium with PT Participation Notes: If more than one Portuguese applicant participating in the same international consortium applies for funding by FCT, the combined funding demanded by all the Portuguese applicants may not exceed the maximum financial threshold for proposals with a Portuguese Main Applicant (250.000 EUR) or with a Portuguese Project Applicant (150.000 EUR). Portuguese Main Applicants and/or Project Applicants in the same international consortium will therefore have to share the funding that will be granted by FCT. If two or three Portuguese applicants from the same international consortium apply for funding from FCT and CCDRC, the total budget to be requested to these two agencies cannot exceed the cumulative sum per consortium of 150.000 EUR (Portuguese Project Applicant) or 250.000 EUR (Portuguese Main Applicant). This rule does not apply to institutions from Região Autónoma dos Açores applying for funding to FRCT and participating in a consortium with institutions applying for funding to FCT and/or CCDRC. For information on funding rates, see no. 2, Article 7 of FCT Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds. as amended by the Regulation no. 5/2024, of 3 January, hereinafter referred to as FCT Regulation, which amends and republishes Regulation no. 999/2016, of 31 October.
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒
	(2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒
	(3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒
	(4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	For eligible institutions please consult Article 3 of FCT Regulation.
Eligible Applicants	All applicants applying on behalf of the eligible institutions listed above.
Eligible Costs	For eligible costs and non-eligible cost please consult Articles 8 and 9 of FCT Regulation and Financial Execution Rules (to be available soon). The allocation of indirect costs in the proposal to be submitted by applicants requesting funding from FCT is mandatory. In accordance with no. 6 of Article 8 of FCT Regulation, indirect costs shall be calculated on a simplified costs base, by means of the application of a fixed rate of 25% of direct eligible costs with exclusion of subcontracting and resources made provided by third parties.
Additional eligibility criteria	For additional eligibility criteria of beneficiaries and projects please consult Articles 5 and 6 of FCT Regulation.
Relevant documents	Applications requesting funding from FCT under this call will be subject to FCT Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds, as amended by the Regulation no. 5/2024, of 3 January, which amends and republishes Regulation no. 999/2016, of 31 Octoberhttps://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/regulamento/5-2024-836027623 Financial Execution Rules (to be available soon)
Additional Information	For additional information please check FCT Regulation. The percentage of time dedicated to transnational projects will not be added to the percentage of time dedicated to existing national projects. Within 10 working days after the deadline for submitting the pre-proposal, a Statement of Commitment duly signed by the Researcher in Charge (partner and/or coordinators) and by the legal representant of the Portuguese Proposing Institution must be sent to Marta.norton@fct.pt The stamp or white seal of the Portuguese Proposing Institution will not be required on a digitally signed Statement of Commitment, as long as it is signed, in the Authenticação.gov application, with professional attributes that identify the functions performed by the signatory. Portuguese applicants of transnational consortia that do not apply for funding from FCT do not need to submit the Statement of Commitment to FCT. FCT and CCDRC and FRCT as Portuguese funding agencies on this call, reserve the right to evaluate the possibility of transferring application(s) to other Portuguese funding agency if an application is considered non-eligible by the funding agency selected by the candidate institution, but is eligible by the other Portuguese funding agency, which will from then on be responsible for managing the application(s).
Useful Links	Dedicated website for the SBEP within FCT portal: to be available soon.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER	The applicable form of payment of the beneficiaries' eligible costs to this call referred to in no. 5, Article 8 of FCT Regulation will be indicated in due course on this call's page (to be available soon) on the FCT website. Please check this page regularly.

1.27 PORTUGAL – FRCT

	Funding Organisation: FRCT – Fundo Regional da Ciência e Tecnologia Largo da Matriz 45–52, 9500- 094 Ponta Delgada Website: http://frct.azores.gov.pt/ frciencia@azores.gov.pt
Regional Contact Point (RCP)	Name: Renato Pires Project Manager Carolina Torres Project Manager	Email and Phone: Phone: +351 296 241 886 Email: renato.hm.pires@azores.gov.pt Phone: +351 296 241 870 Email: carolina.s.torres@azores.gov.pt
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 100.000€ (indicative)	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Maximum funding per Project: 100 000€
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure □ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	The beneficiary institutions are: a) Higher education institutions, their institutes and R&D units; b) Private non-profit institutions whose main objective is R&D activities; c) Other public and private non-profit institutions that carry out or participate in scientific research activities.
Eligible Applicants	The beneficiaries should be entities from the Scientific and Technological System of the Azores (SCTA) registered in the Azores. For more information, please consult the SCTA regulation (DLR n.° 10/2012/A, 26 March 2012).
Eligible Costs	Please see the Guide for the participation of regional research teams in international calls financed by the FRCT: http://frct.azores.gov.pt/legislacao/.
Additional eligibility criteria	Please see the Guide for the participation of regional research teams in international calls financed by the FRCT: http://frct.azores.gov.pt/legislacao/.
Relevant documents	Guide for the participation of regional research teams in international calls financed by the FRCT, as well as Annex 1 and Annex 2: http://frct.azores.gov.pt/legislacao/.
Additional Information	Before initiating a funding request, FRCT strongly recommends that applicants contact FRCT through regional contact persons. Also, see the Guide for the participation of regional research teams in international calls financed by the FRCT at http://frct.azores.gov.pt/legislacao/. The Declaration of Commitment must be signed by the beneficiary Institution's legal representative and the PI. The digital version of the Declaration must be sent by e-mail to the regional contact persons (the deadline is the same for pre-proposals submission). The original version of the Declaration must be sent by mail within 10 working days after pre-proposals submission. The address is: Fundo Regional da Ciência e Tecnologia (FRCT) Largo da Matriz 45–52, 9500-094 Ponta Delgada, Portugal – Açores. According to the contract between FRCT and the beneficiary, each PI must submit, at least, two financial and progress reports (one mid-term report and one final report). In special cases, additional reporting can be requested from the PI.
Useful Links	http://frct.azores.gov.pt/legislacao/

1.28 ROMANIA – MCID

	https://www.mcid.gov.ro/
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Domnica Cotet	Email and Phone: domnica.cotet@uefiscdi.ro +40-213023880
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 1.000.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner 250.000 max. if the consortium is coordinated by a Romanian applicant 200.000 max. for Romanian partners in the consortium
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	The categories of institutions and units that can benefit from public funding for Horizon Europe projects are those established as components of the national research-development system, in accordance with the provisions of OG 57/2002, approved by Law 324/2003 with subsequent amendments and additions: educational institutions accredited public and private institutions, national research and development institutes, other public or private research organizations, economic agents (SMEs and large enterprises), local or central public administration units, non-governmental organizations.
Eligible Applicants	The head of the research team from each participating institution has a PhD degree. This condition does not apply if the institution is an enterprise within the meaning of the State Aid legislation. A person in charge of the research team will participate in a single proposal from the trans-national call in this capacity.
Eligible Costs	Staff costs; Logistics expenses – Capital expenditure; – Expenditure on stocks – supplies and inventory items; Expenditure on services performed by third parties cannot exceed 25% of the funding from the public budget. The subcontracted parts should not be core/substantial parts of the project work; Travel expenses; Overhead (indirect costs) is calculated as a percentage of direct costs: staff costs, logistics costs (excluding capital costs and cost for subcontracting) and travel expenses. Indirect costs will not exceed 20% of direct costs. The current guidelines for grants on an expenditure-cost basis and for allocations for administrative agreements apply. MCID will avoid double funding (overlapping with other EU or National funding) and will not grant projects or parts of projects already funded. MCID will fund strategic (basic) research, applied/industrial research, experimental development implemented by research organisations and/or SMEs, according to the national rules and to the State Aid legislation.
Additional eligibility criteria	It is strongly advised to contact MCID before submission, in order to verify the eligibility of the researchers and avoid ineligible projects/research consortia.
Relevant documents	The framework for this funding action is the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation 2022–2027, Programme 5.8 European and international cooperation, 5.8.1 Horizon Europe Program
Additional Information	https://uefiscdi.gov.ro/programul-orizont-europa-al-comisiei-europene
Useful Links	https://bluepartnership.eu/funding-opportunities

1.29 SLOVENIA – MVZI

Funding Organisation:

MVZI

(https://www.gov.si/en/state-authorities/ministries/ministry-of-higher-education-science-and-innovation/)

National Contact Points (NCP)

Name:

Marta Šabec

Katja Žagar

Email and Phone:

marta.sabec@gov.si

T: +386 (0)1 478 47 39

M: +386 (0) 31 361 159

katja.zagar02@gov.si

T: +386 (0)1 478 46 06

Funding Commitment

Funding contribution to the Call (in €)

900 k€

Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner

300 k€ for all Slovenian partners within one consortium

Funded priority area (s)

(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale

☒

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

☒

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

☒

(4) Blue Bioresources

☒

Eligible Institutions

Research organizations as defined in the national Scientific Research and Innovation Activities Act (Zakon o znanstvenoraziskovalni in inovacijski dejavnosti). All participating institutions have to be registered in the Slovenian Research Agency register of research institutions (Informacijski sistem o raziskovalni dejavnosti v Sloveniji – SICRIS). Organizations that fulfill these requirements may be:

universities,

public research institutes

private research institutes

non-governmental organisations

large, medium or small enterprises

Eligible Applicants

All participating Slovenian researchers have to be registered in the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency register of researchers (SICRIS) and must have available research hours.

The project activities of each Slovenian partner have to be under the supervision of the primary investigator/primary researcher who fulfills the requirements for project leader as defined in Rules on criteria for establishing compliance with the conditions for being the head of a research project (Pravilnik o kriterijih za ugotavljanje izpolnjevanja pogojev za vodjo raziskovalnega projekta) and Methodology of Call proposal evaluation (Metodologija ocenjevanja prijav na razpise).

Eligible Costs

MVZI will fund all eligible costs of successful Slovenian transnational projects, recommended for funding, in accordance with the Decree on the scientific research funding from the budget of the Republic of Slovenia (Uredba o financiranju znanstvenoraziskovalne dejavnosti iz Proračuna Republike Slovenije). Eligible costs are defined based on the FTE value according to the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency’s research project categorization (A, B, C or D based on the research conducted).

Eligible costs must be directly related to the research conducted and mandatory include all the following categories as elements of the FTE:

personnel (including social security, health, pension, and other contributions according to national legislation);

material (travel and meetings costs, consumables, dissemination and knowledge exchange costs, other costs);

depreciation costs.

Overhead or indirect costs are eligible. The value is calculated based on the FTE value of category A, B, C, or D research projects, under the condition that costs under each of the specific FTE elements are appropriately decreased (by a max. of 25% for indirect costs). Providing the stipulated conditions are met, the Public Procurement Act (Zakon o javnem naročanju) applies.

Up to 100% of eligible costs can be funded for research organisations (universities, public and private research institutes) whose financed activity is non-economic in accordance with the provisions of Communication from the Commission Framework for State aid for research and development and innovation. Wide dissemination of all research results on a non-exclusive and non-discriminatory basis is required.

For research organizations whose financed activity is economic in accordance with the provisions of Communication from the Commission Framework for State aid for research and development and innovation 2022/C 414/01 (OJ C 414, 28.10.2022) and the Program of collaborative Research and Development projects and other projects which are the subject of state aid (Program sodelovalnih raziskovalno-razvojnih projektov in drugih projektov, ki so predmet državnih pomoči Ministrstva za visoko šolstvo, znanost in inovacije 2022–2030, št. 440-4/2022/1 z dne 26.09.2022, verzija 2.0 (št. priglasitve: BE01-2399300-2023)) applies.

Maximum funding percentages for Fundamental/basic & Industrial/applied research:

– Universities and research organisations 100%

– non-governmental organisations 100%

– Large enterprises 65%,

– Medium enterprises 75%

– Small Enterprises 80%

Additional eligibility criteria

– Eligible type of research and TRL: basic and applied – for Slovenian partner eligible TRL range is 2–6. The type of research conducted by Slovenian researchers must be defined and explained in the project proposal (e.g. in the Comments on budget section).

– Period of eligibility of expenditures on the project: From the starting date of the transnational project stipulated in the consortium agreement for a period of 36 months, with a prescribed additional 30-day period for the payment of invoices related to the project costs. The period of eligibility of expenditures on the project can only start from the date the national contract enters into effect. The exact duration of the project will be defined in the contract between MVZI and the selected Slovenian partner.

– Period of eligibility of public expenditures: Budgetary years 2026, 2027 and 2028.

Relevant documents

Legal basis – National regulation:

State Administration Act (Zakon o državni upravi (Uradni list RS, 113/05 – UPB, 89/07 – odl.US, 126/07 – ZUP-E, 48/09, 8/10-ZUP-G, 8/12-ZVRS-F, 21/12, 47/13, 12/14, 90/14, 51/16, 36/21, 82/21, 189/21, 153/22 in 18/23)) – Article 16 and 38.č; Public Finance Act (Zakon o javnih financah (Uradni list RS, št. 11/11 – uradno prečiščeno besedilo, 14/13, 101/13, 55/15 – ZFisP, 96/15 – ZIPRS1617, 13/18, 195/20 – odl.US, 18/23 – ZDU-1O in 76/23)) – Article 106. j; Regulation on the procedure of standards and manners to allocate means for the promotion of the evolutional programme and the preferential tasks (Uredba o postopku, merilih in načinih dodeljevanja sredstev za spodbujanje razvojnih programov in prednostnih nalog (Uradni list RS, št. 56/11)); Act Regulating the Implementation of the Budgets of the Republic of Slovenia for 2024 and 2025 (Zakon o izvrševanju proračunov Republike Slovenije za leti 2024 in 2025 (ZIPRS2425) (Uradni list RS, št. 123/23)), Intergrity and Prevention of Corruption Act (Zakon o integriteti in preprečevanju korupcije (Uradni list RS, št. št. 69/11 – uradno prečiščeno besedilo, 158/20, 3/22 – ZDeb in 16/23-ZZPri)); Resolution on the Slovenian Scientific Research and Innovation Strategy 2030 (Resolucija o znanstvenoraziskovalni in inovacijski strategiji Slovenije 2030 (Uradni list RS, št. 49/22)); Decree on the scientific research funding from the budget of the Republic of Slovenia (Uredba o financiranju znanstvenoraziskovalne dejavnosti iz Proračuna Republike Slovenije (Uradni list RS, št. 35/22, 144/22 in 79/23)), Rules on criteria for establishing compliance with the conditions for being the head of a research project (Pravilnik o kriterijih za ugotavljanje izpolnjevanja pogojev za vodjo raziskovalnega projekta, Uradni list RS št. 53/16 in 186/21 – ZZrID); Communication from the Commission Framework for State aid for research and development and innovation 2022/C 414/01 (Sporočilo Komisije Okvir za državno pomoč za raziskave, razvoj in inovacije (UL C 414/2022 z dne 28.10.2022, s spremembami)); Program of collaborative Research and Development projects and other projects which are the subjects of state aid (Program sodelovalnih raziskovalno-razvojnih projektov in drugih projektov, ki so predmet državnih pomoči Ministrstva za visoko šolstvo, znanost in inovacije 2022–2030, št. 440-4/2022/1 z dne 26.09.2022, verzija 2.0 (št.Priglasitve: BE01-2399300-2023)), National strategy of open access to scientific publications and research data in Slovenia 2015–2020 (Nacionalna strategije odprtega dostopa do znanstvenih objav in raziskovalnih podatkov v Sloveniji 2015–2020, št. 60300-5/2015/5 z dne 3. 9. 2015), Decision of the Minister on means of financing the Slovenian part of transnational research and development projects proposed for funding on the basis of a transnational public call in a project or partnership joined by the Ministry of education, science and sport (Sklep ministra o višini sredstev za sofinanciranje slovenskega dela večstranskih transnacionalnih raziskovalnih in razvojnih projektov, ki so predlagani v sofinanciranje na podlagi postopka transnacionalnega javnega razpisa v projektu ali partnerstvu, h kateremu je pristopilo Ministrstvo z izobraževanje, znanost in šport št. 92-15/2022/383 z dne 20. 12. 2022); Government of the Republic of Slovenia Act (Zakon o Vladi Republike Slovenije (Uradni list RS, št. 24/05-UPB, 109/08, 28/10-ZUKN, 8/12, 21/13, 47/13-ZDU-1G, 65/14, 55/17 in 163/22)).

Additional Information

No submission of the pre-and full proposal at national level is needed.

National contracting negotiations will commence after the projects are selected for funding on the level of the transnational call. National documentation, including evidence of the starting date of the transnational project (in the form of a Consortia Agreement or statement on the starting date by the transnational project coordinator), will be a prerequisite for signing the contract at national level. The needed evidence on project expenses will be more precisely determined in the national contract.

All Slovenian applicants are strongly advised to contact the Slovenian National Contact Person / NCP.

Submission of financial and scientific reports at national level will be required three times: each year after the end of the annual project implementation.

Useful Links

More information about the call at national level: https://www.gov.si/drzavni-organi/ministrstva/ministrstvo-za-visoko-solstvo-znanost-in-inovacije/javne-objave/

Scientific Research and Innovation Activities Act (Zakon o znanstvenoraziskovalni in inovacijski dejavnosti, Uradni list RS, št. 186/21 in 40/23):

http://www.pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO7733

Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency register of research institutions (Informacijski sistem o raziskovalni dejavnosti v Sloveniji – SICRIS): https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/en

Rules on criteria for establishing compliance with the conditions for being the head of a research project (Pravilnik o kriterijih za ugotavljanje izpolnjevanja pogojev za vodjo raziskovalnega projekta, Uradni list RS št. 53/16 in 186/21-ZZrID): http://www.pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=PRAV12558

Methodology of applications evaluation in scientific research calls

(Metodologija ocenjevanja prijav v postopkih za (so)financiranjeznanstvenoraziskovalne dejavnosti na razpise): ARIS – Zakoni, predpisi, normativni akti – Metodologija ocenjevanja prijav v postopkih za (so)financiranje znanstvenoraziskovalne dejavnosti (neuradno prečiščeno besedilo št. 3) (aris-rs.si)

Decree on the scientific research funding from the budget of the Republic of Slovenia (Uredba o financiranju znanstvenoraziskovalne dejavnosti iz Proračuna Republike Slovenije, Uradni list RS št. 35/22, št. 144/22 in 79/23): http://www.pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=URED8468

FTE value according to the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency’s research project categorization: ARIS – Zakoni, predpisi, normativni akti – Veljavni akti – Sklep o ceni ekvivalenta polne zaposlitve za leto 2023 (arrs.si)

Public Procurement Act (Zakon o javnem naročanju, Uradni list RS št.

91/15, 14/18, 121/21, 10/22, 74/22 – odl. US, 100/22-ZNUZSZS, 28/23 in 88/23-ZOPNN-F):

http://www.pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO7086

Program of collaborative Research and Development projects and other projects which are the subjects of stat aid (Program sodelovalnih raziskovalno-razvojnih projektov in drugih projektov, ki so predmet državnih pomoči Ministrstva za visoko šolstvo, znanost in izobraževanje 2022–2030, št. 440-4/2022/1 z dne 26.09.2022, verzija 2.0):

https://www.gov.si/assets/ministrstva/MVZI/Znanost/Strategije-predpisi-in-drugi-dokumenti/Program-sodelovalnih-raziskovalno-razvojnih-projektov-ki-so-predmet-drzavnih-pomoci-MVZI-2022-2030.pdf

1.30 SPAIN – AEI

	Funding Organisation:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI)
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Abraham Trujillo Quintela	Email: oceans@aei.gob.es
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) € 1.200.000	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner The following funding limits for direct costs for a three-year project are considered eligibility criteria. Proposals not respecting these limits could be declared ineligible. • If the consortium is NOT COORDINATED by an AEI- applicant: max. € 140.000 • If the consortium IS COORDINATED by an AEI- applicant: max. € 220.000 • If the consortium IS COORDINATED by an AEI-applicant and there is another AEI-applicant in the proposal, the amount for both Partners is: max. € 260.000 • Additional amount of € 30.000 maximum (direct costs) can be requested per proposal if the work plan includes substantial experimental tasks to be carried out by the AEI applicants and which must be clearly justified in the budget. • On top of the abovementioned direct cost limits, indirect costs must be added in the application: 25% of direct costs (including the subcontracting costs). Important: • only ONE applicant applying for funding to AEI is allowed per proposal • Two AEI-applicants are allowed in the same proposal only in cases when one of them is acting as Coordinator • The direct costs (including subcontracting) in the application must be rounded to the thousands.
		Example of maximum funding per proposal	CD (€)	CI (25%) (€)	TOTAL (€)
		One AEI-applicant	140.000	35.000	175.000
		One AEI-applicant – coordinator	220.000	55.000	275.000
		Two AEI-applicants – one coordinator	260.000	65.000	325.000
		Additional amount of € 30.000 maximum (direct costs) and the corresponding indirect costs can be requested per proposal if the work plan includes substantial experimental tasks carried out by the AEI applicants. Substantial experimental tasks are those required for the development of observational or experimental research projects. For instance, ecosystem sampling, design and execution of experiments, obtention of new data sets, use of analytical procedures for the quantification of physical, chemical, geological, or biological variables. Tasks in which existing data are used or re-analysed exclusively will not be considered substantial experimental tasks. Those tasks will be considered desk and not experimental research projects.
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Eligible entities for the AEI funding are: Non-profit research organizations (such as universities, public research institutions, technological centres and other private non-profit institutions performing RDI activities in Spain), which must comply with the requirements established by this transnational call and with the rules on eligibility defined in the corresponding Spanish national funding instrument “Proyectos de Colaboración Internacional-PCI” (see PCI 2023-1 as an example) and the PCI Requirementsdocument. They must have been previously beneficiaries of any of the AEI calls, as stated in the PCI Requirements document. They must ensure contractual relationship with the Principal Investigator (PI) during all the implementation of the project.
Eligible Applicants	Principal Investigators (PIs) requesting funding to the AEI must: • Be eligible to the corresponding PCI call (see PCI 2023-1 as an example) and the PCI Requirements document • Demonstrate experience as investigators in projects funded by the different Plan Estatal I+D+i: 2013–2016, 2017–2020, 2021–2023, ERC Grants, European Framework Programmes or other relevant national or international programmes. Incompatibilities: The following must be considered when participating in Different ERA-Nets, European Co-funded Partnerships or other international initiatives: • PIs will not be eligible for funding if they apply (i) in more than one proposal in this transnational joint call, (ii) in more than one proposal in the same PCI call and/or (iii) in PCI calls of consecutive years. • If the same PI submits two or more proposals in this transnational call, they will all be declared ineligible except one, without the possibility of changing the PI. • A PI that has been granted a PCI the previous year will be declared ineligible, without the possibility of changing the PI. • Changes of the PI between the 2 steps of the transnational call are not allowed • PI must remain unchanged between the proposal in this transnational call and the corresponding PCI call should the proposal be recommended for funding Important: In the application form, the applicants should include the PI’s full name (with both surnames) and the full name of their institution as stated in the Sistema de Entidades (SISEN).
Eligible Costs	• Research and innovation activities are eligible. Mere dissemination, communication or other similar activities will not be eligible. • Only personnel costs for new temporary employment dedicated to the project are eligible. This must be clearly stated in the contract. The costs of permanent staff linked to the beneficiary entity or members of the research team will not be considered eligible costs. • Direct costs such as current costs, small scientific equipment, disposable materials, travelling expenses, coordination costs and other costs that can be justified as necessary to carry out the proposed activities. • Indirect costs (25% of all direct costs, including the subcontracting costs). The AEI will avoid double funding (overlapping with other EU or National funding) and will not grant projects or parts of projects already funded.
Additional eligibility criteria	Centres formed by different Spanish legal entities will be considered as a unique entity, and thus the maximum funding should not exceed the limits per proposal established above (for example, mixed centres). Two centres or institutions belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) will be treated as two separate partners one from another when one of them is acting as Coordinator of the proposal and their tasks and identity in the project are sufficiently separated and justified. Although private enterprises are not funded by the AEI, the Spanish industrial sector is welcome to participate in the transnational consortia principally obtaining funds from the CDTI participating in this transnational call (see CDTI’s requirements), from other innovation and technological development funding agencies, or using own funds. The final funding will consider the transnational evaluation of the collaborative proposal, the scientific quality of the Spanish group, the added value of the international collaboration, the participation of the industrial sector, and the financial resources available.
Relevant documents	Funding Programme: The framework for this funding action is the Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica, Técnica e Innovación 2021–2023. On a national level, the Call will be managed by the Subdivisión de Programas Científico-Técnicos Transversales, Fortalecimiento y Excelencia (STRAN) of the AEI. Funding Instrument: The instrument funding the Spanish groups requesting funding to the AEI is the corresponding Spanish call “Proyectos de Colaboración Internacional” (PCI) (to be published in due time). IMPORTANT: Proposals of projects that foresee the need to request research ship time must consult availability of research vessels and calendar of cruises and meet the requirements published in the COCSABO website Projects including research activities within the zone of the Antarctic Treaty should consult the requirements of the Comité Polar Español. Data Protection: By submitting a grant application to the AEI, the applicants consent to communication of the data contained in the application to other public administrations, with the aim of further processing of the data for historical, statistical or scientific purposes, within the framework of the Organic Law 3/2018, of December 5, on Personal Data Protection and Guarantee of Digital Rights. Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) principle: The projects granted under this call must comply with the DNSH criteria.
Additional Information	Acknowledgement: Any publication or dissemination activity resulting from the granted projects must acknowledge the AEI funding: “Project (reference n° XX) funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) through the PCI (year) call”.
Useful Links	As a reference, the applicants are strongly advised to read the call text of the PCI 2023-1 (“Resolución de 24 de marzo de 2023”) and especially the PCI Requirements document on the national call website as well as check their eligibility with the National Contact Point prior to the submission.

1.31 SPAIN – CDTI

	Funding Organisation: https://www.cdti.es/	CDTI, E.P.E.
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Héctor González	Email: partenariadoshe@cdti.es
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 400.000 euros	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner A minimum financeable budget of 175.000 € is recommended for each Spanish company.
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level □ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	For-profit enterprises (large or SMEs) established and carrying out RTDI activities in Spain. Other entities such as Universities, Public Research Institutions, Technological Centres, and other not-for-profit private institutions are not eligible.
Eligible Applicants	For-profit enterprises (large or SMEs) established and carrying out RTDI activities in Spain.
Eligible Costs	• Staff costs related to technical staff directly involved in the R&D project. Project management costs, max. 58 hours per month (approximately 0,4PM) • Instrument and equipment costs • Implementation costs e.g., technical knowledge, patents, or consultancy services, intended exclusively for the research project and procured from external sources at market price. • Other costs including goods and services to be used exclusively for the research project e.g.: (national) audit costs max 2.000€ per year/beneficiary, travel costs associated with the implementation of the project, (8.000€ max. for the duration of the project). Overheads (indirect costs as a percentage of personnel costs) are calculated authomatically by CDTI´s electronic submission system. • CDTI will only fund technology-based activities within industrial research and/or experimental development projects (in accordance with the definitions of the General Block Exemption Regulation, EC Regulation n° 651/2014) representing outstanding scientific-technical quality and high innovative potential.
Additional eligibility criteria	Please note that non-technological activities e.g. developing new business models, are excluded from CDTI funding. R&D activities to be financed must belong to TRL 4–7 range and be implemented in Spain.
Relevant documents	Each Spanish company participating in a project and requestingfunding from CDTI, must apply via CDTI´s electronic submissionsystem (*https://sede.cdti.gob.es). CDTI´s application process consists of completing an online application form which is accompanied by a short technical report written in Spanish. The report must focus on the activities (and associated budget) that the company will assume in the project (please check Type of research funded* and Eligible costs sections in this table). *Deadline to complete CDTI´s application process: The same enddate as the first phase international application.* Please note that failing to comply with the national applicationprocess by the deadline, will deem the company ineligible toparticipate in the call.
Additional Information	The CDTI will finance a maximum of 70% of the eligible budget through grants.
Useful Links	https://www.cdti.es/partenariados-cofinanciados-pilar-2

1.32 SWEDEN – FORMAS

	Funding Organisation: https://www.formas.se
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Osman Tikansak	Email and Phone: osman.tikansak@formas.se
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 2.000.000 €	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Maximum funding from FORMAS is 300.000 € perproposal, or a maximum of500.000 € per proposal if the Swedish applicant is also the project coordinator (regardless of how many Swedish partners participate in the project).
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Universities, research institutes, private companies, private and public organisations that engage in economic activity, public authorities, and NGOs. The applicant must be a Swedish legal entity. Specifications: Economic activity is generally defined as any activity consisting in offering goods or services on a given market. If an organisation falls in the economic activity category, then state aid rules apply. More information on state aid rules.
Eligible Applicants	Principal applicants and co-applicants must have completed their PhD degree and be affiliated with a Swedish higher education institution, research institute, government agency, private entity or an NGO with a research assignment that meets the FORMAS requirements for administrating organisations, see: How it works – Formas
Eligible Costs	FORMAS’ standard eligibility criteria for research projects apply, please see Formas’ general instructions: How it works – Formas VAT should not be included in the budget figures
Additional eligibility criteria	Swedish applicants in a consortium must apply to FORMAS (Prisma) under one single project application after they have been invited to step – 2 (full proposal). Project duration is 3 years.
Relevant documents	https://www.formas.se/en/start-page/applying-for-funding.html
Additional Information	Swedish applicants who have submitted a pre-proposal to the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (the international submission platform), will be contacted by FORMAS for further information on how to register their full proposals with FORMAS (Prisma), only if they are invited to submit a full-proposal at the second stage. Reports are to be submitted according to the regulations of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership and FORMAS.
Useful Links	*Formas all calls* .

1.33 SWEDEN – SNSA

(Information to come)

1.34 THE NETHERLANDS – LNV, lenW, NWO

Funding Organisation:

Dutch Research Council (NWO)

https://www.nwo.nl/en

NWO, IenW, LNV

National Contact

Point (NCP)

Name:

Daan Blok, Peter

Spierenburg

Email and Phone:

d.blok@nwo.nl

+31-(0)70 349 41 18

p.spierenburg@nwo.nl

+31-(0)306001291

Funding Commitment

Funding contribution to the Call (in €)

€ 2,000,000

Maximum funding per awarded project

€ 400,000

Funded priority area (s)

(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale

☒

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

☒

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

☒

(4) Blue Bioresources

☒

Eligible Institutions

• Universities located in the Kingdom of the Netherlands;

• University medical centres;

• Institutes affiliated to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) or NWO;

• The Netherlands Cancer Institute;

• The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen;

• Naturalis Biodiversity Center;

• Advanced Research Centre for NanoLithography (ARCNL);

• Princess Máxima Center;

• Universities of applied sciences*;

• TO2 institutes**.

Specifications:

* as referred to in Article 1.8 of the Dutch Higher Education and Research Act (Wet op het hoger onderwijs en wetenschappelijk onderzoek, WHW)

** Dutch top institutes for applied sciences affiliated to the TO2 federation

Eligible Applicants

Full, associate and assistant professors, and other researchers with a comparable position* may submit an application (i.e. participate in a consortium and request NWO funding) if they have a tenured position (and therefore a paid position for an indefinite period), or a tenure track agreement at one of the eligible institutions (see above).

Persons with a zero-hour employment agreement or with a contract for a limited period of time (other than a tenure track appointment) may not submit a proposal. It could be the case that the applicant’s tenure track agreement ends before the intended completion date of the project for which funding is applied for, or that before that date, the applicant’s tenured contract ends due to the applicant reaching retirement age. In that case, the applicant needs to include a statement from their employer in which the organisation concerned guarantees that the project and all project members for whom funding has been requested will receive adequate supervision for

the full duration of the project. Applicants with a part-time contract should guarantee adequate supervision of the project and all project members for whom funding is requested.

Specifications:

* A comparable position refers to a researcher that has a demonstrable and comparable number of years of experience in carrying out scientific research and supervising other researchers as a full, associate or assistant professor.

Eligible Costs

The NWO budget modules (including the maximum amount) available for this Call for proposals are listed below. Apply only for funding that is vital to realise the project.

Available budget modules

• Postdoc* – at least 24 full months and at most 36 fulltime months (per position), according to UNL or NFU rates**

• Research leave – max. 5 months, 1 fte, according to UNL or NFU rates**

• Personnel at universities of applied sciences and TO2 institutes -. Rates according to the Hourly rate productive hours, excl. Dutch VAT’ from the Handleiding Overheidstarieven [HOT – Manual Dutch Government rates]**. Personnel TO2 institutes only in combination with an application for a postdoc position

• Non-scientific staff (NSS) at universities

• Material costs*** – max. € 15,000 per year per fulltime scientific position (postdoc)

• Knowledge utilisation – max. € 25,000

• Internationalisation – max. € 25,000

Note that PhD positions cannot be applied for in this Call for proposals, due to the maximum project duration of 3 years.

Specifications:

*For the budget module “Postdoc”, a one-off individual bench fee of € 5,000 is added on top of the salary costs to encourage the scientific career of the project employee funded by NWO.

**UNL, NFU and HOT salary rates can be found at https://www.nwo.nl/en/salary-tables

***The budget items “overhead” and “subcontracting costs” in the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership format are not eligible for NWO funding. Please refer to the detailed explanation of NWO budget modules to see which costs are eligible: www.nwo.nl/sbep.

Additional eligibility criteria

• An application for NWO funding (i.e. the Dutch part of a European consortium) has a single main applicant (i.e. Dutch Partner or Coordinator in the European consortium), responsible for scientific and financial management.

• An applicant may only request NWO funding as main applicant for one project (part of a European consortium) in this Call for proposals of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership.

• Applicants may be involved in maximum two applications as co-applicant, or one as main applicant and one as co-applicant.

• Applicants may not apply for a scientific position for themselves

• At the full proposal phase, it is required to submit a financial details form separately to NWO. This form is available on: www.nwo.nl/sbep.

It is recommended to use the NWO financial details form already in the pre-proposal stage to confirm eligibility of budget items.

Additional Information

The NWO Grant Rules 2017 and the Approval of funding for scientific research 2.008 are applicable to the part of the project’s budget covered by the grant from NWO. Any arrangements made regarding the part of the project’s budget covered by the grant from NWO, for instance in a Consortium Agreement, must comply with the NWO Grant Rules 2017 and the European legislation on state aid.

Under the Dutch General Administrative Law Act, any interested party has the right to lodge an objection to the decision taken by NWO within six weeks of the date of the decision letter. Further information about the objections procedure can be found on the NWO website: https://www.nwo.nl/en/lodging-an-objection.

Applicants are required to submit a mandatory NWO budget form in the Full Proposal stage. Refer to Additional eligibility criteria.

Submission of financial and scientific reports at national level is required in accordance with the rules of NWO.

Do not hesitate to contact the national contact person in case of questions.

Useful Links

For more information on NWO, please refer to www.nwo.nl/en

SBEP at NWO: www.nwo.nl/sbep

1.35 TUNISIA – MHERS

	Funding Organisation: ( www.mes.tn )	Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: Ms. Hayet Souai Ms. Saida Rafrafi	Email and Phone: souaihayet@gmail.com/ +216 71 835 351 coopint2@gmail.com/ +216 71 835 351
Funding Commitment	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 400.000 €	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner Min 50.000€ / project/partner Max 100.000€/project/partner
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Tunisian public research institutions: Institutes or research centers; Research laboratories based at the universities.
Eligible Applicants	The Principal Investigator (PI) should be full professor or associate professor (maître de conférence) and must belong to a public research laboratory.
Eligible Costs	Eligible costs are those spent directly by the project partner during the duration of the project and used exclusively for achieving the objectives of the project. All expenses must be incurred between the start date and the end date of the project and must be limited to the allocated budget the following expenses would be eligible: Travel and daily allowances, Other operating expenses directly related to the project, Small equipment, logistics and consumables, Service contracts (only for non-permanent staff), Organization and participation in the scientific events and meetings. Publication and filing fees required (scientific publications, filing of patents), Expenses for carrying out analyzes and processing samples
Additional eligibility criteria
Relevant documents
Additional Information	The conditions of execution and financing of the projects upon the completion of the selection process shall be defined in the national grant award agreements, where the PI of the selected project for financing will sign an agreement with the MHESR/General Directorate of Scientific Research.
Useful Links	www.mes.tn

1.36 TÜRKİYE – TÜBITAK

	Funding Organisation: ( https://www.tubitak.gov.tr/en )	The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)
National Contact Point (NCP)	Name: ÇAĞLA AKAT KÖSE	Email and Phone: sbep@tubitak.gov.tr +90 312 298 1783
Funding Commitmen t	Funding contribution to the Call (in €) 400.000 EUR	Minimum/maximum funding per awarded Project and Partner The maximum amount of funding that can be given per project will be indicated in the national call text.
Funded priority area (s)	(1) Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale ☒ (2) Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure ☒ (3) Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level ☒ (4) Blue Bioresources ☒
Eligible Institutions	Higher education institutions, training and research hospitals, public institutions and organizations (including public research centers, metropolitan/city municipalities), SMEs and large companies established in Türkiye are eligible to be supported. Applications are NOT accepted from foundations; associations and their economic enterprises; cooperatives; unions; sole proprietorships and unincorporated associations. For further details please visit the national call text.
Eligible Applicants	For details please visit the national call text
Eligible Costs	Personnel Expenses (For Private Sector only) • Scholarship expenses (For universities and public sector only) • Travel Expenses • Tools and Equipment Expenses. • Consumable Expenses. • Consultancy and Service Procurement Expenses (from international project partners are not supported). • Project Incentive Premium (PIP) and overhead (For universities and public sector only)
Additional eligibility criteria	The national call text needs to be followed.
Relevant documents	https://www.tubitak.gov.tr/sites/default/files/yonetmelik_iii_2_0.pdf https://tubitak.gov.tr/sites/default/files/41_YK_Islenm%C4%B1s_Hali_ARDEB_Idari_Mali_Esaslar.pdf https://www.tubitak.gov.tr/sites/default/files/242bk-ek2_0.pdf
Additional Information
Useful Links	https://www.tubitak.gov.tr/en

2.0 SUMMARY

The following tables are presented to give some guidance to the applicants when considering the consortium building process and to make it easier to read the specific PFOs rules. An empty cell means that no specific rules apply to that criterion. This symbol X means that you must check the corresponding national/regional regulations available on the 2024 Joint Transnational Call website and/or on the PFO’s website.

Country	Participating Funding Organisation Acronym (PFO)	National/Regional Contact Point (NCP)	NOT Funding All Priority Areas	Limits on Requested Budget per proposal *	NOT all types of partners are eligible for funding	Different rules apply to different types of institutions	Partners need to submit documentation to their PFO
Belgium	BELSPO	Koen Lefever koen.lefever@belspo.be +32 2 238 35 51 David Cox david.cox@belspo.be +32 2 238 34 03	FUNDING: Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub- sea-basin scale Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level NOT FUNDING: Blue Bioresources	Maximum 275.000 € per Partner	Eligible: The whole Belgian scientific community: universities, colleges of higher education, public scientific institutions, and non-profit research centres. European and foreign organisations established in Belgium are not eligible.		X
Belgium	F.R.S – FNRS	Florence Quist +32 2 504 9351 international@frs-fnrs.be		X 300.000 €	All eligibility rules and criteria can be found in the PINT-MULTI regulations	All eligibility rules and criteria can be found in the PINT-MULTI regulations	X
Belgium	FIO	Jozef Ghijselen jozef.ghijselen@vlaio.be +32 2 432 42 40 www.vlaio.be	no	Max. funding requested 1.000.000 € Min. funding requested 25.000 € (Experimental development) or 100.000 € (Industrial research)	Only industrial R&D project types (O&O) applicable (experimental development, industrial research) Only companies with sufficient economic activities in the region of Flanders, Belgium can apply. All other organisations (incl. research organisations) should be subcontracted to the companies.	no	X Flemish applicants are required to contact NCP before submission. Submission of core elements of project data to VLAIO required together with pre/full proposal (company data, economic impact for Flanders, budget details) to assess eligibility according to regional rules
Belgium	FWO	Toon Monbaliu (general) Kristien Peeters (SBO) Europe@fwo.be	/	X	X	X	X
Brazil	CONFAP	Elisa Natola Advisor for International Cooperation Phone: +55 61 996138850 Email: elisa.confap@gmail.com		X (indicative)	X	X
Cyprus	RIF	Anna Maria Christoforou amchristoforou@research.org.cy		€ 250,000		X	X
Denmark	IFD	Thorbjørn M Gilberg, thorbjoern.moth.gilberg@innofond.dk		The maximum amount per Danish partner in international projects is EUR 300,000. The maximum amount for all Danish partners, if the project has two or more Danish partners, is EUR 500,000.		X	X
Estonia	ETAG	Katrin Saar (Katrin.saar@etag.ee) +372 53335625		100.000 € if project partner 300.000 € if project coordinator		X	X
Estonia	KLIM	Irja Truumaa Irja.Truumaa@kliimaministeerium.ee	KLIM funds priority areas 1 and 2	100.000			X
Estonia	REM	Maarja Malm maarja.malm@agri.ee	REM funds priority areas 2 and 4	100.000			X
Faroe Islands
Finland	AKA Researh Council of Finland (formerly Academy of Finland)	Jaana Lehtimäki & Päivi Kolu jaana.lehtimaki@aka.fi & paivi.kolu@aka.fi	X	X	X	X	X
France	ANR	Coraline Chapperon sbep.call-secretariat@agencerecherche.fr		X	X	X
Germany	BMBF/PtJ	Stefanie Pietsch Christin Lambertz	X	X		X	X
Greece	GSRI	Sofia Dimitropoulou	–	X	X	X	X
Iceland	RANNIS
Ireland	Marine Institute (MI)	Veronica Cunningham veronica.cunningham@marine.ieor funding@marine.ie		X		X	X
Italy	Emilia-Romagna Region	Elisabetta Maini Elisabetta.Maini@regione.emilia-romagna.it		X	x	X	X
Italy	MUR	aldo.covello@mur.gov.it yasmine.iollo@est.mur.gov.it francesca.cantarella@est.mur.gov.it	–	X	X	–	X
Latvia	LCS (The Latvian Council of Science)	Aiga Salmiņa aiga.salmina@lzp.gov.lv Lasma Brenča Lasma.brenca@lzp.gov.lv		X	X	X	X
Lithuania	LMT Lietuvos Mokslo Taryba	Viktoras Mongirdas International Cooperation Unit viktoras.mongirdas@lmt.lt		X	X
Malta	Malta Council for Science and Technology	Martina Vella	N/A	N/A	X	X	X
Norway
Poland	NCBR	Monika Włoszek		X	X	X	X
	Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju	International Cooperation Department – Programme Section monika.wloszek@ncbr.gov.pl
Portugal	CCDRC	Sophie Patrício Carlos Silveira ccdrc.projects@ccdrc.pt		Maximum 250.000 EUR per Consortium with regional coordination ----- Maximum 150.000 EUR per consortium with regional participation • Budget must be shared by all regional partners participating in a consortium and requesting funding to CCDRC. • If two or three Portuguese applicants from the same international consortium apply for funding from FCT and CCDRC, the total budget to be requested to these two agencies cannot exceed the cumulative sum per consortium of 150.000 EUR (Portuguese Project Applicant) or 250.000 EUR (Portuguese Main Applicant). This rule does not apply to institutions from Região Autónoma dos Açores applying for funding to FRCT Azores and participating in a consortium with institutions applying for funding from FCT and/or CCDRC.	Large companies will not be considered eligible in the context of this call	– Non-entrepreneurial entities from the regional Research and Innovation System: maximum funding rate – 85% – SMEs: micro and small enterprises – maximum funding rate 80% \| medium enterprises – maximum funding rate 75% – Other organisations: maximum funding rate – 85%; can participate only if partnering up with one (or more) regional institutions from the typologies listed above	When applying to the transnational call, all regional stakeholders must fill in and sign a Commitment Declaration
Portugal	FCT	Marta Norton Marta.Norton@fct.pt	n/a	Maximum 250.000 EUR per Consortium with PT coordination ----- Maximum 150.000 EUR per consortium with PT participation Notes: If more than one Portuguese applicant participating in the same international consortium applies for funding by FCT, the combined funding demanded by all the Portuguese applicants may not exceed the maximum financial threshold for proposals with a Portuguese Main Applicant (250.000 EUR) or with a Portuguese Project Applicant (150.000 EUR). Portuguese Main Applicants and/or Project Applicants in the same international consortium will therefore have to share the funding that will be granted by FCT. If two or three Portuguese applicants from the same international consortium apply for funding from FCT and CCDRC, the total budget to be requested to these two agencies cannot exceed the cumulative sum per consortium of 150.000 EUR (Portuguese Project Applicant) or 250.000 EUR (Portuguese Main Applicant). This rule does not apply to institutions from Região Autónoma dos Açores applying for funding to FRCT Azores and participating in a consortium with institutions applying for funding from FCT and/or CCDRC.	For information on the type of beneficiaries eligible for FCT funding under this call, see Article 3 of FCT Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds, as amended by the Regulation no. 5/2024, of 3 January, hereinafter referred to as FCT Regulation, which amends and republishes Regulation no. 999/2016, of 31 October).	For information on funding rate to SMEs, see no. 2, Article 7 of FCT Regulation .	YES - Participants need to submit a Statement of Commitment . X
Portugal	FRCT	Renato Pires Project Manager Phone: +351 296 241 886 Email: renato.hm.pires@azores.gov.pt Carolina Torres Project Manager Phone: +351 296 241 870 Email: carolina.s.torres@azores.gov.pt	X	X (indicative)	X	X	X
Romania	MCID Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization	Domnica Cotet domnica.cotet@uefiscdi.ro +40-213023880
Slovenia	MVZI	Marta Šabec		300.000 €	X	X	X
Spain	AEI Agencia Estatal de Investigación	Abraham Trujillo Quintela oceans@aei.gob.es	(TBC)	X	X
Spain	CDTI, E.P.E.	Héctor González partenariadoshe@cdti.es	X	X	X		X
Sweden	FORMAS	osman.tikansak@formas.se	–	Maximum funding from FORMAS is 300.000 € perproposal, or a maximum of 500.000 € per proposal if the Swedish applicant is also the project coordinator (regardless of how many Swedish partners participate in the project).	FORMAS Grants for research projects can only be administered by a Swedish legal entity that fulfils the grant administrating organization eligibility requirements of FORMAS, see: How it work – Formas	Universities, research institutes, private companies, private and public organisations that engage in economic activity, public authorities, and NGOs. The applicant must be a Swedish legal entity. Specifications: Economic activity is generally defined as any activity consisting in offering goods or services on a given market. If an organisation falls in the economic activity category, then state aid rules apply. Moreinformation onstate aid rules.	Swedish applicants who have submitted a pre-proposal to the Sustainable Blue Economy Patnership (the international submisison platform), will be contacted by FORMAS for further information on how to register their full proposals with FORMAS (Prisma), only if they are invited to submit a full- proposal at the second stage. Reports are to be submitted according to the regulations of the Sustainable Blue Economy Patnership and FORMAS.
Sweden	SNSA
The Netherlands	NWO, IenW, LNV	Daan Blok (d.blok@nwo.nl) Peter Spierenburg (p.spierenburg@nwo.nl)	All priority areas are funded	€ 400.000	See National Annex NL	See National Annex NL	Yes, NWO budget form (www.nwo.nl/sbep)
Tunisia	MHESR	Ms. Hayet Souai Ms. Saida Rafrafi	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Türkiye	TÜBİTAK	Çağla AKAT KÖSE sbep@tubitak.gov.tr +90 312 298 1783		X	X	X	X

ANNEX C – LIST OF BENEFICIARIES OF SBEP ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PROJECTS

Country	Organisation Acronym	Full organisation Name
Belgium	VLIZ	Vlaams Instituut Voor De Zee
Belgium	RBINS	Institut Royal Des Sciences Naturelles De Belgique
Bulgaria	BFU	Burgaski Svoboden Universitet
Ireland	MI	Marine Institute
Italy	CNR	Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Italy	INGV	Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
Italy	IIM	Istituto Idrografico della Marina
Italy	OGS	Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale
Italy	SZN	Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Portugal	AIR Centre	Associação para o Desenvolvimento do Atlantic International Research Centre
Spain	PLOCAN	Consorcio para el diseño, construcción, equipamiento y explotación de la Plataforma Oceánica de Canarias
Spain	SOCIB	Consorcio para la construccion, equipamiento y explotacion del Sistema de Observacion Costero de las Illes Balears
Türkiye	TÜBİTAK	Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership consortium beneficiaries or specific research teams of a beneficiary where applicable, that might apply to the co-funded calls have been completely excluded from the work of call preparation and will be completely excluded from the work of selection and monitoring. In particular, for MI and TÜBITAK, individuals contributing to the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership activities, belonging to departments completely separate from research performers, will not be involved in any applications to the co-funded calls nor give any advantage to the research performers of the same institution

ANNEX: LIST OF PARTICIPATING FUNDING ORGANISATIONS – BUDGET AND FUNDED PRIORITY AREAS (PROVISIONAL)

LIST OF PARTICIPATING FUNDING ORGANISATIONS (PFOS) – BUDGET AND FUNDED PRIORITY AREAS
		Funded Priority areas
Country	PFOs Acronym	Digital Twins of the Oceans at regional sub basin scale	Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructures	Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level	Blue Bioresources	Indicative budget in euro (provisional)
Belgium	BELSPO	×	×	×		500.000
Belgium	F.R.S. – FNRS	×	×	×	×	300.000
Belgium	FIO/VLAIO	×	×	×	×	1.000.000
Belgium	FWO	×	×	×	×	700.000
Brazil1	CONFAP	×	×	×	×	1.250.000 (TBC)
Cyprus	RIF	×	×	×	×	1.300.000
Denmark	IFD	×	×	×	×	1.300.000
Estonia	ETAG	×	×	×	×	300.000
Estonia	KLIM	×	×			100.000
Estonia	REM		×		×	100.000
Faroe Islands	RCFI	×	×	×	×	135.000
Finland	AKA	×		×		850.000
France	ANR	×	×	×	×	2.000.000
Germany	BMBF/ PtJ	×	×	×		1.500.000
Greece	GSRI	×	×	×	×	1.000.000
Iceland	RANNIS	×	×		×	600.000
Ireland	MI	×	×	×	×	1.000.000
Italy	RER	×		×	×	300.000
Italy	MUR	×	×	×	×	3.500.000
Latvia	LCS	×	×	×	×	600.000
Lithuania	LMT	×	×	×	×	420.000
Malta	MCST	×	×	×	×	500.000
Norway	RCN	×		×	×	2.200.000
Poland	NCBR	×	×	×	×	1.000.000
Portugal	CCDRC	×	×	×	×	400.000
Portugal	FCT	×	×	×	×	500.000
Portugal	FRCT	×		×	×	100.000
Romania	MCID	×	×	×	×	1.000.000
Slovenia	MVZI	×	×	×	×	900.000
Spain	AEI	×	×	×	×	1.200.000
Spain	CDTI	×	×		×	400.000
Sweden	FORMAS	×	×	×	×	2.000.000
Sweden	SNSA	Information to come				TBC
The Netherlands	LNV, lenW, NWO	×	×	×	×	2.000.000
Tunisia	MHESR	×	×	×	×	400.000
Türkiye	TÜBİTAK	×	×	×	×	400.000

X Noot

The Brazilian State Funding Agencies supporting the call is detailed in the Annex B (funding regulations) of the Call Announcement

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⁴

https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe/eu-missions-horizon-europe/restore-our-ocean-and-waters_en

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⁵

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1583933814386&uri=COM:2020:98:FIN

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⁶

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2021%3A240%3AFIN

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⁷

Paiva, J. (2021) Maritime domains and Europe’s ambitions: storm on the horizon? The view from Lisbon. https://blog.sciencespogrenoble.fr/index.php/2021/10/27/maritime-domains-and-europe-s-ambitions-storm-on-the-horizon-the-view-from-lisbon/

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⁸

European Commission (2023). The EU Blue Economy Report. 2023. Publications Office of the European Union. Luxembourg.

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⁹

https://oceandecade.org/assets/uploads/documents/Towards-a-More-Resilient-and-Sustainable-Blue-Economy-sept20-1598949409.pdf

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¹⁰

Costello, C., L. Cao, S. Gelcich et al. 2019 The Future of Food from the Sea. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute.

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¹¹

Hudson, A. (2017) Restoring and Protecting the world's large marine ecosystems: An engine for job creation and sustainable economic development. Environmental Development 22: 150–155 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2016.10.003

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¹²

Stuchtey, M., A. Vincent, A. Merkl, M. Bucher et al. 2020. “Ocean Solutions That Benefit People, Nature and the Economy.” Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. www.oceanpanel.org/ocean-solutions.

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¹³

‘The Partnership Intervention Areas for activities in 2024’ www.bluepartnership.eu/news/partnership-intervention-areas-activities-2024.

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¹⁴

A quadruple-helix collaboration (‘QHC’) is a form of collaboration in research and development between the four major sectors of society: industry, government, research institutes, and the public. For more information, please consult the report entitled ‘Quadruple Helix Collaborations in Practice: Stakeholder Interaction, Responsibility and Governance’ from RICONFIGURE (https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5e4d98f00&appId=PPGMS)

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¹⁵

The EU Taxonomy Regulation adopted in June 2020 is a tool that will help investors, industry and researchers to navigate the transition to a sustainable economy by providing a science-based classification system to determine whether an economic activity is environmentally sustainable. https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-research-and-innovation-news/research-and-innovation-heart-eu-taxonomy-2021-04-21_en and https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2021-04/ec_rtd_research-innovation-eu-taxonomy.pdf

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¹⁶

EMODnet Ingestion (emodnet-ingestion.eu)

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¹⁷

https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/GEPs_in_HE_guidelines.pdf

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¹⁸

9-digit number serving as a unique identifier for organisations (legal entities) participating in EU funding programmes/procurements. If needed, one can apply for a temporary PIC at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/how-to-participate/participant-register. A search tool for organisations and their PICs is available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/how-to-participate/participant-register-search. We suggest validating the PICs via the public available Partner Search – Organisation Profile service. This allows to fill out some requested data inputs automatically, which is less error-prone and provides a much better user experience. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/support/apis