Third joint transnational co-financed call of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP): Digitalisation and Innovation for Resilient Marine Ecosystems, Businesses, and Communities to Strengthen the EU Blue Economy Competitiveness

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is launching its third joint transnational call entitled “Digitalisation and Innovation for Resilient Marine Ecosystems, Businesses, and Communities to Strengthen the EU Blue Economy Competitiveness”. The Partnership pledges to boost green and digital transitions of economic activities related to the regional sea basins bordering the EU, namely the Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea, the Black sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the North Sea.

Composed of over 30 countries, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is a Research and Innovation Partnership started in 2022 under the Horizon Europe Programme, and is part of the Cluster 6 (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment). The vision of the Partnership is to design, steer and support a just and inclusive transition to a regenerative, resilient, and sustainable blue economy. It aims to boost the transformation needed towards a climate-neutral, sustainable, productive, and competitive blue economy by 2030 while creating and supporting the conditions for a sustainable ocean for the people by 2050.

The 2025 joint transnational call is the third Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) call, bringing together financial resources at both national and regional levels, facilitated by 38 Participating Funding Organisations (PFOs) from 28 countries, with combined contribution from the European Union.

The Call is entitled “Digitalisation and Innovation for Resilient Marine Ecosystems, Businesses, and Communities to Strengthen the EU Blue Economy Competitiveness” and encompasses five priority areas as follows:

• Priority area 1: Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs) at sub-basin scale
• Priority area 2: Transitioning the blue economy sectors, and the development of marine multi-use infrastructures
• Priority area 3: Climate-Smart Planning and managing sea-uses at the regional level
• Priority area 4: Blue Bioresources; sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, and new bio-based products
• Priority area 5: Resilient Coastal Communities and Businesses

Pre-proposals and full proposals submitted under this Call must address one of the Priority Areas mentioned above.

A total of approximately 30 million euros has been allocated to the Call by the participating funding organisations combined with the contributions from the European Union. The following countries will participate financially in the Call: Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine and Slovakia.

This R&I call is co-branded as part of the United Nations 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.

Applicants are invited to look at the documents listed below and consult the call announcement as well as its annexes including the national/regional regulations on the SBEP website.