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Call key data
Maritime regional cooperation fostering Smart Specialisation and Innovation in the Sustainable Blue Economy (Topic 1)
Funding Program
European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund
Call number
EMFAF-2025-PIA-FLAGSHIP-I3
deadlines
Opening
26.09.2024
Deadline
18.02.2025 17:00
Deadline - 2nd stage
Opening
15.10.2024
Funding rate
70%
Call budget
€ 3,800,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
between € 1,500,000.00 and € 2,500,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
The objective of this call topic is to animate and underpin the S3 Thematic Platform for Sustainable Blue Economy with strategic interregional partnerships that develop and implement highly innovative solutions addressing priorities in the EU sustainable blue economy (i.e. decarbonisation of the blue economy sectors, energy transition, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, circular blue economy, new forms of aquaculture including algae, coastal resilience and marine litter prevention, sustainable food systems, and green coastal and maritime tourism).
Call objectives
This topic will focus on:
- Boosting existing interregional partnerships that work on the identification of innovative blue economy solutions and investment with business potential.
- Promoting the creation of interregional partnerships by building on existing smart specialisation strategies and shared blue economy priorities of European regions.
- Addressing thematic priorities (within the five blue economy sectors mentioned under section 1 and listed below under ‘Activities that can be funded’) supporting a sea basin or cross-sea basin approach, including the sea basin-scale cooperation of the Mission Ocean lighthouses.
Expected effects and impacts
Applicants will describe in their proposals the concrete and measurable results within the duration of the project and their expected impact, including indicators for the monitoring and measurement of progress and impact.
The project activities should result in:
- Innovative technologies tested and adopted by the maritime industry and public administrations.
- Innovative solutions deployed improving businesses’ confidence, competences and means to digitalise and grow the EU sustainable blue economy ecosystem.
- The uptake of technologically/economically reliable and viable solutions on the market.
- The deployment of new green and digital technologies fostering the growth of Europe’s blue economy sectors.
- Identification of possible sources of funding and financing to cover the residual investment needs (public-private partnerships for the deployment of innovation, collaboration with venture capital investors, the BlueInvest platform and EIB group, etc).
- Reinforcing the capacity of regions to co-invest together, joining forces on common S3 investment priorities (interregional investments).
- Identifying new interregional business and investment opportunities and value chains, services, technologies and applications in highly innovative, high potential blue economy sub-sectors or sub-domains.
- Promoting and disseminating the benefits and added value of the deployment of the sustainable technologies and innovation at the local level, involving also the youth and civil society.
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Expected results
Projects selected under this call for proposals will be implemented through an investment portfolio approach, which identifies several investment-ready sub-projects that address one or several bottlenecks in a value chain identified in the application, within a specific thematic/technological area of cooperation in one or more of the following five blue economy sectors: fisheries, aquaculture, marine renewable energy, blue biotechnology, coastal and maritime tourism.
These sub-projects are necessary to accelerate the uptake of innovation, thus increasing the competitiveness of EU value chains in the blue economy. The project application must clearly describe the progress from innovation towards commercialisation and upscaling that is expected as a result of the project and its investment portfolio.
The project application must also provide an outline of an exploitation plan that sets out the expected way forward following the completion of the project, especially if the new products/processes or services are not yet ready for the market.
Projects should carry out as many as possible of the following activities. The list is non-exhaustive, and proposals may include other relevant activities that meet the themes and priorities of the call topic:
- Activities to support plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes, or services such as demonstrating, testing and piloting activities by companies, large-scale product validation and market replication.
- Adaptation of existing prototypes and tailoring them to the companies’ needs for the demonstration in a real environment.
- Development of portfolios of projects for close-to-market investments that deploy new or improved technologies or processes.
- Activities directly aiming at producing plans with a concrete timetable, arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. This can include testing, demonstration, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication.
- Activities connecting or making complementary use of testing and demonstration facilities to accelerate market uptake and scale-up of innovative solutions in shared smart specialisation areas.
- Innovation services for interconnecting value chains.
- Test beds and complementary activities needed to improve regulations, standards and/or to remove barriers and bottlenecks to innovation.
- Activities bringing innovative ideas and new products to the market.
- Advisory support for investment: developing or implementing interregional business and “go to market” investment plans in specific value chains.
- Organising and participating in workshops, matchmaking or networking events with other projects and initiatives at EU level and the S3 thematic partnerships established under the S3 Sustainable Blue Economy Platform.
- Activities to support the interregional partnerships in terms of mentoring, coaching, training, investment readiness support, or other advisory and financial planning support.
Projects must involve at least two private sector business partners active in the chosen blue economy sector and should be aligned with and build on the priorities of existing Sea Basin strategies, the Smart Specialisation strategies of the regions in the consortium, other relevant instruments and initiatives at EU level (e.g., EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 and its sea basin-level lighthouses, BlueInvest, ERDF, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, the Energy Transition Partnership for the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors, the strategic guidelines for a more sustainable and competitive EU aquaculture, the EU Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy, the EU Algae Initiative, etc.) as well as at national and regional level.
Projects are encouraged to organise cluster meetings with projects funded under the remit of the Mission Ocean & Waters as well as under other EU programmes and instruments to enhance synergies. Moreover, the organisation of matchmaking activities with local authorities is welcome to promote the alignment of regional funds and synergies across sectors.
Applicants may propose other activities they deem necessary to achieve the objectives of this call, where relevant and justified.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Georgia (საქართველო), Morocco (المغرب), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна)
eligible entities
Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
Proposals must be submitted by a consortium, which complies with the following conditions:
- Minimum four participants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from two different EU Member States.
- Minimum one regional administration, minimum two private sector entities active in commercial blue economy sectors and minimum one partner from research/academia.
- The coordinator must be established in an EU Member State.
Applicants are encouraged to ensure coverage of the quadruple helix by including a balance of partners from public, private, academia/research and civil society, including maritime clusters, and notably when focusing on the establishment of an interregional partnership.
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
- non-EU countries that are part of the EU sea basin strategies targeted in this call for proposals: Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey; Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya.
Specific cases:
Exceptional funding — Entities from countries mentioned in the work programme (if any) are only exceptionally eligible, if the granting authority considers their participation essential for the implementation of the action.
Natural persons — Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).
International organisations — International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.
Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.
EU bodies — EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.
Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. Please note that if the action will be implemented by the members, they should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible).
other eligibility criteria
Financial support to third parties is not allowed.
Geographic location (target countries):
Proposals for Topic 1 must relate to activities concerning one of the following sea basins/areas: Black Sea, the Atlantic and the Western Mediterranean Sea basins as well as the EU Outermost regions marine areas.
Proposals can focus on a part/sub-region of these sea basins/areas or have a cross-sea basin perspective.
Activities should normally relate to the EU waters, but may extend into neighbouring waters, if this is necessary for the implementation of the projects (in view of their nature and their objectives).
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
project duration
between 24 and 36 months
Additional Information
Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section. Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals (including annexes and supporting documents) must be submitted using the forms provided inside the Submission System ( NOT the documents available on the Topic page — they are only for information).
Proposals must be complete and contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents:
- Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the participants (future coordinator, beneficiaries and affiliated entities) and the summarised budget for the project (to be filled in directly online)
- Application Form Part B — contains the technical description of the project (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded)
- mandatory annexes and supporting documents (to be uploaded):
- detailed budget table: not applicable
- CVs of core project team: not applicable
- activity reports of last year: not applicable
- list of previous projects: applicable
Proposals are limited to maximum 60 pages (Part B). Evaluators will not consider any additional pages.
Call documents
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