Call 03 - single stage (2026)

This destination will support the EU Commission priorities ‘Sustaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature’ and ‘A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness’, which require innovative and agile governance models and tools to support transformative change within planetary boundaries.

R&I supporting decision-making is a key enabler for the Vision for Agriculture and Food that aims to secure the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of the EU's farming and food systems within the boundaries of our planet, as well as to meet the objectives set out in the Common Agricultural Policy.

Besides, the R&I supporting the bioeconomy, with a focus on bio-based solutions and the role of biotechnology, needs to be further strengthened, in line with the new EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the Communication on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing and the Life Sciences Strategy.

There is also a need to unlock the potential of applied digital and data technologies to support sectors covered by this cluster in becoming more competitive, sustainable, resilient and inclusive in line with the evolving EU policies on cyber, data and data technologies and digital services, notably the European Data Strategy, the Europe’s Digital Decade Policy Programme, the AI Continent Action Plan and the upcoming EU digital strategy for agriculture. This destination will contribute to the development, support and take up of digital and data-based solutions to implement the European Green Deal, while fostering innovation and supporting start-ups, thereby supporting the EU Competitiveness Compass.

The destination supports the European Ocean Pact, aiming at bringing coherence across all EU policy areas linked to the ocean, supporting a resilient and healthy ocean and coastal areas and promoting the sustainable blue economy. In particular, land-sea connection areas are crucial for addressing the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, coastal erosion, extreme events, and hydrological crises. When relevant, actions are encouraged to align with the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’, leveraging its digital infrastructures (such as the Digital Twin Ocean), stakeholder networks, and knowledge systems to enhance governance, environmental observation, and policy-support tools across terrestrial and aquatic systems.

This destination implements research actions to address water challenges in the EU and support the European Water Resilience Strategy by advancing the capacity for proper management of water sources.

In line with the global approach on R&I, this destination will foster and support regional and international initiatives, encourage international cooperation, contribute substantially to the implementation of key international treaties and to the work of various international bodies, assessments and other initiatives, and help achieve international commitments, notably under the Paris Agreement, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement.

Knowledge and advice are key to improving competitiveness, sustainability and resilience. R&I actions under this destination will support effective Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) that are at the heart of the 2023-2027 CAP’s cross-cutting objective as a key mean to bridge the gap between science and practice. Synergies with the EU-CAP Network, and particularly the EIP-AGRI Operational Groups supported by the CAP, will be further exploited.

The European Research Area is further integrated, and the global efforts are well-coordinated for impact-oriented science on food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture-forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, and environment.

The Destination supports unlocking the unique assets for research and innovation of the EU outermost regions, in line with the EU strategy for outermost regions^[1].

Expected Impact: Proposals for topics under this destination should set out credible pathways to "developing innovative governance models and tools enabling sustainability and resilience", and more specifically to one or several of the following expected impacts:

• improved evidence-based knowledge, tools and science-society-policy interfaces support effective policy mixes and multi-level governance that are capable of anticipating a changing world, enabling a just sustainable transition for all, engaging society at large and balancing economic, social and environmental goals;
• competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the economy are supported by more accessible and interoperable environmental observations and improved Earth Intelligence;
• productivity is boosted and transformative changes required by the European Green Deal are facilitated, leaving no one behind, thanks to enhanced digital and data technologies, flows of existing and new knowledge, solutions and skills among actors and communities, as well as maximised synergies between initiatives.

[1] COM(2022) Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions.

Expected Outcome:

This topic is for the continuation of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP), i.e. EU contribution in WP 2026. The third instalment of the partnership is expected to contribute to expected outcomes specified in topic HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-02 and HORIZON-CL6-2024-GOVERNANCE-01-1.

Scope:

The objective of this action is to continue to provide support to the European Partnership for a climate-neutral, sustainable and productive Blue Economy (SBEP) identified in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024 and first implemented under the topic HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-02: European Partnership for a climate neutral, sustainable and productive Blue Economy, and in particular to fund additional activities (which may also be undertaken by additional partners) in view of its intended scope and duration, and in accordance with Article 24(2) of the Horizon Europe Regulation.

Taking into account that the present action is a continuation of the existing topic and foresees an amendment to an existing grant agreement, the proposal should present additional activities (including additional partners) to be covered by the award primarily in terms of grant agreement revisions.

The consortium which applied to and received funding under HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-02 and HORIZON-CL6-2024-GOVERNANCE-01-1 is uniquely placed to submit a proposal to continue the envisioned partnership. Not only did this consortium submit the proposal leading to the identification of the partnership in the Horizon Europe strategic planning 2021-2024, it has also implemented the partnership through co-funded calls in year 2022 based on this planning and further to topic HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-02 and HORIZON-CL6-2024-GOVERNANCE-01-1. In this context, the current consortium has particular expertise in relation to the objectives of the Partnership, the activities to be implemented, in particular FSTP calls or other calls/scope of calls clearly required/envisioned pursuant to the initial proposal/partnership, and other relevant aspects of the action. In practice, another consortium could not continue the activities of the Partnership underway without significant disruption to the ongoing activities, if at all.

The scope of the application for this call on the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership should focus on the 2023-27 programmes according to the partnership’s co-created strategic research and innovation agenda for seven years. It should pursue alignment, cooperation and structuring of research and innovation efforts across the EU and national levels, focusing on regional seas and on the objectives of the EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters and of the European Ocean Pact, to support a just and inclusive transition to a regenerative, carbon-neutral and circular blue economy and to foster knowledge exchange and co-creation of actions with regulators, policymakers and businesses. It should also continue or expand the priority areas identified in the Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda, promoting R&I alignments across national, regional, and EU levels, and fostering integration across science, industry, governance, and society. The partnership will focus on multiple strategic areas like ocean health, sustainable blue economy, digital twins, and citizen well-being, while aligning with EU policies such as the European Green Deal and other directives. It should recognise the diversity of citizens to be involved and the vulnerability of different groups when approaching different analyses, and develop more inclusive recommendations. The Partnership should consolidate relevant structuring activities and propose additional ones (potentially done by additional partners) aiming at promoting Blue Economy Innovations, contributing to the development of the European Ocean Observing System (EOOS), for instance by facilitating and promoting coordination of cross-border ocean and coastal observations programmes, at increasing the availability of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable) data for environmental, climate and blue economy purposes, at exploiting the opportunities offered by Artificial Intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies, etc.

The partnership is expected to continue to organise joint calls as part of the additional activities and therefore it should factor in ample time to run the co-funded projects.

The partnership's additional activities are expected to be designed and described in such a way that it is clear how they will increase scientific contributions, applicable in a legal/regulatory context, and how they will facilitate the use of scientific knowledge by regulators and policymakers and support the development of a sustainable blue economy. The additional activities are expected to be implemented through the multi-actor approach and ensure adequate involvement of researchers from different disciplines, advisors, local, regional and national authorities, government representatives, industry and businesses, including SMEs, knowledge institutions and citizens, civil society organisations including NGOs, and other relevant actors of the value chain, supported through Open Science practices and an inclusive governance, policy and decision-making.

While the award of a grant to continue the Partnership in accordance with this call should be based on a proposal submitted by the coordinator of the consortium funded under HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-02: European Partnership for a climate neutral, sustainable and productive Blue Economy and the additional activities (which may include additional partners) to be funded by the grant should be subject to an evaluation, this evaluation should take into account the existing context and the scope of the initial evaluation as relevant, and related obligations enshrined in the grant agreement.

Taking into account that the present action is a continuation of topic HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-02 and HORIZON-CL6-2024-GOVERNANCE-01-1 and foresees an amendment to an existing grant agreement, the proposal should also present in a separate document the additional activities and additional partners, if any, to be covered by the award in terms of how they would be reflected in the grant agreement. The proposal should also describe the specific activities foreseen to strengthen the synergies with other related Missions and Partnerships.

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