Funding programme

Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation.

Read more about the Horizon Europe programme here.

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Call overview

This call aims at supporting the development of sustainable locally-led initiatives for regenerative ocean farming, accelerating their uptake, anticipating and planning necessary future investments.

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Expected outcome

Projects are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Evidence-based business plans for the development of entrepreneurship and successful local community-driven regenerative ocean farming initiatives;
• Job creation and new skills development;
• Provision of new ecosystem services from marine and coastal ecosystems;
• Preserved local marine and costal ecosystems, biodiversity and genetic diversity;
• Increased resilience of coastal and marine areas to climate change and generation of positive climate change mitigation effects;
• Improved marine and coastal habitats, biodiversity and enhanced conservation capacity;
• Increased knowledge on impact of regenerative ocean farming on local marine and coastal environment conditions.

Scope

This topic aims at supporting the development of sustainable locally-led initiatives for regenerative ocean farming, accelerating their uptake, anticipating and planning necessary future investments. Activities will focus on assessing the technical and operational feasibility as well as the economic viability of site-specific community-driven regenerative ocean farming initiatives.

The “community-driven” approach under this topic puts strong emphasis on skills and capacity of coastal communities and relevant actors to manage the natural resources they depend upon in a sustainable way, as well as on the establishment of partnerships and cooperation to build local expertise and enhance knowledge that will support the community. This, in turn, will contribute to preserve and protect marine and coastal habitats, build climate change resilience, develop livelihood opportunities and stimulate investments.

Read more in the Work Programme - Missions, page 195.

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Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:

• the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
• the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
• eligible non-EU countries including countries associated to Horizon Europe and low- and middle-income countries.

Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations 1) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.

A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such undernational law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.

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Consortium composition

Unless otherwise provided for in the specific call conditions, legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes:

• at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
• at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.

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Budget

EUR 3,000,000.