Building a sustainable and innovative Blue Economy: mastering digital opportunities and fostering resilience

Identifier: HORIZON-CL6-2022-GOVERNANCE-01-02 Status: Open Submission procedure: multiple cut-off Opening date: 2026-09-14 Deadline: 2026-11-16 Budget: €37,723,260 Scope The 2026 Joint Transnational Co-funded Call is the fourth under the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership. It mobilises funding from 33 organisations across 28 countries plus EU contributions, aiming to foster a climate-neutral, sustainable, and innovative blue economy in Europe by supporting research, innovation, and collaboration across marine and maritime sectors. The call contributes to the European Green Deal, Digital Europe, the Ocean Pact, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Marine Spatial Planning Directive, the 2030 Climate Target Plan and the Zero Pollution vision for 2050, as well as the EU Strategies on Coastal Communities and Islands, and the UN Decade of Ocean Science. Proposals must address one main priority area and foster cross-basin collaboration to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of the EU Blue Economy. Priorities Areas The fourth Joint Co-funded Call encompasses all the five Partnership Intervention Areas converted for this call into four priority areas as follows: Priority area 1: Transitioning the blue economy sectors for sustainability and strategic autonomy Priority area 2: Managing sea-uses by advancing digital and ecosystem-based approaches Priority area 3: Promoting sustainable blue bioresources through innovation in production and harvesting Priority area 4: Building resilience in coastal communities with infrastructure and businesses Each of these areas contributes directly to one or more of the Ocean Decade Challenges, supporting actionable knowledge generation, policy uptake, capacity development, and inclusive innovation in the blue economy context. Geographical coverage The proposals are strongly recommended to consider a minimum of two EU sea basins which are: the Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea, and to assess the project proposal’s impact and potential replication/scalability on various sea basins. Proposals can target European regional seas such as Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, the Arctic, Barents Sea, Celtic Sea, etc. but they must be from a minimum of 2 different EU Sea basins. FOR MORE INFORMATION: The call is published on the Partnership website at https://www.bluepartnership.eu/funding-opportunity/sustainable-blue-economy-partnerships-fourth-joint-transnational-call. Interested applicants must carefully read the relevant national regulations in Annex with the Call text. Each applicant to the call must ensure that its contribution to the overall project conforms to these regulations.