Addressing aquatic pollution and biodiversity loss through nature positive solutions from source to sea
Supporting the implementation of the Restore our Ocean and Waters Mission · HORIZON-IA · Needs partners
What this call funds
This call funds large demonstration projects that use nature-based solutions to reduce pollution (nutrients, chemicals, plastics, microplastics) and restore biodiversity across connected freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems. Projects must test and scale up these solutions in real sites, engage public authorities and stakeholders, and monitor results to show measurable progress toward EU ocean and water restoration goals. Funding is expected to support four grants, one for each major European sea/river basin.
biodiversity · water management · ocean marine · pollution control · environmental monitoring · climate adaptation
Who wins this
A multi-partner consortium including public authorities, research organisations and socio-economic stakeholders that can run large-scale nature-based pollution and biodiversity demonstration projects in a specific European sea or river basin.
Could you win this call?
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The call in detail
- Indicative grant size
- €7M–€7.8M
- Funding model
- Budget-based — reimbursement of actual eligible costs
- Submission
- Single-stage submission (full proposal at once)
- Type of action
- HORIZON Innovation Actions
- Partners
- Required. The call asks for a consortium — a group applying together, typically 3+ organisations from 3+ countries.
- Eligible applicants
- public body, research organisation, non-profit, business/socio-economic actor
- Support to third parties
- Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties, limited to local/regional public authorities not already involved as beneficiaries, located in Member States/Associated Countries, up to EUR 100,000 per third party, usable only once per recipient during the project.
- Also required
- Each proposal must address exactly one of four Mission basins (Atlantic/Arctic, Mediterranean, Baltic/North Sea, or Danube/Black Sea), include demonstration activities in at least 4 sites, and engage at least 4 'associated regions'; grants will be awarded to ensure at least one winner per basin.
- Eligible countries (45)
- Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, IL, TR, UA, RS, MK, ME, AL, BA, XK, GE, AM, MD, TN, NZ
Read the full conditions from the official call ›
General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible Countries described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. 3. Other Eligible Conditions If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds To ensure a balanced portfolio covering the 4 different Mission basins[[For the purposes of Mission Ocean and waters, Member States/Associated Countries, are considered to be part of a given sea/river basin if they have a coast/riverbank on the relevant sea/river or contain river basins flowing into the relevant sea]] (1. Atlantic and Arctic sea basin, 2. Mediterranean Sea basin, 3. Baltic and North Sea basin, 4. Danube River basin, including Black Sea), grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to one proposal that is the highest ranked within each sea basin, provided that the applications attain all thresholds. are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. The support to Third Parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The Financial Support to Third Parties may only be awarded to local and/or regional authorities (established as public bodies by public law and governed by public law), which are not already involved in as beneficiaries in a demonstration site of the same project and which are located in Member States/Associated Countries. The maximum amount to be granted to each Third Party is EUR 100,000, aiming at showcasing the effectiveness of solutions demonstrated by a project and develop a replication plan for their uptake in an ‘associated region’[[Regional or local authorities established as public bodies by national law and governed by public law.]]. A recipient may only benefit from this Financial Support to Third Parties once within the entire duration of the project. Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional obligations regarding open science practices: if projects collect in-situ data and marine observation, beneficiaries must make them openly available through the European Marine Observation and Data network (EMODnet), based on the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions described in the topic conditions
Who has won calls like this
Organisations that most often win this call family · 92 past winners