The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) is a Horizon Europe co-funded partnership, comprising a network of 60 Partner institutions from 25 countries and the European Commission. It will enable the pooling of research and innovation investments and alignment of national programmes at pan-European scale. This will support a just and inclusive transition to a resilient and sustainable blue economy. The ambition is to launch six co-funded calls over a seven-year time frame. SBEP will also look to identify additional mechanisms to support the R&I programmes, particularly by leveraging other funding and finance streams. In parallel to this, a long-term ambition is to support a community of practice, fostering co-creation and taking into consideration the sea-basin (Mediterranean, Black Sea, Baltic and North Sea) and Atlantic Ocean dimension.

Currently in Ireland the only partner involved in SBEP is the Marine Institute (MI). The MI co-leads Work Package 5 (led by JPI Oceans) on Communication, Outreach and Ocean Literacy. 

First Call

- The first Joint transnational call of the SBEP entitled ‘The way forward: a thriving sustainable blue economy for a brighter future’ was launched in Q1 2023, with a deadline for pre-proposals of April 14th.

- 36 organisations from 23 countries provided financial resources to this call

- The total budget is ~€50 million

Five priority areas were identified:

     1.     Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level.

     2.     Development of offshore marine multi-use infrastructures to support the blue economy.

     3.     Climate-neutral, environmentally sustainable, and resource-efficient blue food and feed.

     4.     Green transition of Blue Food production.

     5.     Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs) test use cases at EU sea-basin scale and the Atlantic                        Ocean.

The Marine Institute budget is €1 million, supporting topics 1, 3, 4 & 5 above. The full proposal deadline is 13 September - these will be invited from successful pre-proposals.

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