News & Events

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is launching a new video series, Blue Economy Capsules, to make ocean-economy concepts accessible to a wider audience.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership met in Bucharest from 10 to 12 February for a series of meetings centred around its second Symposium, “Full Sail Ahead Towards the Sustainable Blue Economy”. Taking place two years after the first edition in Brussels and two years before the next one in 2028, the event marked a midpoint in the Partnership’s journey.

A new deliverable published by the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership explores how EU, national, and regional funding sources can be combined to support marine and maritime research. Drawing on experiences from Member States and regional actors, the document focuses on the practical implementation of funding synergies, identifies common challenges, and outlines possible ways forward in the context of Horizon Europe and European Partnerships.

A new VLIZ report, commissioned by the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, maps out key opportunities and strategies to improve communication between marine scientists and policymakers.

In February 2025, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership launched its pilot Transnational Access Call to Research Infrastructures, inviting applications from research and innovation projects in the pan-European blue economy community.

Call launch: 29 September 2025, 15:00 CEST (Brussels Time)

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, a European partnership under the European Commission’s Research & Innovation Framework Programme Horizon Europe, is pleased to pre-announce its open call for experts to evaluate the pre-proposals submitted under the third joint transnational co-funded call. 

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is pleased to announce the launch of its third Joint Transnational Call, under the title “Digitalisation and Innovation for Resilient Marine Ecosystems, Businesses, and Communities to Strengthen the EU Blue Economy’s Competitiveness."

This co-funded call of the EU Partnership pools financial resources through the participation of 38 funding organisations from 28 countries and the European Union, with a total estimated budget of about EUR 43.5 million.

Call launch: 31 July 2025, 15:00 CEST 

Project submission of interest (new deadline): 12 November 2025, 15:00 CET

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, a European Partnership under the European Commission’s Research & Innovation Framework Programme Horizon Europe, is pleased to announce its first Thematic Portfolio Call for Interest. This call aims to connect ongoing projects to create and boost networking activities for a 2-year period, from early 2026 to early 2028.

On 11 June, during the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in Nice, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership gathered dozens of participants aboard the German Research Vessel METEOR for a high-level reception focused on international cooperation in ocean research and innovation and on spreading ocean knowledge.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership convened two high-level governance meetings in Paris last June, marking an important moment in its strategic trajectory.

Call launch (Provisional): 31 July 2025, 15:00 CEST 

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, a European partnership under the European Commission’s Research & Innovation Framework Programme Horizon Europe, is pleased to pre-announce its first Thematic Portfolio Call for Interest. This call aims to connect on-going projects to create and boost networking activities for a 2-year period, from early 2026 to early 2028.

Call launch (provisional): 15 September 2025, 15:00 CEST

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is pleased to pre-announce its third Joint Transnational Call. This third call is co-branded by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development as a means of stimulating new initiatives in co-designed and co-delivered knowledge and solutions for a sustainable ocean economy as part of the Ocean Decade Action Framework. The Partnership, composed of over 30 countries, pledges to leverage sustainable solutions to boost the green and digital transitions of economic activities related to the ocean, seas, and coasts. It aims to strengthen the European Union's Blue Economy through alignment of national, regional, and EU-level R&I priorities.

In May, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership attended the 2025 European Maritime Day (EMD) in Ireland, enriching the overall programme with two workshops on coastal community resilience and the role of ocean knowledge in supporting local coastal businesses.

On 29 April 2025, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership held its fourth and penultimate regional workshop in Sopot, Poland, during the BlueMissionBanos Arena 4. The ‘Blue Economy for the Baltic Sea’ workshop brought together partners, co-funded projects, researchers, civil society, representatives from regional organisations and the private sector to explore the specific challenges and opportunities facing the Baltic Sea basin.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership has announced the final list of 24 research and innovation projects recommended for funding under its second joint transnational call, “Unified Paths to a Climate-Neutral, Sustainable, and Resilient Blue Economy: Engaging Civil Society, Academia, Policy, and Industry”, launched in February 2024.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership has launched its first Transnational Access Call to Research Infrastructures (TA Call to RIs) on 28 February 2025, inviting applications from the pan-European blue economy community.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership will launch the first Call for Access to Research Infrastructures on ‘Piloting access to shared research infrastructures at pan-European scale and reinforce capacities to support the transformation of the blue economy’. 

It will enable applicants to submit a proposal for utilising the Research Infrastructures made available by providers partners of the Partnership from 7 different countries across all EU sea-basins and the Atlantic Ocean.

Synergies in the context of Horizon Europe and other funds are a way to amplify the impact of investments in research and innovation. One of the key objectives of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is to support Consortium members in maximising financial synergies and leveraging available funding streams in each member country. This enables countries to benefit from different financial resources in a synergetic manner, enabling the co-funding of research projects.

On 27 November 2024, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership hosted the ‘Blue Economy for the North Sea’ workshop in Amsterdam. This event was part of a broader series of regional workshops aimed at addressing the unique challenges and opportunities of the blue economy across the European sea basins. Organised in conjunction with the Blue Mission BANOS Arena 3 event, the workshop also explored synergies between the Partnership and the Mission Ocean.

On 17 October, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership hosted the ‘Blue Economy for a Sustainable Black Sea’ workshop in Sofia, Bulgaria. Stakeholders from across the Black Sea region came together to provide input to the Partnership about local needs, strengths, and priorities. The event took place back-to-back with the Mission Ocean event in Burgas and the BRIDGE-BS High-Tech Summit for the Black Sea, a research forum focused on ocean digitalisation and industry in the Black Sea region.  

On 25-26 September 2024, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership officially launched its first cohort of 19 funded projects during a vibrant two-day kick-off event held in Madrid. The gathering at the Agencia Estatal de Investigación in Spain brought together project coordinators, consortium partners, European Commission representatives, and other key stakeholders. The event marks the start of these projects’ 36-month journey toward fostering innovation, sustainability, and resilience in Europe’s blue economy. 

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership organised the workshop "The key towards Mediterranean regional Sustainability," as part of the POSIDONIA International Shipping Exhibition in Athens on 7 June 2024. The workshop offered an occasion for participants to exchange experiences, knowledge and good practice, explore the potential for cooperation and common undertakings, and network with relevant counterparts.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership contributed vividly to the European Maritime Day 2024. We convened a workshop on global strategic alignment of the blue economy and contributed to two further workshops on maximizing synergies and on planning and implementing equality in the blue economy, respectively. Read the full report on our website.  

Focused on ‘delivering the science we need for the ocean we want’, the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference was hosted by the Government of Spain in Barcelona from 10-12 April 2024. The conference brought together the global Ocean Decade community and partners to celebrate and take stock of progress and set joint priorities for the future. On this occasion, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership joined the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO in launching a new Decade Programme for Sustainable Ocean Planning.

During two days in mid-February in the historic setting of Belgium's Royal Museums of Fine Arts, the European blue economy community gathered to chart a transformative course towards sustainability. The first Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Symposium rallied the wider community from science, policy and business behind the Partnership’s efforts, informed firsthand about new projects and funding opportunities, and explored research and innovation-related areas which the Partnership could take on board during the coming years. 

The 19 projects selected in the first joint transnational call have been invited to present themselves through this digital poster exhibition. The exhibition will be updates as we receive new posters. To navigate between posters, please hover over the image and click the arrows. 

The first Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Symposium took place on 13-14 February 2024. If you missed the event, or would like to re-experience parts of it, you can now watch the recorded sessions at your own convenience. The Symposium brought together thought leaders, experts, and practitioners to promote the transformation towards a sustainable blue economy. 

Nineteen projects are selected for funding in response to the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership’s first co-funded call ‘The way forward: a thriving sustainable blue economy for a brighter future.’

Experts from across sectors and disciplines participated in a series of workshops organised by the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership this autumn. Among them were three thematic forward-looking workshops where participants reflected on the state of play and developed recommendations for the future of the Partnership, as it is updating its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).  

The General Assembly of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership on 19 October approved four Intervention Areas that will guide the partnership’s co-funded calls and activities in 2024. These areas point to needs for Research & Innovation activities and investments that support the necessary transformation into a green and digital ocean economy. 

Brussels, 26 September 2023 - The Waterborne Technology Platform and the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) announced enhanced cooperation which underlines both players’ firm commitment to develop a sustainable blue economy. 

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership received 94 pre-proposals in the 1st joint transnational call. The deadline for pre-proposals in the call  “The way forward: a thriving sustainable blue economy for a brighter future” was 14 April 2023. The results of the pre-proposal evaluation will be later confirmed in mid-July. Shortlisted consortia will be invited to submit full proposals by 13 September. 

More than 150 participants from 32 different countries took part in the kickoff meeting for the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership in Rome on 25th January 2023.

From 23 to 25 January, the network of 60 Partners from 25 countries and the European Commission gathers in Rome to discuss and showcase its planned activities.