Five active networking Regional Portfolios, composed of projects funded by the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) and/or by a range of national, regional or EU funding streams, will be established — one for each EU sea-basin. 

Wave 1:

• Atlantic Ocean Regional Portfolio: ‘Addressing the Atlantic Ocean coastal Resilience in Practice’

• Black Sea Regional Portfolio: ‘Addressing knowledge gaps in the Black Sea: Information, Data Exchange and Good Practices in the Context of Climate Change’

   

Wave 2:

• Mediterranean Sea Regional Portfolio: ‘Fostering Inclusive Governance and Multi-Use Coastal and Maritime Infrastructure for Sustainable Development in the Mediterranean Sea’ 
• Baltic Sea Regional Portfolio: ‘Improving the Baltic Sea Resilience: Resilience to Large-Scale Events, Infrastructure Resilience, and Ecosystem Resilience’
• North Sea Regional Portfolio: 'Exploring Nature-based Solutions to Address Cumulative Impacts on Marine Ecosystems while Supporting Sustainable Fisheries and Offshore Sectors in the North Sea’

To apply:

Coordinators, PIs, or alternates will complete a brief online questionnaire, available on each "wave" dedicated page (linked above). Applicants will have until 28 October 2026 (Wave 1, Atlantic Ocean and Black Sea) or 9 December 2026 (Wave 2, Mediterranean Sea, Baltic Sea and North Sea) to submit their interest. A single-step selection process will apply; selected projects will be announced in December 2026 and January 2027, respectively.

Each Regional Portfolio will run independently, producing its own implementation plan and roadmap of activities. With the Partnership's support, the Portfolios are expected to boost regional synergies, reduce duplication, strengthen collaboration with key stakeholders, and respond to challenges identified at the sea-basin level.

Some of the benefits of participating in the Regional Portfolios include:

• Increased visibility at the regional and international level
• Networking with regional and quadruple-helix stakeholders
• Career boost, especially for early-career scientists
• Identification of new cooperation opportunities
• Co-design of market-uptake plans
• Meetings with EU Commission experts
• Participation in Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership events

A Regional Portfolio Information Webinar held on 7 October introduced the initiative, provided potential applicants with an overview of the open calls for expressions of interest, and addressed questions regarding the Calls for interest. This was also the opportunity to present the experience of a project part of the Thematic Portfolios, a similar ongoing clustering initiative. The presentation and recording are available on the event page.
 

To participate:

• Projects must fall within the thematic scope of the chosen Portfolio.
• Projects must be active for at least 6 months between early 2027 and early 2029, and be recipients of a regional/national/EU grant.
• Projects must address the geographical area of the Portfolio, or prove their relevance to it. Projects interested in more than one Portfolio will be asked to select one.

• Applicants must prove their commitment, availability and capacity to engage (as self-funded).

   

Contact: Portfolio Secretariat (ANR, France) — sbep-portfolio@anr.fr

Please note that the information provided here is provisional. Changes may be made to the official call announcement. This news page was last updated on 08/10/2026.