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.

Two active networking portfolios will be established, composed of projects granted by the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership as well as by a range of national, regional and EU funding streams on these two topics:

• Topic 1: Innovations and digitalisation for low-impact sustainable small-scale fisheries management in EU sea-basins
• Topic 2: Innovations for boosting sustainability in marine algae cultivations and circularity in the blue bioeconomy

The Thematic Portfolios of projects will be connected and will define their own roadmap of activities. With the support of the Partnership, the portfolios are expected to increase transnational synergies at the EU scale, boost quadruple helix multi-stakeholders’ collaboration, and respond to the challenges and opportunities identified within each topic. By reaching a critical mass of projects focusing on similar thematics, this action will contribute to leveraging the projects’ impact at the European level by e.g. providing efficient scientific support for strategic and political decision making, whilst also addressing research gaps and avoiding duplication. 

Some of the benefits of participating in the Thematic Portfolios are:

• Increased visibility at the international level
• Networking with quadruple-helix stakeholders
• Career boost, especially for early career scientists
• Identification of new opportunities for cooperation
• Identification of potential beneficiaries of the project outputs
• Co-design market-uptake plans
• Meetings with EU Commission experts
• Participation in Partnership events (e.g. biennial symposium) 

To participate:

• Projects must fall in the thematic scope of the portfolios.
• Projects must be active and ongoing during the Thematic Portfolio Activities timeframe and must be receiving a regional/national/EU grant.
• Projects must address at least one geographical area among: Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Baltic Sea, North Sea, Atlantic Ocean. If applicable, projects may target regional areas (e.g. Arctic Ocean, Barents Sea, Celtic Sea, Adriatic Sea, Aegean Seas, etc.) or their scope must prove to be relevant for one or more of the above-mentioned geographical areas.
• Applicants must prove their commitment, availability and capacity to engage in the activities (as self-funded).
• Project Principal Investigators (and alternates, if any) must be employed by an organisation belonging to one of the countries1 of the Partnership and must be a stakeholder from one of the four major sectors of the quadruple helix (industry, government, research institutes, and the public).

Deadline: 30 October 2025, 15:00 CET, now extended to 12 November 2025

Visit the below link to download call specifications and application forms.

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