By connecting people and places with solutions and knowledge, the Mission is supporting key actors, like waterfront cities, regions, ports, islands, fisheries, and conservation communities to become resilient, climate-neutral and future-proof.
The EU Mission “Restore our Ocean & Waters” is developing, demonstrating and deploying at scale innovative solutions for protecting marine ecosystems, preventing pollution and making the blue economy climate neutral. These solutions will be key to validate a common strategic ambition for the Ocean Decade challenges to be discussed during the UN Ocean Decade in Barcelona on 12 April during one of the side events of the Mission Ocean & waters. By connecting the people and places with the necessary solutions and knowledge, the Mission is supporting key actors, like waterfront cities, regions, ports, islands, fisheries and conservation communities to become resilient, climate-neutral and future-proof. Examples of cities having endorsed the Mission Charter were presented: Barcelona hosting the event, the city of Ancona, Burgas and Mersin.
Mission Ocean and Waters is an innovative initiative with a strategic framework for action that aims to improve the coherence of relevant policies, and to create synergies between public, private, and civil society initiatives and investments in support of SDG 14 (Life below water). As an example of the latter, on 16 April, during one of the side events of the 9th Our Ocean Conference in Athens, the European Commission will announce a first-of-its kind commitment involving the Mission Ocean and Waters and the philanthropic funders collaborative Oceans 5. The event aims to support the Mission’s objective of adressing the urgent need to align public and private funding towards the global restoration of islands. In addition, the alignment between public and philanthropic funding will strengthen national and local outcomes to support this goal. At the occasion of this event, in cooperation with the coordination support action of the Mission Mediterranean lighthouse-BlueMissionMed, three categories of ports will be awarded.
Horizon Europe is supporting the Mission with over 338m EUR foreseen for 2021-23 alone. A fourth set of calls is in preparation, with an indicative budget of EUR 127 million to be launched in April 2024. So far, 40 projects from WP 2021 and WP 2022 are up and running and another 26 from WP 2023 are in the pipeline. These solutions are serving many cities in their transitions. For example, on the 22nd of March, the Mission Ocean and Waters has launched a Call for Expressions of Interest to offer services and technical assistance to islands, ports and fisheries communities. Submit your application before 24 May 2024, and get access to technical assessments and feasibility studies!
Please, find further information about the Mission Ocean and Waters here.
We also invite you to read more about the UN Ocean Decade in Barcelona and the 9th Our Ocean Conference in Athens.