Restoring Ocean and Waters in Regions

This topic aims at directly engaging and supporting regional authorities in demonstrating and accelerating the transitions needed for achieving one or several objectives of the Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters in their coastal and riparian areas. The participation of regional authorities ^[1]as full partners of the consortium is strongly encouraged.

Projects should work with regional authorities and other relevant competent authorities (e.g. authorities responsible for river, water and coastal management) in carrying out restoration activities in coastal zones^[2] and riparian zones^[3] on land, in the land-sea continuum as well as in their surface waters (rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters), which will contribute to achieving the Mission objectives.

Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• Measurable, quantifiable, verifiable and ambitious progress towards reaching one or several interlinked objectives and targets of the Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”, as set out in the Mission Implementation Plan^[4] through implementation of effective and well-managed place-based and people-centred actions.
• Involvement and increased readiness of regional and other competent authorities for testing, deploying and upscaling systemic innovative solutions for restoring their coastal and riparian areas, incl. by strengthening synergies with their own programmes and resources.
• Increased number of regional authorities and other competent authorities taking concrete measures to protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas and waters, and make the blue economy carbon-neutral and circular, supporting programmes of measures of relevant EU legislation.
• Increased resilience of coastal and riparian communities to extreme climate events and sea-level rise.
• Public and private investment is encouraged and leveraged at regional level to protect and restore degraded ecosystems, to prevent and eliminate pollution, and make the blue economy carbon-neutral and circular.

The project should test and demonstrate effective solutions to achieve the Mission’s specific objectives and targets in coastal and riparian areas. The project should thus test and demonstrate solutions that contribute to:

1. protecting and restoring marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and Nature Restoration Regulation, and/or
2. preventing and eliminating pollution of our ocean, seas and waters, in line with the EU Action Plan Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil and/or
3. making the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular, in line with the European Climate Law and the holistic vision enshrined in the Sustainable Blue Economy Strategy.

Demonstration activities are expected to take place in at least [8] regions with at least [2] in each of the four sea and river basins 1. Atlantic and Arctic Sea basin, 2. Mediterranean Sea basin, 3. Baltic and North Sea basin, 4. Danube River basin, including Black Sea, with strong and meaningful involvement of relevant authorities.

Projects under this topic would be place-based and people-centred, with their activities implementing a systemic transition across all Mission objectives and enablers, in all lighthouses. Special emphasis should be placed on nature-based solutions, land-sea interactions, and transboundary actions. The projects should support the blue economy by integrating sustainable and environmentally friendly methods that are both ecologically and economically beneficial. Resilience of coastal and riparian communities to climate related extreme events, sea-level rise and water resilience aspects should also be addressed.

The project should:

• Assess the economic, social and ecological impacts as well as the societal acceptance of the proposed measures to achieve the Mission objectives and targets in coastal regions and riparian areas;
• Identify, test and adapt innovative solutions to restore coastal and riparian areas, making a tangible and measurable contribution to one or several of the specific Mission objectives and targets;
• Encourage citizen and stakeholder involvement and uptake through active participation in the restoration initiatives of coastal regions and riparian zones (e.g. through living labs), and through the follow-up of the restoration process with citizen science initiatives;
• Develop new innovative funding approaches to implement innovative solutions for the restoration of the ocean and waters;
• Monitor with measurable parameters the effectiveness of the proposed solutions in relation to the Mission objectives and targets;
• Facilitate synergies with other R&I-relevant EU, national or regional programmes and leverage of funds through interactions with regional/local authorities and the private sector where relevant.

For the successful implementation of the solutions and to ensure their sustainability beyond the duration of the project, the testing and demonstration of the proposed solutions should support the implementation of River Basin Management Plans under the Water Framework Directive, the Programme of Measures under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, future national Nature Restoration Plans under the Nature Restoration Regulation, as well as, wherever already in place, existing mechanisms such as coastal restoration contracts^[5], river contracts^[6] or Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), etc. Proposed solutions should be based on good knowledge about coastal and riparian ecosystems to be restored. If necessary, projects may include mapping and assessment of condition of related habitats and species.

Under the Mission approach, collaborations between regional authorities and other competent authorities facing similar challenges are highly encouraged and considered as a means to secure a larger impact. To facilitate replication of the solutions, the proposals should already identify other suitable regions/local areas, where the solutions and approaches could be replicated. Projects should also systematically assess the potential barriers to their implementation and how these can be overcome. This would help enhancing the transferability of the knowledge and experiences to other regions.

Regional and other competent authorities participating in the project are encouraged to pool and enhance synergies^[7] with other sources of funding (e.g. structural, cohesion funds such as ERDF, or LIFE) for implementing and deploying innovative solutions, through e.g., the conclusion of a Cooperation Working Arrangement^[8]. This will support a common approach towards coastal and river restoration, and sustain the implementation of solutions, transfer knowledge and innovative solutions, and identify opportunities to scale up the solutions demonstrated and to foster their broad deployment across Europe.

The project should build (when relevant) on previously developed or existing solutions by other projects, funded by EU and national programmes, in particular the European Union Framework programmes for Research and Innovation (such as Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe under their different pillars and clusters), as well as EMFAF, INTERREG and LIFE programmes. Proposals should also establish links with “HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-02-01: Community-led actions to restore our ocean, seas and waters” and “HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-02-02: Support for the Coalition of waterfront cities, regions and islands for Mission Ocean and Waters” are encouraged to consider, where relevant, the services offered by European research infrastructures^[9].

The funded project should share experiences and good practices with the projects selected under the topics of the EU Mission Climate Change Adaptation “Supporting regions and local authorities in assessing climate risks” (HORIZON-MISS-2025-01-CLIMA-01) and “Support to regions and local authorities in developing local Action Plans towards climate resilience” (HORIZON-MISS-2025-01-CLIMA-02).

Proposals should include a mechanism and the resources to establish operational links and collaboration with the Lighthouse CSAs and the Mission Implementation Platform, notably to contribute to tracking progress towards the objectives of the Mission.

[1] In the context of this topic, regional authorities refer to legal entities responsible for managing regions, geographical areas at sub-national level, defined as NUTS 2 and 3, corresponding to actual administrative units with their own representation/government. For more information about NUTS (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics).

[2] https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/coastal-zones

[3] https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/riparian-zones

[4] See section 1.2. of the Mission Ocean and Waters Implementation Plan: https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2021-09/ocean_and_waters_implementation_plan_for_publication.pdf

[5] Cf HE2020 RESTCOAST project

[6] Cf example http://environnement.wallonie.be/contrat%5Friviere/

[7] C(2022) 4747 final

[8] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-research-and-innovation-news/eu-mission-ocean-and-waters-signs-first-cooperation-working-arrangement-eu-region-2024-12-17_en

[9] The catalogue of European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) research infrastructures portfolio can be browsed from ESFRI website https://ri-portfolio.esfri.eu/