The call aims to accelerate the development of the blue economy in the Mediterranean through closer cooperation between public and private maritime stakeholders such as education and training institutes, maritime clusters and fisheries local communities from the EU and its partner countries in the Mediterranean. It will support skills, innovation, entrepreneurship as well as job diversification and local communities' empowerment.
Applicants must indicate clearly to which of the following specific objectives they are applying:
a) promote networking and collaboration between marine and/or maritime, port and logistics-related education and training institutes in the Mediterranean to develop relevant skills and promote maritime professions in cooperation with business and public authorities;
b) promote networking between maritime clusters in the Mediterranean to produce concrete results in terms of maritime innovation and maritime technologies, business development and innovation (including boosters, business angels and start-ups) and skills development;
c) pilot twinning of fisheries local coastal communities in the western Mediterranean based on the Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) approach to produce concrete results in areas such as diversification of fishing activities, both within and outside commercial fisheries and including tourism, pesca-tourism, sustainable aquaculture development and skills development, with a particular emphasis on women and youth.
Applicants must be legal entities. Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of minimum two legal entities from two different countries. The coordinating entity (lead partner) must be established in an EU Member State.
Applicants must be active in the field of blue economy and related sectors, including marine renewable energies, blue biotechnology, coastal tourism, aquaculture, maritime transport, shipbuilding and ship repair, shipping, offshore oil and gas, fisheries or aquaculture etc.
Please see the full Call for Proposals for the specific eligibility criteria that apply for each specific objective under this call for proposals.
24 or 36 months depending on the project scope
The EU grant is limited to the 80% of eligible costs actually incurred. Consequently, part of the total eligible expenses entered in the estimated budget must be financed from sources other than the EU grant.
It is expected that proposals requesting a contribution in the ranges indicated below would allow the specific objectives to be addressed.
- For specific objective a): between €400.000 and €500.000
- For specific objective b): €500.000 and €700.000
- For specific objective c): between €300.000 and €400.000
EASME expects to fund at least one proposal per specific objective and approximately a total of six proposals.
For more information regarding the procedure do not hesitate to read the Call for Proposals along with its annexes.
All questions related to the call must be sent exclusively by e-mail to: EASME-EMFF-calls@ec.europa.eu no later than 21 February 2018 (Brussels time), indicating as subject title the call reference for STRAND 3: "EASME/EMFF/2017/1.2.1.12-S3 BLUE NETWORKS IN THE MED".