The ocean-climate-biodiversity-people nexus: uncovering safe operating space for safeguarding the integrity and health of the global ocean

The Horizon Europe funding opportunity titled "The ocean-climate-biodiversity-people nexus" aims to enhance scientific understanding of ocean health amidst climate change and human activities. This initiative falls under Cluster 6, specifically focusing on the intersection of marine ecosystems, biodiversity, and climate action. The call operates as a single-stage application process with a deadline of September 16, 2025.

Eligible applicants include research institutes, universities, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international organizations. The grant is a non-repayable financial support providing a budget of up to 76.5 million euros, with individual project funding typically ranging between 1 million and 5 million euros.

Projects must form consortia, encouraging multidisciplinary collaboration to tackle complex ocean-climate challenges. The geographic eligibility includes EU member states, countries associated with Horizon Europe, and potentially non-EU nations under specific provisions.

The focus sectors of this grant cover climate action, marine conservation, sustainable blue economy, and biodiversity preservation. It emphasizes understanding ocean integrity under different emission scenarios, addressing anthropogenic threats, and tackling ocean acidification.

While the exact success rates for this particular call are not specified, similar initiatives in Horizon Europe exhibit a competitive environment, with historical success rates ranging from 10% to 39%. Importantly, co-funding is typically not required for Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs), which this call encompasses.

The structured approach to funding encourages interdisciplinary research and international collaboration, aspiring to develop innovative solutions for ocean management and governance. This includes integrating social sciences and humanities perspectives and addressing gender considerations within project frameworks. The initiative aligns with broader EU missions, aiming to contribute to objectives like the European Biodiversity Strategy 2030.

All funded applications will undergo a single evaluation stage without preliminary selections, and projects are expected to demonstrate a clear relevance to specific EU marine basins, such as the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Baltic, North Sea, and Danube regions.

In summary, this grant incentivizes collaborative research to define ecological boundaries for maintaining ocean health while addressing climate impacts. It has substantial funding provisions and seeks to bolster European leadership in marine science, supporting the sustainable management of ocean resources through innovative, evidence-based approaches.

The provided content describes a Horizon Europe funding opportunity focused on the ocean-climate-biodiversity-people nexus. The goal is to improve scientific understanding of ocean health and integrity under various climate scenarios and anthropogenic pressures, supporting climate-neutrality and ocean sustainability. The call, Cluster 6 Call 02, is a single-stage process with a deadline of September 16, 2025.

The expected outcomes include:

Improved understanding of ocean integrity limits at different emission scenarios.
Advanced science on ocean threats, risks, and impacts.
Improved understanding of ocean acidification trends and impacts.
Harmonized ocean acidification monitoring and prediction capabilities.
Contributions to key ocean monitoring indicators and international programs.
Improved Earth System Models (ESMs) for ocean processes.
Evidence-based decision-making on ocean governance.
Sustained European leadership in ocean science.
Contributions to global scientific assessments and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The scope of the actions involves developing innovative approaches in one of three options:

A. Ocean integrity at different emission scenarios: This includes advancing science on ocean tipping elements, climate actions, and integrated prediction systems, as well as elaborating on policy implications of climate inertia.

B. Ocean integrity and health: current and emerging anthropogenic threats: This involves identifying emerging threats to ocean health, conducting exploratory research on their impacts, and supporting improved risk assessment and management actions. Examples of threats include mining, ocean carbon uptake technologies, marine renewable energy, pollution, and emerging contaminants.

C. Ocean integrity and health: Ocean Acidification (OA), Planetary Boundaries and SDG14.3.1: This involves improving understanding of ocean acidification trends, incorporating interactions between natural and social systems, filling observation gaps, improving models, and identifying indicators of biological responses.

All funded actions must have a strong collaboration mechanism. The actions should build on existing observing platforms like Copernicus and strengthen current capacities in an interdisciplinary approach. The research should include Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) perspectives, gender considerations, and a comprehensive justice perspective. International cooperation is encouraged, especially with AAORIA partner countries, and strong links with the UN Decade of Ocean Science and the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) are essential.

Projects should link with sister Horizon projects, the Copernicus marine service (CMEMS), GOOS, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), MBON of GEOBON, ICOS, GCOS, and other relevant international Ocean Observing Initiatives. All in-situ data should follow INSPIRE principles and be available through open access repositories. Synergies with the Horizon Europe Mission Restore our Ocean and waters are encouraged, with project outputs potentially contributing to the European Digital Twin of the Ocean and the Destination Earth initiative.

The call is part of a coordination initiative between ESA and the European Commission on Earth System Science. Projects should leverage data and services from European Research Infrastructures, the European Open Science Cloud, Copernicus, and relevant data spaces. Collaboration with existing European Research Infrastructures such as those prioritised by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) is encouraged.

Admissibility conditions include proposal page limits and layout as described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes and Part B of the Application Form. Eligible countries are described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes, with specific provisions for non-EU/non-Associated Countries. All international organizations are exceptionally eligible. Projects using satellite-based data must use Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS.

Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria are described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. The award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in Annex D, with grants awarded to highly ranked applications within each of the three options (A, B, C). Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F and the Online Manual, while the indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is also in Annex F. The legal and financial setup of grants is described in Annex G.

The application form templates and evaluation form templates are available in the Submission System. Guidance is provided in the HE Programme Guide, and the Model Grant Agreement is the HE MGA. Additional documents include the HE Main Work Programme 2025 and annexes, the HE Framework Programme 2021/695, the HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764, the EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, rules for legal entity validation, and various guides and statements related to EU grants and the Funding & Tenders Portal.

The budget overview includes several topics:

HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-CLIMATE-01: 12,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-CLIMATE-02: 19,500,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 3
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-CLIMATE-03: 10,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-CLIMATE-04: 12,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-CLIMATE-05: 23,000,000 EUR (per year for 2025, 2026, 2027), indicative number of grants: 1
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-COMMUNITIES-01: 13,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-COMMUNITIES-02: 6,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 1
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-COMMUNITIES-03: 6,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 1
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-COMMUNITIES-04: 12,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-01: 30,000,000 EUR (per year for 2025, 2026, 2027), indicative number of grants: 1
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-02: 40,000,000 EUR (per year for 2025, 2026, 2027), indicative number of grants: 1
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-03: 12,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-04: 11,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-05: 12,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-06: 16,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-07: 12,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-08: 6,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 1
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-09: 3,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 1
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-10: 12,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-11: 12,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-12: 10,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-13: 2,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 1
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-14: 12,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-15: 35,000,000/45,000,000/50,000,000 EUR (per year for 2025, 2026, 2027), indicative number of grants: 1
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-16: 6,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 1
HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-17: 8,000,000 EUR, indicative number of grants: 2

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In summary, this Horizon Europe call aims to fund research and innovation actions that address critical challenges related to ocean health, climate change, and biodiversity. It encourages interdisciplinary collaboration, international cooperation, and the use of advanced technologies and data resources to improve our understanding of the ocean and support evidence-based decision-making for its sustainable management. The call is structured around three main options, each focusing on different aspects of ocean integrity and health, with a significant budget allocated to co-funded programs.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types include international organizations, research institutes, universities, SMEs, and other entities, as specified in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. All international organisations are exceptionally eligible for funding.

Funding Type: The funding type includes HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-RIA) and HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions (HORIZON-COFUND) and HORIZON Innovation Actions (HORIZON-IA) and HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (HORIZON-CSA). The primary financial mechanism is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG].

Consortium Requirement: The opportunity requires a consortium, as evidenced by the encouragement of international cooperation, especially with AAORIA partner countries, and the need for a strong collaboration mechanism between projects funded under the three options (A, B, and C).

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility includes EU member states, associated countries, and potentially non-EU/non-associated countries, as specific provisions may allow funding for their participants. International cooperation is encouraged, especially with AAORIA partner countries.

Target Sector: The program targets the following sectors: climate, ocean sustainability, biodiversity, environment, research and innovation, food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture.

Mentioned Countries: AAORIA partner countries, EU member states, non-EU/non-Associated Countries.

Project Stage: The project stage is variable, encompassing research, development, and innovation actions. The call aims to improve scientific understanding, develop innovative approaches, and support decision-making, suggesting projects can range from research to demonstration and implementation.

Funding Amount: The funding amounts vary depending on the specific topic and action type. HORIZON-RIA actions have budgets ranging from 6,000,000 EUR to 19,500,000 EUR, HORIZON-COFUND actions range from 23,000,000 EUR to 50,000,000 EUR, HORIZON-IA actions are 6,000,000 EUR to 12,000,000 EUR, and HORIZON-CSA actions are 2,000,000 EUR to 3,000,000 EUR.

Application Type: The application type is an open call with a single-stage submission process.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of grants to support their research and innovation activities.

Application Stages: The application process involves a single stage.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly stated, but the indicative number of grants for each topic suggests a competitive process.

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding is required for HORIZON Programme Cofund Actions.

Summary: This Horizon Europe Cluster 6 call focuses on "The ocean-climate-biodiversity-people nexus: uncovering safe operating space for safeguarding the integrity and health of the global ocean." It aims to fund projects that improve the scientific understanding of ocean health under various climate scenarios and anthropogenic pressures. The call is structured around three main options: understanding ocean integrity at different emission scenarios, addressing current and emerging anthropogenic threats, and focusing on ocean acidification and planetary boundaries. Projects are expected to contribute to improved Earth System Models, enhanced ocean monitoring, and evidence-based decision-making for ocean governance. The call encourages international cooperation, particularly with AAORIA partner countries, and strong collaboration among funded projects. Funding is provided through various Horizon Europe action types, including Research and Innovation Actions (RIA), Innovation Actions (IA), Coordination and Support Actions (CSA), and Programme Cofund Actions, each with different budget ranges and co-funding requirements. The application process is a single-stage submission, and the call is open to a wide range of eligible entities, including research institutes, universities, SMEs, and international organizations.