Deadline: 31 January 2019
European Commission is seeking proposals for its program entitled “Grants for the Blue Economy- Investing in Innovation.”
This proposal aims to support demonstration projects based on innovative technologies testing/deploying/scaling-up of new industrial or service applications and solutions for the blue economy.
Such support is important to:
- Help innovative technologies and/or maritime services improve their market readiness and advance towards market entry, allowing economic players, in particular SMEs, to apply new ideas and research results in marketable goods and services;
- Facilitate scaling up business models and service concepts;
- De-risk the deployment of these demonstration projects and provide the necessary credibility for these projects to enable them to access other financing for the development of their activities.
Themes & Priorities
In order to achieve the objectives above, proposals must:
- tackle innovation that goes beyond research and aims at helping innovative maritime technologies and/or maritime services close to market-readiness to advance towards the commercial phase;
- contribute to at least one of the EU priority areas of the Circular Economy, the (Blue) Bioeconomy, as well as the Energy union and climate, and
- demonstrate a clear link/application of enabling technologies such as imaging and physical sensors, satellite technologies, advanced materials, ICT, big data analytics, autonomous systems, biotechnology, nanotechnology, subsea engineering and/or are based on transferring technology from outside the maritime industry.
Funding Information
- Indicative budget: EUR 8,200,000
- Estimated EU contribution per project: Between EUR 500,000 and EUR 1,000,000
- Number of projects to be funded: EASME expects to fund approximately nine proposals.
Eligibility Criteria
In order to be eligible for a grant, the applicants must:
- be legal persons
- belong to one of the following categories: private entities, public entities, or international organisations
- be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the project with the other applicants, i.e. not acting as an intermediary
- be established in an EU Member State (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
or
- for projects with activities extending to neighbouring waters outside the territory of the EU:
- be established in one of the following eligible non-EU countries:
- for activities related to the EU Atlantic Sea Strategy: Canada and United States of America;
- for activities related to the EU Baltic Sea Strategy: Belarus, Iceland, Norway and Russia;
- for activities related to the Adriatic-Ionian Macro-regional Strategy: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia;
- for activities related to the Union for the Mediterranean (including the Western Mediterranean Framework for Action): Algeria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkey;
- for activities related to the Black Sea Synergy: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine;
- for activities related to the waters of an EU Outermost Region: the countries with neighbouring waters.
and
-
- be necessary for the implementation of the project (in view of its nature and its objectives).
- Natural persons are NOT eligible.
- EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.
- Special rules may apply for entities from certain countries (e.g. countries covered by Council sanctions, entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05 .
How to Apply
Applicants can apply online via given website.
For more information, please visit European Commission.