Grants to prevent and minimize Marine and Freshwater Pollution

Deadline: 27-Sep-22

The European Commission (EC) is offering grants to prevent and minimize marine and freshwater pollution from chemical pollutants.

Following the zero pollution hierarchy, proposals should focus on demonstrating replicable solutions to prevent and minimise pollution in the Mediterranean Sea including its major river catchment areas and taking into consideration land-sea interactions through measures, such as:

• Upstream prevention of pollution from chemicals;
• Substitutes or alternative less polluting substances and materials for the most prevalent chemical pollutants found in freshwater and at sea.

Proposed solutions for pollution prevention, elimination and remediation should not increase the level of anthropogenic underwater noise and air emissions.

The proposals should ensure that the associated regions are located in Member States/Associated countries other than those that are part of the project consortium. An “associated region” shall benefit from the Financial Support to Third Parties provided under this topic only once. The involvement of “associated regions” that have not yet participated in Mission projects is encouraged. The partners will proactively reach out to the associated regions to enable them to follow closely the project and its demonstration activities.

Topics

Projects funded under this topic will address all following issues:

• build links with other Mission activities and other relevant activities and partnerships within the lighthouse and its area to maximize synergies, as well as with the European Blue Parks, other Mission lighthouses;
• build links with the Mission implementation monitoring system that will be part of the Mission Implementation Support Platform and with the Mediterranean sea basin lighthouse support facility and platform, for reporting, monitoring and coordination of all relevant implementation activities in the lighthouse area as well as with the Blue Parks technical support platform;
• support the Ocean and water knowledge system, in particular by contributing to monitoring, modelling and knowledge creation and data.

Funding Information

The maximum amount of Financial Support to Third Parties is EUR 100,000 per ’associated region’ for the entire duration of the action.

Expected Outcome

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

• Innovative, reproducible solutions to reduce and remediate pollution from chemicals (such as mercury, persistent organic pollutants, plant protection products (pesticides, biocides), per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances – PFAFs, antifoulants as well as other chemical pollutants)[1] in the Mediterranean Sea basin in line with the target of reduction by at least 50% of the use and risk of chemical pesticides and to the objectives of the EU Zero Pollution Action Plan and the Convention for the protection of the Mediterranean sea against pollution and the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability;
• Accelerated uptake of innovative solutions to prevent and minimize chemical pollution;
• Effective monitoring of chemical pollution in line with existing methodologies under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive[2]] and under the Water Framework Directive;
• Support Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive implementation, which provide indicators and mechanism for assessments and measures to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) and Good Chemical Status;
• Contribution to the Mission’s Digital Ocean and Water Knowledge system through marine observations and open data and knowledge sharing;
• Empowered citizens taking action against pollution.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:

• the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
• the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
• eligible non-EU countries:
  • countries associated to Horizon Europe
  • low- and middle-income countries.

For more information, visit European Commission.

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