Restoring Ocean and Waters on Islands

Expected Outcome

This topic aims at directly engaging and supporting islands[1] and their managing public authorities in demonstrating and accelerating the transitions needed for achieving one or several objectives of the Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters”. The participation of relevant island managing authorities[2] as full partners of the consortium is strongly encouraged.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of 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[3] through implementation of effective and well-managed place-based and people-centred actions.
• Involvement and increased readiness of islands in testing, deploying and upscaling systemic innovative solutions for restoring islands, incl. by strengthening synergies with their own programmes and resources.
• Increased number of islands 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.
• Increased resilience of island communities to extreme climate events and sea-level rise.
• Public and private investment is encouraged and leveraged on islands to protect, conserve and restore degraded ecosystems.

Scope

The goal of this topic is to work with public authorities to accelerate the implementation of innovative solutions to achieve Mission objectives and targets on islands, including small ones.

The project should test and demonstrate effective solutions to achieve the Mission’s specific objectives and targets on islands. The project should thus test and demonstrate solutions contribute to:

• protecting and restoring marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and Nature Restoration Regulation, and/or
• 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
• 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 on at least [6] islands with at least [2] in each of the following basin lighthouses: 1. Atlantic and Arctic Sea basin, 2. Mediterranean Sea basin, 3. Baltic and North Sea basin, with strong and meaningful involvement of relevant public 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. They will also address resilience of island communities to climate related extreme events and sea-level rise.

The project should support islands (and are encouraged to work with islands that have small but growing populations, limited resources, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, vulnerability to external shocks, excessive dependence on external resources, and fragile environments, so that the projects help addressing their vulnerability to environmental changes, economic size, and isolation challenges. Furthermore, small islands and their communities offer the opportunity to function as models and living labs for piloting the needed transitions in a reasonably small-scale context. Following and expanding the example of the EU green energy pilot islands[4] , the project should help small islands to implement the ecological, socio-economic and circular transitions needed to ensure their ecosystems restoration, energy- and water-security, a sustainable and circular blue economy, and climate resilience, along the Mission objectives.

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 on islands;
• Identify, test and adapt innovative solutions to restore islands by addressing one or several of the specific Mission objectives and targets;
• Develop new innovative funding approaches to implement innovative solutions for the restoration of the ocean and waters on islands, which are all operating in different jurisdictions and governance contexts;
• Encourage citizen and stakeholders involvement and uptake through active participation in the restoration initiatives of islands (e.g. through living labs), and through the follow-up of the restoration process with citizen science initiatives;
• Monitor 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.

Under the Mission approach, collaborations to demonstrate, test and deploy innovative solutions between islands facing similar challenges are highly encouraged and considered as a means to secure greater impact. To facilitate replication of the solutions, proposals should already identify other suitable islands, 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 islands and beyond.

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 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.

Island authorities participating to 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 island restoration, sustain the implementation of solutions, transfer of 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, addressing island restoration and 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”, and are encouraged to consider, where relevant, the services offered by European research infrastructures[9].

To foster synergies between R&I funding instruments (European, national and regional), align R&I investments, ensure access to excellence and translate research results for the benefit of the society and the economy, applicants should consider and actively seek complementarities with, and where appropriate possibilities for further funding from other R&I-relevant EU, national or regional programmes for a sustainable blue economy, notably EMFF/EMFAF, LIFE, ERDF, ESF+, JTF, CEF Inland Waterways or Maritime and InvestEU, as well as private funds or financial instruments.

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.

Cooperation with the EU Outermost Regions[10] is encouraged, given these regions’ natural assets.

[1] In the context of this topic, islands are defined as territories within the European Union and Associated Countries surrounded by water.

[2] Regional or local authorities managing islands

[3] 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

[4] The Journey Begins 30 Renewable Islands for 2030 - Ready, Set, 30! | Clean energy for EU islands (europa.eu)

[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/

[10] https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/policy/themes/outermost-regions_en