SBEP 4th Joint Call 2026 Launches

The Marine Institute is delighted to announce that the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership’s fourth joint transnational call “Building a sustainable and innovative Blue Economy: mastering digital opportunities and fostering resilience” with a deadline for pre-proposal submissions on 16 November 2026. 

The fourth Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) co-funded call pools national and regional financial resources of 38 million Euro through the participation of 33 funding organisations from 28 countries.

The Marine Institute is one of the national funders for Ireland under this call with a commitment of €0.9 million. Research Ireland is the other national funder with €0.6 million funding commitment, making €1.5 million in total available for Irish partners. 
The vision of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is to design, steer and support a just and inclusive transition to a regenerative, resilient, and sustainable blue economy. This EU Horizon Europe Partnership aims to boost the transformation needed towards a climate-neutral, sustainable, productive, and competitive blue economy by 2030 while creating and supporting the conditions for a sustainable ocean for the people by 2050.

Irish co-ordinators or partners in a consortium can apply to the Marine Institute under any of the four priority areas as follows:

1.    Transitioning the blue economy sectors for sustainability and strategic autonomy
2.    Managing sea-uses by advancing digital and ecosystem-based approaches
3.    Promoting sustainable blue bioresources through innovation in marine production and harvesting
4.    Building resilience in coastal communities with infrastructure and businesses

Proposal consortia must have at least three countries, with funding available for Irish partners being 300,000 Euro for Public Research Performing Organisations and Industry/Private RPOs (minimum request 90,000 Euro per Irish partner) for three years , with a max of two Irish partners per proposal being funded by the Marine Institute.

The full call details including details of national guidelines for Irish partners are published on the SBEP website at Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership’s Fourth Joint Transnational Call | Bluepartnership.

A budget template for Irish partners is available from funding@marine.ie.

Applicants will have up to 16 November 2026 (15h CET) to submit their pre-proposals, via the online submission tool managed by the SBEP Call Secretariat.

An online webinar will be held on 29 September 2026 (at 14:00 CEST) for potential applicants at Zoom meeting link.
Please email the Marine Institute’s Research Funding Office (funding@marine.ie) if you have any queries, and/or to confirm that you are submitting a proposal, quoting SBEP call in the subject title. 

This call is co-branded as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.