2025 Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership transnational call. Montenegro eligible

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership’s third joint transnational call is a major European funding initiative designed to drive co-created research and innovation for the ocean economy as part of the Ocean Decade Action Framework.

Applicants will have up to 17 November 2025 (15:00 CET) to submit their pre-proposals. A first evaluation of pre-proposals will be organised and the deadline to submit full proposals is foreseen for 17 June 2026.

The vision of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, a European partnership under the Horizon Europe Programme, is to design, steer and support a just and inclusive transition to a regenerative, resilient, and sustainable blue economy. This EU 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. 

Participants include Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Tunesia, Türkiye and Ukraine. This comprehensive representation highlights the partnership’s ambition to mobilise expertise and resources across diverse maritime regions. For the list of National Contact Points and National/Regional regulations, see Annex B (Download).

Projects in this call must be impact-driven contributions to the transformation into a blue economy for a more resilient future and towards carbon neutrality targets, following an impact pathway approach. Applicants are requested to propose an impact plan under the theory of change (see section 2.3 – Impact of the proposals, and Annex A).

The proposals are strongly recommended to consider a minimum of two EU sea basins which are: the Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea, and to assess the project proposal’s impact and potential replication/scalability on various sea basins. Proposals can target European regional seas such as Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, the Arctic, Barents Sea, Celtic Sea, etc. but they must be from a minimum of 2 different EU Sea basins.

The third co-funded call of this EU Partnership pools national and regional financial resources through the participation of 38 funding organisations from 28 countries combined with the contribution from the European Union (see Annex B for the full list of participating countries). The total estimated budget is about EUR 43.5 million.  

To be eligible, each consortium must be composed of eligible partners from at least three different countries participating in the call and requesting financial support from at least three different funding organisations participating in the call. In addition, the projects must involve at least two independent legal entities from two different EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries eligible for EU funding in this call for (pre-)proposal (as recipients of the financial support, at the time of the closing of the call by 17/06/2026). Self-funded partners, including partners from countries (and/or regions) not participating in this co-funded call, are allowed to participate but do not contribute to the minimum eligible consortium size.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to involve stakeholders (i.e., small, and medium enterprises (SMEs), industries, authorities, public administrations, associations, as well as civil society organisations) as partners or self-funded partners (according to national/regional regulations) in their proposal. Stakeholder engagement in the research projects will enhance innovation, policy, and societal relevance and ultimately the impact of the projects. 

Montenegro’s participation

The inclusion of Montenegro among the participating countries, reflects the region’s intensifying engagement in European research and innovation efforts targeting the blue economy. Montenegro’s involvement offers valuable research perspectives from the Adriatic and supports the integration of Western Balkan innovation actors in transnational collaborations and ocean-related projects under Horizon Europe. This participation is set to facilitate knowledge transfer, capacity building, and joint solution development for sustainable coastal development, directly advancing both European and local blue growth agendas. Funding contribution to the call is EUR 200.000 and it is foreseen to fund between EUR 50,000 and 100,000 per project proposal in any of the priority areas:

1. Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-sea-basin scale
2. Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructure
3. Planning and managing sea uses at the regional level
4. Blue Bioresources
5. Resilient Coastal Communities and Businesses

Eligible institutions in Montenegro are:

1. Licensed scientific research institutions
2. Legal entities – innovation activity entities registered in the Central Business Organisations Register and the Register of Innovation Activities (*Organisation/institution whose project application has been approved must be registered in the Register of Innovation Activities prior to signing the Project Co-financing Agreement with the National Funding Agency – Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation)

Funding is provided for up to 100% of eligible costs:

1. Fees for persons employed on innovative project (Project Applicant staff; maximum 25% of total eligible national co-funding share);
2. Material costs (medium-sized or small-sized equipment, raw material, parts, etc.);
3. Development services or development costs (subcontracting);
4. Costs for participation on relevant events (entry fees, transport, per diem, accomodation); and
5. Administrative costs and overheads.

Note that there is also a Partner Search Tool available here. A matchmaking possibility here and a general information webinar will be organised on 6 October to answer your questions regarding the call. You can find more information and register here.

For further information and download of the relevant documents, please see the source page https://bluepartnership.eu/funding-opportunity/sustainable-blue-economy-partnerships-third-joint-transnational-call

For more information on Montenegro’s participation: Horizont Evropa Crna Gora – Ministarstvo prosvjete, nauke i inovacija