EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters

What is the Mission?

With a 2030 target, the EU Mission "Restore our Ocean and Waters" aims to protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement and blue investments. The Mission’s new approach will address the ocean and waters as one and play a key role in achieving climate neutrality and restoring nature.

Cross-cutting enabling actions will support this objective, in particular broad public mobilisation and engagement and a digital ocean and water knowledge system, known as Digital Twin Ocean.

The Mission supports regional engagement and cooperation through area-based “lighthouses” in major sea/river basins: Atlantic-Arctic, Mediterranean Sea, Baltic-North Sea, and Danube-Black Sea. Mission lighthouses are sites to pilot, demonstrate, develop  and deploy the Mission activities across EU seas and river basins.

Mission Charter

We are calling on Member States, regions and a wide range of stakeholders to endorse the Charter and pledge actions that will contribute to the successful implementation of the Mission and its lighthouses.

Please click below to endorse the Charter and pledge actions

Endorse the Charter

Action pledges submitted so far: interactive map

The one-stop-shop Mission Portal

The EU Mission Ocean and Waters’ online Portal is a one-stop-shop for stakeholders involved and interested in implementing the Mission Ocean and Waters.

You can:

• keep track of the Mission's progress toward its objectives
• follow the actions and activities across Mission Lighthouses
• find financial and investment opportunities related to the Mission
• access the Mission library to learn about and share innovative solutions for ocean and water restoration
• engage with citizens and stakeholders through outreach, dissemination and Mission events.

Visit the Mission portal

Funding opportunities

On 17 April 2024, the Commission adopted an amendment to the 2023-24 Work Programme of Horizon Europe to mobilise previously unallocated Horizon Europe funding to increase the 2024 budget by nearly €1.4 billion to a total of €7.3 billion. This amendment includes an investment of nearly €650 million in the EU Missions to enable the implementation of the Communication “EU Missions two years on: assessment of progress and way forward”, adopted on 19 July 2023.

Under the Mission Restore our Ocean and waters, new opportunities to support your work are now published on the Funding and Tenders Portal, under the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2024 with closing date of 18 September 2024.

The following calls are available:

• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-01: European Blue Parks – Protection and restoration of marine habitats
• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-02: Danube river basin lighthouse – Demonstration of effective and sustainable management of sediments in the Danube river-Black sea system
• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-03: Atlantic and Arctic sea basin lighthouse – Addressing climate change and human activities threats to marine biodiversity
• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-04: European natural lakes: demonstration of integrated approaches for protection and restoration of natural lake ecosystems and their biodiversity
• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-05: Lighthouse in the Baltic and the North Sea basins - Lighthouse in the Baltic and the North Sea basins - Green and energy-efficient small-scale fishing fleets
• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-06: Cross-basin topic - Innovative nature-inclusive concepts to reconcile offshore renewables with ocean protection
• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-07: Cross-basin topic - Analysis of the obstacles and opportunities for repurposing aged/unused offshore infrastructures
• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-08: Integration of socio-ecological models into the Digital Twin Ocean
• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-09: Roadmap towards the integration of inland waters into the Digital Twin Ocean
• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-10: Choose your fish: a campaign for responsible consumption of products from the sea
• HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-11: Ocean & water and arts: the contribution of creative sectors to Mission Ocean and waters
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-01: European Blue Parks – Offshore marine protected areas
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-02: Danube river basin lighthouse – Protection and restoration of migratory fish habitats
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-03: Atlantic and Arctic sea basin lighthouse, Mediterranean Sea basin lighthouse, Baltic and North Sea basin lighthouse - Reducing the environmental impacts of fisheries on marine species and habitats
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-04: Science for Community – Building the marine Citizen Science data network of the future to valorise data coming from the ocean and increase engagement
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-05: Our Blue Future – Co-designing a future vision of a restored ocean and water system in the EU by 2030 and 2050
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-02-01: Community-led actions to restore our ocean, seas and waters
• HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-02-02: Support for the Coalition of waterfront cities, regions and islands for Mission Ocean and Waters

Portfolio Analysis

The European Commission has published a Portfolio Analysis Report identifying over 800 EU-funded projects, from 16 EU funding programmes, contributing to the objectives of the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters”. The analysis has been performed with the assistance of 12 independent experts and the projects analysed belong to 16 EU funding programmes. The analysis has produced a Report and a Dashboard.

The Dashboard, which is updated annually,  allows users to interact with the data by visualising and filtering from general to more detailed information, according to specific interests.

For an easier use of the Dashboard, check the Quick Guide.

What are EU Missions?

EU Missions are a new way to bring concrete solutions to some of our greatest challenges. They have ambitious goals and will deliver tangible results by 2030. 

They will deliver impact by putting research and innovation into a new role, combined with new forms of governance and collaboration, as well as by engaging citizens. 

EU Missions are a novelty of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme for the years 2021-2027.

More information

• mission-oriented policy for Horizon Europe
• Horizon Europe
• co-design session on oceans mission at Research and Innovation Days (video)
• EU Missions info days 2022

Contact

EU-MISSION-OCEAN-AND-WATERS@ec.europa.eu

Mission Newsletter

Keep up to date with the latest news on the Mission, as well as developments on Mission Charter Actions, the EU Blue Parks Community, and events by subscribing to our quarterly newsletter

Documents

Official documents

• Communication
• 19 July 2023

EU Missions two years on: assessment of progress and way forward

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

English

(203.33 KB - HTML)

Download

• Staff working document
• 19 July 2023

EU Missions two years on: An assessment of progress in shaping the future we want and reporting on the review of Mission Areas and areas for institutionalised partnerships based on Articles 185 and 187 TFEU

Accompanying the document Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions:

EU Missions two years on: assessment of progress and way forward.

English

(8.31 MB - HTML)

Download

Reports and studies

• Reports of cases
• 8 June 2023

Portfolio analysis, EU mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”

Analysis of a portfolio of projects financed by sixteen EU programmes contributing to the objectives and enablers of the mission ocean and waters. This report presents the results of the analysis of a portfolio of 841 EU projects - completed or ongoing - relevant to the EU Mission “Restore our Oceans and Waters by 2030”. 

English

(HTML)

Download

Communication material

Mission Board reports