Mission: Restore our Ocean, seas and waters by 2030 (2023/24)

The Mission ‘Restore our ocean and waters by 2030’ will provide a systemic approach for the restoration, protection and preservation of our ocean, seas and waters. The objective of this Mission is to restore, protect and preserve the health of our ocean, seas and waters by 2030\. The Mission is designed to deliver on the European Union’s 2030 quantified and measurable targets for protecting and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity, for zero pollution, and for decarbonisation and net greenhouse gas emissions reduction towards climate-neutrality, within the EU’s ocean, seas and waters. The Mission will support many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): in particular restoring our ocean and waters related actions will directly contribute to SDG 14 - Life below water and SDG 6 - Clean water and sanitation, as well as to SDG13 - Climate action.

The Mission will also contribute to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development \[\[https://www.oceandecade.org/\]\] by fostering research and cooperation across European sea basins, including the EU Outermost Regions and beyond, and mobilise scientists, as well as citizens for a sustainable and healthy ocean, seas and waters.

The implementation plan specifies the goal and objectives as well as implementation details of the Mission “Restore our Ocean, seas and waters by 2030" \[\[https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/research\_and\_innovation/funding/documents/ocean\_and\_waters\_implementation\_plan\_for\_publication.pdf\]\].

The Mission Work Programme, under Horizon Europe, will contribute to the recovery of our ocean and waters by 2030 and more specifically to the following objectives:

1. Protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030\[\[COM/2020/380 final\]\];
2. Prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas and waters, in line with the EU Action Plan Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil\[\[COM/2021/400 final\]\];
3. Make the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular, in line with the proposed European Climate Law\[\[COM/2020/563 final\]\] and the holistic vision enshrined in the Communication on a new approach for a Sustainable Blue Economy\[\[COM/2021/240 final\]\].

The Mission will be implemented in two phases:

* In the first ‘development and piloting’ phase (2022-2025), research and innovation will lay the foundations for implementing the three Mission objectives and enabling actions, paving the way to further citizens participation and engagement. Research and innovation activities will support transformative and innovative solutions to be tested, piloted and validated. Enabling activities will generate new knowledge, observation and monitoring data.
* In the second ‘deployment and upscaling’ phase (2026-2030), the solutions will be further deployed, replicated and scaled up.

The Mission ocean and waters supports research and innovation in a system of European and national funding programmes sharing policy objectives. To foster synergies between R&I funding instruments (European and national), 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. All actions of the Mission are expected to disseminate their results according to FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principles compatible with ongoing EU initiatives such as the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). In line with this approach, specific actions within the Mission will be devoted to widening access to data and knowledge of oceans, seas and freshwater through the Digital Twin Ocean (Mission ocean and waters digital knowledge system).

All proposals submitted to the calls listed below are required to show how their proposed activities and results will achieve the Mission’s objectives, in line with the timeframe of the Mission phases, i.e.: by 2025 for the ‘development and piloting’ phase and 2030 for the ‘deployment and upscaling phase’.

In the 2023 work programme, in addition to the call under the heading ‘Mission Restore our ocean and waters by 2030’ (Call HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01- Actions for the implementation of the Mission Restore our ocean and waters by 2030) the Mission ocean and waters also developed 2 joint calls with Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ and Mission ‘Adaptation to Climate change’ which are under the heading ‘Missions’ joint calls’:

* Joint Call between Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030, Mission Adaptation to Climate Change and Mission A Soil Deal for Europe - HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-OCEAN-SOIL-01 - Demonstration of climate mitigation and resilience solutions in support of the implementation of the Adaptation to Climate Change, Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 and A Soil Deal for Europe Missions;
* Joint Call between Mission Restore our Ocean and Seas by 2030 and Mission A Soil Deal for Europe - HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-SOIL-01 - Mission Ocean & waters and Mission A Soil Deal for Europe Joint demonstration of approaches and solutions to address nutrient pollution in the landscape-river-sea system in the Mediterranean sea basin.

  

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