The Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) within the Parliamentary Secretariat for Youth, Research and Innovation launched today the first Co-funded Joint Call for R&I proposals entitled “The way forward: a thriving sustainable blue economy for a brighter future”.
MCST is participating in the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP), under the Horizon Europe Programme, along with 59 other entities from 25 countries. This partnership is aligned to the thematic area of ‘Marine and Maritime Technology’ which is one of the 6 priority areas listed in Malta’s Smart Specialisation Strategy for the period 2021-2027.

The vision of the SBEP is to enable a just and inclusive transition to a regenerative and circular blue economy that contributes to restoring the ocean’s health, resilience and the service it provides to people, by being climate neutral, sustainable and productive.

Through this call, MCST will support local stakeholders from the private and public sector to collaborate with international partners on joint research project proposals with a local budget of €500,000.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Youth, Research and Innovation, Keith Azzopardi Tanti explained the government’s efforts in improving particular sectors, such as the Blue Economy, as part of the Smart Specialisation Strategy. “Thanks to a planned and thorough research we were able to choose the main sectors to focus on for the years to come,” said Azzopardi Tanti, adding that these will contribute to a more sustained and sustainable economy. He concluded by saying that the projects which will be chosen involving the Blue Economy are a perfect fit in this government’s strategy.

The Chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology, Dr. Tonio Portughese said that “the Blue Economy is definitely not a new concept for Malta, a concept that has developed with our history, adapting to the circumstances of the day, but always playing a vital role for the economic and environmental well-being of our islands and their people. Our participation in the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, which is an EU ‘Horizon Europe’ co-funded partnership, was a logical and natural step forward.” He added that this partnership enables an unprecedented effort to pool research and innovation investments and align national programmes at pan-European scale, taking into consideration all the European seas and oceans, including the Mediterranean.

This first Joint Call aims to support transnational research and innovation projects addressing one of the five (5) priority areas below, namely:

Ocean Digital Twin at sub-sea-basin scale
Blue Generation Marine Structures
Planning and Managing Sea-Uses
Healthy ‘Blue Food’ under a ‘One Health’ approach
Enabling the transition of blue food production

These five priority areas were selected to maximise participation while reinforcing the European blue economy through innovative solutions and improved resilience of marine ecosystems. Projects in this co-funded call must be developed at a pan-European level and in different European sea basins to ensure that projects provide 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.
Looking beyond just the direct economic dimension, the partnership will contribute to the goals of the Mission Ocean & Waters, in particular by boosting the transformation towards a climate-neutral, sustainable, productive and competitive blue economy by 2030.  The Partnership has often been described as Horizon Europe’s blue arm of the Green Deal, which will bring about the transition of Europe to climate-neutrality by 2050. SBEP will support the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 14: “Life Below Water”. The planned investments over seven years, for the whole partnership are expected to reach €450 Million.”

The Council will be organising further informative sessions. Interested applicants can obtain more information by accessing the SBEP and MCSTwebpages or sending an email at: eusubmissions.mcst@gov.mt.