EuroMarine and its Objectives

EuroMarine is a European, marine science network launched in 2014 and designed as a bottom-up organisation to act as a voice of the European marine scientific community. It is intended as a durable organisation and a legal entity placed under the control of the consortium that gathers all members and was established in 2018 as a support structure. As of May 2022, EuroMarine counts 59-member organisations (MOs)

The two primary goals of EuroMarine are:

  • To support the identification and initial development of important emerging scientific topics and methodologies in marine sciences;
  • To foster new services relevant to the marine scientific community.

EuroMarine achieves these goals through internal competitive calls for proposals. It is expected that support for these activities and their outcomes will help to leverage larger projects under European, national or joint research funding programmes.

EuroMarine advocates for marine science and contributes to improving the science-governance interface, providing expertise and transferring knowledge.

Call Scope

For the 2022 call, EuroMarine will fund 2 Long-Term Scientific Working Groups (LTSWG) with a maximum funding of €12,500 each. The aim of the LTSWG is to provide the EuroMarine community with recommendations on how to best contribute to the international and European initiatives for restoring and sustainably exploit our Oceans as well as to advance the research on emerging topics related to marine sciences.

The LTSWG should have a duration of at least 3 years. They should have well-defined outcomes (e.g., synthesis paper, position paper, strategy document). All LTSWG are expected to yield publications (at a minimum, a position paper, or recommendations to the EuroMarine community to be submitted at the end of the LTSWG).

Two topics are proposed for the Working Groups:

1. Working Group 1: Ocean Decade, Mission Ocean and other international initiatives

In 2017, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) (‘the Ocean Decade’). The vision of the Ocean Decade is ‘the science we need for the ocean we want’, and it envisages nothing less than a revolution in ocean science that will trigger a step change in humanity’s relationship with the ocean. It will bring together scientists, resource providers, governments, business and industry, philanthropic Foundations, UN agencies and many other stakeholders from diverse sectors to generate scientific knowledge and develop the partnerships needed to support a well-functioning, productive, resilient, and sustainable ocean. The EU has taken a big interest in restoring our oceans, seas and waters and as part of this willingness they have put in place the Mission Ocean, Seas and Waters. Protecting the health of our oceans and waters is fundamental to securing the health, well-being and prosperity of Europe’s citizens and European society. The Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 (Mission Ocean and Waters) is designed to deliver on the EU’s quantified and measurable targets for protecting and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity, for preventing and eliminating pollution, and for making the sustainable Blue Economy climate neutral and circular, thus supporting the goals of the European Green Deal. Other international, national and regional initiatives are also working towards the same goals of restoring our oceans, seas and waters by 2030. The aim of this working group will be to study the different initiatives with the aim of analysing how the marine scientific community can contribute to achieving these goals and provide a series of recommendations to the EuroMarine network on how we as a network could achieve a bigger impact and help reach those goals by 2030.

2. Working Group 2: Emerging and important topic requiring European-wide coordination.

During the last General Assembly Meeting held online in February 2022, EuroMarine members expressed their interest on setting up long term scientific working groups, that will run for at least 3 years. A survey was carried out to identify topics that would be of relevance to the network and several topics were highlighted. The list of topics identified are provided in the Annex 1 of this call. In line with EuroMarine’s bottom-up ethos, and in order to favour the emergence of new ideas and approaches, the call is widely open in terms of topics but only activities that single organisations could not tackle alone are supported. Moreover, activities should avoid any duplication with existing initiatives. Proposals with a multidisciplinary or discipline-specific nature are both welcome. Note however that proposals ranking will depend on the criteria set out in sections 4 and 5 of this call.

Admissibility Conditions

  • Applications must be submitted in PDF using the application form provided in the call webpage.
  • The structure and presentation must correspond to the instructions given in the form.
  • All sections of the application form must be completed, including the budget table.
  • The limit for a full application is 14 pages (instructions on the number of pages per section are provided in the application form). Applications that exceed the number of pages per section will not be considered.
  • Applications must be readable, accessible and printable.
  • Applications must be submitted electronically to the following emails: director@euromarinenetwork.eu and secretariat@euromarinenetwork.eu. Paper submissions will not be accepted.
  • Applications must be submitted before the specified deadline: 14 October 2022 at 23.59 CET. Applications received after this date and time will not be considered.

Eligibility criteria

Beneficiaries

  • Proposals should involve at least five 2022 Full (paying) Member Organisations of EuroMarine, from at least four different countries (please refer to the latest 2022 membership and General Assembly representatives lists provided on the call webpage and do not hesitate to contact secretariat@euromarinenetwork.eu for any further information). Beyond this minimal, mandatory networking requirement, EuroMarine particularly welcomes proposals involving organisations that have not (or seldom) co-submitted proposals in the past. Applicants are also encouraged to use the Secretariat to advertise their topic and/or seek new potential co-applicants among the EuroMarine membership.
  • Applicants are welcome to involve any relevant EuroMarine Invited Member Organisations from developing countries. Proposals can also involve organisations outside the EuroMarine network.

Eligible Activities

  • The EuroMarine LTSWG should preferably start their activity in 2023 and have a duration of three years; any desired exemption should be requested and justified in the proposal.
  • The topics addressed in the EuroMarine LTSWG should be broad, interdisciplinary and should respond to the context and challenges outlined in one or more of the key policy initiatives and specific EuroMarine objectives detailed in the Call Scope above.

In the context of Covid-19, flexibility will be the rule as concerns physical meetings: EuroMarine will accept their postponements, as well as hybrid or online events.

Award Criteria and Selection Procedure

To maximise the number of Member Organizations (MOs) that may receive funds under the 2022 call, EuroMarine limits its financial contribution to successful activities to the above-specified maximum amount of €12,500. Applicants are asked to ensure co-funding when necessary. EuroMarine LTSWG applications will be evaluated by members of the EuroMarine Steering Committee. Each application will be allocated a total score out of 15, with a maximum of 5 marks available for each of the following three criteria. The threshold for each criterion is 4/5 with a minimum overall threshold of 12/15:

  • Excellence: Merit and innovative nature of the proposal topic and objectives; cross-disciplinarity; ability to identify solutions for Ocean challenges.
  • Impact: Added value to EuroMarine (i.e., to which degree a proposal addresses EuroMarine priorities and favours the integration of the EuroMarine community, including the number of MOs involved, and the expected outcomes).
  • Implementation: Capacity and role of each applicant, and the extent to which the application team as a whole brings together the necessary expertise. Quality and effectiveness of the LTSWG organisation and use of resources. Measures to reach and support participants from both the EuroMarine network and other organisations.

The Steering Committee (SC) will meet for a selection meeting to assemble and commit themselves to the final list of selected proposals.

Eligible Costs

All direct costs incurred in connection with the organisation of the LTSWG, and necessary for its implementation, are eligible if they are reasonable and justified. This includes (among others):

  • Travel, accommodation and subsistence for participants.
  • Room renting (including equipment).
  • Communication and dissemination material.
  • Catering.

For hybrid events with participants attending remotely, additional costs for necessary equipment (e.g., web camera) or platform subscriptions (e.g., Zoom licence) may also be included. However please note that physical (in-person) activities are preferred where possible. Please contact the EuroMarine Secretariat if you have any queries about physical vs., online activities. Staff costs (i.e., fees for participants or salary costs for organisational staff) and indirect costs /administrative fees are not eligible. Applicants must include a detailed budget description as part of their application. The maximum budget available is €12,500.

Please refer to the terms and conditions of funding for further details on eligibility criteria, eligible costs and constraints linked to funding.

Constraints linked to funding by EuroMarine

Please refer to the separate document on ‘Terms and conditions of EuroMarine funding’ below.

Timeline

  • 12 May 2022: Call preannouncement
  • 12 July 2022: Publication of the call
  • 14 October 2022: Deadline for proposal submission
  • October 2022: Review process
  • Third week of November 2022: Notification of the results

Note: The date of notification of the results depends on the (ongoing) scheduling of the Steering Committee meeting. Please refer to the call webpage to check the final notification date.

Contact

Please do not hesitate to contact the EuroMarine secretariat for information or assistance in the production of a proposal (e.g., to identify potential co-organisers or participants within EuroMarine).

E-mail: secretariat@euromarinenetwork.eu

Tel: +34 635 34 84 47

Further information and references

Please refer to the call webpage, which includes links to the following call documents:
  • The call text;
  • Instructions and a template to apply (Word file);
  • 2022 terms and conditions of EuroMarine funding
Other relevant links:

For more information, please click here.