The overall goal of the proposed Cofund is to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA) in maritime and marine technologies and Blue Growth. The realisation of a European research and innovation agenda needs a broad and systematic cooperation in all areas of waterborne transport, offshore activity, marine resources, maritime security, biotechnologies, desalination, offshore oil & gas, fisheries, aquaculture etc. covering all relevant maritime and marine sectors and regions for a sustainable development of the maritime sector. Research and innovation activities in these fields cannot be tackled either at national levels alone, or solely by a single sector. Coordinated actions are required for the maritime industry to strengthen Europe’s position in this important and complex economic field in a global market. The proposing consortium will organise and co-fund, together with the EU, a joint call for trans-national research projects on different thematic areas of Blue Growth. Furthermore, additional joint activities that go beyond this co-funded call are planned, in order to contribute to the national priorities as well as to the Strategic Research Agenda of JPI Oceans and WATERBORNE. With the cooperation of ERA-NET MARTEC and JPI Oceans, a broader variety of topics with a larger amount of funding will be available for the trans-national projects. Moreover, the focus of development in MarTERA is given to technologies (instead of sectors) due to their potentially large impact to a wide range of application fields. The proposal responds to the topic ERA-NET Cofund on marine technologies of the work programme 2016-2017 of the societal challenge 2 (Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bio-economy) under Horizon 2020. Thereby it also contributes to the overall EU objective of building the ERA through enhanced cooperation and coordination of national research programmes.

The vision of FutureFoodS is to collectively achieve environmentally-friendly, socially secure, fair and economically viable healthy and safe Food Systems (FS) for Europe. FutureFoodS gather 87 partners from 22 EU Member States, 6 Associated Countries and 1 third country. FutureFoodS includes public and private actors, policy makers, foundations, locally, sub-nationally, nationally, EU-widely. All these FutureFoodS partners are fully aligned on the vision for the Partnership and the methodology for its implementation in line with SDG17 and EU Green Deal components. This vision has been broken down into general (GO), specific (SO) and operational (OO) objectives applying across the 4 R&I areas and 4 transversal activities identified by the FutureFoods consortium in its stable draft Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) which constitutes the strategic backbone of the project. The four GO cover: GO1 - Functioning of FS; GO2 - System approaches; GO3 - Inclusive government; GO4 - Co-creation cases. These GO have then been translated into SO prioritised in line with the timescale and resources of the Partnership: SO1 - Change the way we eat; SO2- Change the way we process and supply food, SO3 - Change the way we connect with FSs and SO4 - Change the way we govern FS. In addition, 6 interconnected OO have been set: OO1- Pooling R&I resources and programming; OO2 - Operational FS Observatory; OO3 - Active FS knowledge Hub of FS Labs; OO4 - Functioning knowledge sharing and scaling mechanisms; OO5- Revisiting the SRIA; OO6 - Promoting, supporting, widening & gathering FS various communities. The objectives implemented in the 8 WPs of FutureFoodS will exert impact directly or indirectly in most of the destinations of Horizon Europe’s Cluster 6 2023-2024 work programme and particularly for the topic destination ‘Fair, healthy and environment-friendly FS from primary production to consumption’ echoing to the main EU and World FS policies & strategies.

M-ERA.NET 3 aims at coordinating the research efforts in the participating EU Member States, Regions, and Associated States in materials research and innovation, including materials for future batteries, to support the circular economy and Sustainable Development Goals. A large network of national and regional funding organisations from 25 EU Members States, 4 Associated States and 6 countries outside Europe will implement a series of annual joint calls to fund excellent innovative transnational RTD cooperation, including one call for proposals with EU co-funding and additional non-cofunded calls. Continuing the activities started under the predecessor project M-ERA.NET 2 (3/2016-2/2021), the M-ERA.NET 3 consortium will address emerging technologies and related applications areas, such as - for example- surfaces, coatings, composites, additive manufacturing or integrated materials modelling. Research on materials supporting the large scale research initiative on future battery technologies will be particularly highlighted as a main target of the cofunded call (Call 2021) with a view to supporting in particular SDG 7 (“Affordable and clean energy”) by enabling electro mobility through sustainable energy storage technology and SDG 9 (“Industrial innovation and infrastructure”) by enhancing scientific research and upgrading the technological capabilities of industrial sectors. Several relevant action plans and initiatives will serve as programmatic guides for M-ERA.NET 3 when defining the joint activities, such as the Circular Economy Action Plan, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the EC communication “A clean planet for all”, and the “European Green Deal”. The total mobilised public call budget is expected to reach 150 million € with additional private investment of 50 million €. Thus, the leverage effect of the EU contribution will reach a factor of 13, exceeding by far the minimum required factor of 5.

The ERA-NET Cofund BlueBio will act to unlock the potential of aquatic bio-resources to create jobs, economic growth and provide food, nutrition and bio-based products and services. Thus, paving the way for a sustainable and competitive Blue Bioeconomy in Europe. The goal is to identify new and improve existing ways of bringing bio-based products and services to the market and find new ways of creating value in the Blue bioeconomy. The objectives of BlueBio are to establish a coordinated R&D funding scheme that will strengthen Europe’s position in this complex economic field in a global market. This will primarily be achieved by engaging funding agencies to implement a co-funded call focusing on Blue Knowledge and technological developments to respond to needs and gaps for R&I. The consortium has committed budgets making a strong co-funded call leveraging well the Commission's requests. BlueBio builds upon the networks, achievements and strategies obtained in the COFASP and ERA-MBT ERA-NETs and JPI Oceans, and will leverage the JPI Oceans role as a coordination platform. The consortium aims to implement 2-4 additional calls, developed through stakeholder engagement, and identifying new funding initiatives. BlueBio will implement a range of related activities which can add value to the cofounded projects and better address the impact of R&I projects. BlueBio will enhance valorisation from the actors in the Blue Bioeconomy sector, identify and address R&I needs of industry and society. Communications activities will support BlueBio and the funded projects to realise tangible impacts. Emphasis will be placed on the creation of pre-commercial outputs aimed at accelerating commercialisation and competitive deployment. BlueBio's directions and legacy will be informed by strategic forward-looking processes involving all stakeholders in identifying needs and gaps along the value chains.