SBEP JTC 2024: Unified paths to a climate-neutral, sustainable, and resilient blue economy

This call aims to support transnational research and innovation projects (36 months) that address one of the four priority areas below:

1. Digital Twins of the Oceans (DTO) at regional sub-basin scale
2. Blue economy sectors, development of marine multi-use infrastructures
3. Planning and managing of sea uses at the regional level
4. Blue Bioresources

The four priority areas have been selected to strengthen the European blue economy through innovative solutions that promote the recovery of marine ecosystems. Read more specifically about the purpose of the different priority areas in the call text on the application's international website External link..

The transnational call is aimed at applicants from all research disciplines. Applicants must be part of a consortium consisting of at least three independent eligible partners from three different countries seeking funding from research funders participating in the call.

Important: See the call text on the application's international website External link. for additional requirements regarding the consortium.

In recent years, Formas and other Swedish research financiers have had several national calls that are adjacent to this transnational call. Forma's purpose in participating in this transnational call is to contribute with funding to knowledge development of a regenerative, resilient and sustainable blue economy. Therefore, the projects must be developed at the European level and in the different European sea areas: the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Atlantic and establish a close cross-sectoral cooperation between science, innovation and economic sectors.

With regards to this call for research projects, grants can only be administered by a Swedish university, institution of higher education, research institute, government agency with a research mandate, or other primarily research focused organisations.

Who can become an administrating organisation?

To apply for a grant in this call, the following criteria must be met:

• The principal applicant has obtained a PhD by the call's closing date.
• Participating researchers have obtained a PhD by the call's closing date. Other staff involved in the project do not need to have a PhD degree.
• The proposed grant recipient is identified as project manager on the application for the Swedish applicants.
• There is no upper age limit for the principal applicant and participating researchers. However, full-time retired researchers are not eligible to receive funding for salaries.

When applying for project funding, you can seek to have both direct and indirect expenses covered. Direct expenses include salaries, equipment and travel. Indirect expenses are those shared with others in your organization, such as administration, IT and renting of premises. Indirect costs are sometimes referred to as overhead.

Project costs that qualify for funding External link.

The projects must run over 36 months. Maximum funding from Formas is 300,000 EUR per proposal, or a maximum of 500,000 EUR per proposal if the Swedish applicant is also the project coordinator (regardless of how many Swedish partners participate in the project). The budget for the consortium depends on the available funding from other participating Funding Agencies.

The application is written in English as the preparation of the application is done by an international group of experts. Read more about the preparation of the applications in the transnational call text External link..

Evaluation of the application is based on the requirements and instructions set by the call secretariat for the transnational call SBEP 2024: Unified Paths to a Climate-Neutral, Sustainable, and Resilient Blue Economy: Engaging Civil Society, Academia, Policy, and Industry.

Instructions for drafting the application to Formas are sent to applicants via email after applicants have been invited by the international secretariat to submit a "Full proposal".

Your application (including attachments) submitted via Prisma is considered a public document under Swedish law when it has been received by us. According to Swedish law, your application and its appendices are considered public upon receipt. This means that anyone can request and read your application. Information can only be concealed if it is confidential as defined in the Public Access to Information and Confidentiality Act (2009:400).

Formas has limited capacity to keep personal data confidential. Therefore, your application should not contain the personal data of anyone who is not a participating applicant.

If the project is granted funding, the popular science description and project abstracts, written in both Swedish and English, will be published in open-access project databases without a confidentiality review. Therefore, the contents of these sections should not contain sensitive information.

This is a recommendation: It is of great importance to Formas that the projects we finance are carried out in a way that maximises positive impacts and minimises negative impacts on the environment and climate. Therefore, we encourage grant applicants to design their projects to prioritise collaboration that takes place primarily through online meetings and ensure any necessary travel is as climate-smart as possible. We also suggest that measures for minimising energy use and other resource consumption, emissions and waste are included in your project planning. However, this will not be a part of the application assessment at this time.

Sustainability at Formas

The coordinator of the consortium submits the application to the transnational call’s submission platform. The applicant applying funding from Formas must be a part of a consortium with at least three partners from three countries applying funding from Funding Agencies participating in the call. You find the information regarding the transnational call’s submission platform in the call text External link..

You, both as a Swedish coordinator or a Swedish partner, will be invited to submit your application to Prisma when you have been invited to step 2. You will receive an invitation from Formas and Prisma after the decision from the Call Secretariat that you have progressed to step 2. To do this, you need to create an account.

Apply for a personal account in Prisma External link..

You will receive an e-mail from Formas with information of the content of the application to that you will submit in Prisma after the submission of the pre-proposal.

First, Formas verifies that the application meets the procedural requirements set out in the call for the Swedish appliants. If it does not meet these requirements, it is rejected.

The following requirements will be verified in this call by Formas:

• The requirements for project managers, project participants and organisations under “Applicant and organisation requirements” are met.
• The principal applicant who is responsible for other projects or activities funded by Formas has submitted any requested reports by the stated deadline.

The following requirements will be verified by the call secretariat:

• The focus of the application falls within the calls area of responsibility.
• The focus of the application falls within the call’s topic areas.
• The application is complete and contains all mandatory information.
• That the requirements of the consortium are fulfilled.

Read more about the application verification in the call text. External link.

All applications are assessed by an external review panel based on the contents of the application. It is therefore important to write the application as clearly as possible and include all important and relevant information.

The applications are assessed based on the evaluation criteria described in the call text External link..

A decision on which projects are granted funding is expected to be taken in April 2025. The decisions will be published on the Formas website the following day, at the latest, and you will get later an email saying that the decision is available in Prisma. Grant decisions cannot be appealed.

All approved projects must report financial and project findings to Formas within three months of the end of the disposition period. An annual financial statement must be submitted to Formas for projects that are longer than 18 months. All reports are submitted in Prisma.

How to report expenses and results.

Formas may impose requirements on how projects must be reported in terms of content and findings to enable distribution and utilisation. In such cases, more information will be presented with the approval decision. Formas may also require you to participate in conferences and similar events in order to create synergies and platforms for learning and knowledge sharing.

Results of research funded by Formas must be published using open access.

You must also have a management plan for the data produced in the project. If you receive funding from us, you must develop such a plan. This plan does not need to be submitted to Formas but should be presented on request. By signing our grant terms and conditions, you certify that a data management plan will be available before the research begins and that it will be maintained.

Open access to research results and data

Formas shares information about awarded grants to SweCRIS External link., a national database of grant-funded research instituted by request of the government.