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The first funding call is open until 20 January 2025 with a subsequent one scheduled to open next September.
The Aquarius project, led by the Marine Institute in Ireland, opened its first funding call today (11 November), offering €8.1m in support of scientific projects that address critical challenges facing marine and freshwater environments.
Open to projects aligned with the EU’s goals around ocean restoration across the Atlantic-Arctic, Baltic and the North Sea, Danube and Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea – the EU designated ‘mission lighthouse regions’, winning applicants will be granted access to European research infrastructures, including research vessels, aircrafts and drones, satellites and experimental research facilities, and more.
The funding call lists different lines of action across the four mission lighthouses, including a focus on water quality and flood prevention in the Danube, marine litter mitigation in the Mediterranean and a reduction of chemical pollution in the Baltic and North Sea.
“Aquarius is a landmark project, which will support research projects which integrate multiple infrastructures and addresses critical challenges facing our marine and freshwater environments,” said Aodhán Fitzgerald of the Marine Institute and the Aquarius project coordinator.
“Addressing these challenges requires a holistic approach, and the Marine Institute is delighted to be at the forefront of enabling this through the Aquarius project.”
Aquarius contributes to the European Research Area (ERA), which aims to create a single, borderless, market for research, innovation and technology across the EU, and announced training programmes for call applicants, selected projects and early-career scientists.
“This is a unique opportunity for scientists from academia, industry or citizen science organisations to take their research to the next level,” said Dr Anneli Strobel, the project manager at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and the leader of one of the Aquarius work packages.
“We invite researchers to take advantage of this unique opportunity to apply for the variety of state of the art infrastructures with financial support from the EU.”
The first funding call is open until 20 January 2025 with a subsequent call scheduled to open in September 2025, shaped by the outcomes of the first call.
Aquarius is a four-year, €14.5m project funded by the EU Horizon Europe programme with the aim to provide access to research infrastructures to address challenges and explore opportunities for the long-term sustainability of marine and freshwater ecosystems.
Last week, the EU commissioner-designate for start-ups, research and innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva called for increased funding and a coordinated effort to strengthen the ERA, pushing for the unified effort through an ERA legislation.
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