Green, circular and resilient harbours

Apie kvietimą

Expected Outcome: This topic aims at directly engaging and supporting harbour/ports and their communities in demonstrating and accelerating the transitions needed for achieving one or several objectives of the Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters”. The participation of relevant public bodies managing port authorities and their communities as partners of the consortium is strongly encouraged. Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: Measurable, quantifiable, verifiable and ambitious progress towards reaching one or several interlinked objectives and targets of the Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”, as set out in the Mission Implementation Plan[1] through implementation of effective and well-managed place-based and people-centred actions; Involvement and increased readiness port cities and authorities for testing, deploying and upscaling systemic innovative solutions for restoring ecosystems and preventing their degradation, including by monitoring invasive species brought through maritime traffic or facilitating ecosystem connectivity; Increased number of port cities and authorities taking concrete measures to protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas and waters, and make the blue economy carbon-neutral and circular; Increased resilience of port/cities/authorities and their related communities to extreme climate events; sea-level rise and other environmental challenges (floods, droughts, sea-level rise, etc.) through in particular the reduction of pollution and improved environmental management in harbour areas; Enhanced knowledge sharing across and within ports and their related communities, facilitating scalable and sustainable practices. Scope: The goal of this topic is to accelerate the implementation of innovative solutions to achieve Mission objectives and targets in ports in line with existing legislation like the Industrial Emissions Directive[2], the Water Framework Directive[3], the Marine Strategy Framework Directive[4], the Waste Framework Directive[5], the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive[6] , the Nature Restoration Regulation [7] ,the upcoming EU Port Strategy, Industrial Maritime Strategy and the European Ocean Pact [8]. Proposals under this topic should test, deploy, and upscale systemic innovative solutions to improve sustainability and resilience in ports to reduce pollution and environmental degradation, reverse biodiversity loss, and improve natural resource management in port areas. This covers both coastal and inland cities and areas with a port regardless of their activities (e.g. fishing, commercial, marinas, recreational) and size. The proposals should encourage cooperation within and between ports across Europe using existing activities in some ports as pilots/leaders and engaging other ports in a development and learning process (e.g. using formats like summer schools and…