Scope:

The proposals should explore opportunities to increase the use of innovative technologies in all fisheries-related activities, including the extractive sector, the collection of data and information and the monitoring of compliance with the rules. Proposals should assess the innovative potential and applicability of new technologies in the fishing sector with the aim of avoiding unnecessary fish mortality, damage to other marine resources and ecosystems; improving energy efficiency; and increasing overall economic efficiency and social acceptability. The expected results should be directly applicable to important fisheries in all European seas. The participation of SMEs that will benefit from the intellectual property and/or from the commercial use of the project outcomes is encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 6 million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude the submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:

To improve resource efficiency in the fishing sector, proposals should:

• Identify existing technologies and their potential for use in the fishing sector, bring these to a readiness level that means they can be used by the fishing sector across the EU and promote their uptake by end users.
• Improve the performance of fishing vessels in terms of resource efficiency, including effective use of resources for data collection and fish stock assessment.
• Reduce the cost of marine monitoring.
• Improve economic efficiency and profitability, avoiding increasing unnecessary fishing pressures and undermining sustainable resource use.
• Involve the fishing sector in collecting evidence for implementing marine policies.
• Improve compliance and reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries.
• Support the implementation of the EU Common Fisheries Policy and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
• Improve the professional skills and competences of those working and being trained to work within the blue economy.

Topic conditions and documents

Please read carefully all provisions below before the preparation of your application.
 

List of countries and applicable rules for funding: described in part A of the General Annexes of the General Work Programme.
Note also that a number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon 2020 projects (follow the links to China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan).

 

Eligibility and admissibility conditions: described in part B and C of the General Annexes of the General Work Programme Proposal page limits and layout: Please refer to Part B of the standard proposal template.

Evaluation

3.1  Evaluation criteria and procedure, scoring and threshold: described in part H of the General Annexes of the General Work Programme [, with the following exceptions]:

3.2 Submission and evaluation process: Guide to the submission and evaluation process
 

Indicative timetable for evaluation and grant agreement:

Information on the outcome of single-stage evaluation: maximum 5 months from the deadline for submission.
Signature of grant agreements: maximum 8 months from the deadline for submission.

Information on the outcome of two-stage evaluation:
      For stage 1: maximum 3 months from the deadline for submission.
      For stage 2: maximum 5 months from the deadline for submission.
Signature of grant agreements: maximum 8 months from the deadline for submission.

Provisions, proposal templates and evaluation forms for the type(s) of action(s) under this topic:

Innovation Action:

Specific provisions and funding rates
Standard proposal template
Standard evaluation form
H2020 General MGA -Multi-Beneficiary
Annotated Grant Agreement

Additional provisions:

• Horizon 2020 budget flexibility
• Technology readiness levels (TRL) – where a topic description refers to TRL, these definitions apply.
• Financial support to Third Parties – where a topic description foresees financial support to Third Parties, these provisions apply.

Open access must be granted to all scientific publications resulting from Horizon 2020 actions, and proposals must refer to measures envisaged. Where relevant, proposals should also provide information on how the participants will manage the research data generated and/or collected during the project, such as details on what types of data the project will generate, whether and how this data will be exploited or made accessible for verification and re-use, and how it will be curated and preserved.

Additional documents
 

• H2020 Work Programme 2016-17: Introduction 
• H2020 Work Programme 2016-17: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy
• H2020 Work Programme 2016-17: Dissemination, Exploitation and Evaluation
• H2020 Work Programme 2016-17: General Annexes
• Legal basis: Horizon 2020 - Regulation of Establishment
• Legal basis: Horizon 2020 Rules for Participation
• Legal basis: Horizon 2020 Specific Programme