Each proposed action under this topic should foresee all of the following types of support to Mission communities of actors of the respective basin: financial support to third parties (also referred to as cascading grants) to community-led pilot actions; cascading grants for transition agendas; and technical assistance, to be provided by the consortium.

Cascading grants to community-led pilot actions:
Each proposal under this topic should foresee awarding at least 5 cascading grants of €200.000 – €2 million per grant to community-led pilot actions that are implementing innovative solutions towards achieving one or several interlinked Mission objectives in the respective basin addressed by the proposal. The Commission estimates that the total budget for the cascading call to support community-led actions could be in the order of €7 million. These third-party community-led actions may be implemented by a consortium of several participants. The size of the consortium and the budget requested should reflect the specific local needs addressed by the third-party action.

The proposals are expected to provide a detailed plan for the cascading grant call for the community-led pilot actions, in particular planning the launch of the call no later than the end of month 3 of the project. The proposals should describe appropriate means to promote the cascading grant call at lighthouse, national and regional levels that would allow them to reach as many of the potential applicants as possible.

The third-party actions supported through the cascading call should demonstrate measurable, verifiable, and ambitious progress towards reaching at least one or, whenever possible and applicable, several interlinked objectives and targets set out in the Mission Ocean and Waters Implementation Plan. The chosen focus of the third-party actions should depend on which objective(s) are most urgent for the communities dealing with specific conditions and realities in a particular area. However, addressing several objectives, in the case that this is feasible, may provide an added value and should thus be seen as advantage for the applications in the cascading calls.

The third-party actions should focus on implementing innovative solutions that go beyond the state of the art and that combine, as appropriate, technological, nature-based, social, cultural, regulatory, and financial innovation, and new governance models. The actions should foster a participatory approach that empowers local stakeholders, builds on their local know-how and application of sustainable practices, and encourages their long-term commitment to the protection, restoration and de-pollution of our ocean, seas and waters and to making the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular. With the help from the project consortia selected under this topic, the community-led third-party actions should promote the deployment and upscaling of innovative solutions to restore the ocean and waters, including through the preparation of deployment plans.

The community-led third-party actions should be encouraged to cooperate with scientific institutions to stimulate transdisciplinary innovation activities, which are based on best available science practices. Transdisciplinary activities denote cooperation of diverse societal stakeholder groups (administration, civil society, business & industry, finance, etc.), not only across academic disciplines (‘interdisciplinary’).

The types of Mission communities relevant to the cascading grants may include at least the following:

• ports (including inland ports);
• islands;
• fishing communities, aquaculture producers and other representatives of blue economy;
• operators of various vessels;
• Local Action Groups described by the Community-Led Local Development strategies
• waterfront cities or regions / communities (avoiding overlaps with Cities’ Mission);
• conservation communities;
• representatives of the tourism sector;
• maritime infrastructure operators (incl. offshore platforms and their operators).

Various types of actors in the communities listed above could apply for the support. These could include for example:

• regional and local authorities;
• NGOs, foundations, professional associations, and other entities engaged in local development and nature conservation activities;
• educational establishments;
• locally based companies (provided this is not in conflict with the State Aid rules);
• research performing organisations, etc.

Cascading grants for transition agendas:
Each proposed action should also foresee awarding at least 20 cascading grants for transition agendas of up to €100.000 each, addressing the types of Mission communities described above. The proposed actions should ensure that the selection process of the third parties to which financial support for transition agendas would be granted is based on principles of transparency, objectivity, and fairness, in accordance with Annex B of the general annexes to this work programme.

A transition agenda for this call is understood as a strategic roadmap towards reaching all objectives and targets of the Mission ‘Restore our ocean and waters by 2030’ in the applicant communities, with a particular focus on the objectives that are most relevant to the specific community. The roadmaps could cover processes needed to ensure the protection and restoration of marine/coastal/inland waters, biodiversity and ecosystems, the reduction/elimination of pollution and the achievement of decarbonisation and circularity targets, as well as include a plan for a defined number of years concerning the objectives set, covering, for example, expected outcomes, results, impact, ways to achieve them and ways to bring in financing to support the achievement of these objectives.

The transition agenda should indicate how specific results and ideally also their impacts are expected to materialise in order to ensure the actual achievements of the objectives. These agendas would serve as a basis for further planning of follow-up activities by the actors involved, particularly actions to meet the Mission Ocean and Waters objectives/targets, to be subsequently implemented with the financial support of various funds (e.g., EU structural funds/national/regional funds).

All entities establishing transition agendas should commit to report to the project that had issued the third-party financing within 6 months after finalisation of the agendas on the progress of implementing its results in practice.

Technical assistance to Mission Communities of actors:
The proposals should also foresee technical assistance to Mission Communities of actors in the basin addressed by the respective action. Such assistance should address the needs of the Mission communities of actors in the particular basin and may include support and advice needed for the preparation of business plans, feasibility studies, impact assessments, and needs assessment, as well as long-term sustainability planning to help the communities of actors develop sustainable financing strategies to ensure longevity of the efforts to achieve healthy oceans, seas and waters; capacity building to empower communities of actors with the knowledge and skills needed to undertake effective pollution prevention and elimination, conservation and restoration initiatives, as well as making the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular; and other Mission-related actions that would require direct counselling, written guidance, online materials, webinars, in-depths sessions, deep dives, peer-to-peer support, twinning etc.).

It is essential to tailor the support provided to the specific needs and context of each community of actors, including through the use of local languages, as well as fostering a participatory approach that empowers local stakeholders and encourages their long-term commitment to the protection and restoration of our ocean, seas and waters.

The proposals under this topic should also work on clustering of and support to the third-party community-led actions. The proposals should help create a network of these community-led actions to enhance communication, collaboration and sharing of knowledge and best practices to maximise their combined impact, and create links to the networks similarly created by the other three projects selected under this topic in other Mission lighthouse areas.

Furthermore, the proposals should assist each community-led action in using its experiences and solutions to establish new networks and collaborations in their respective areas. The proposals should provide guidance and support to the third-party actions in forming partnerships with local communities, NGOs, government agencies, or relevant stakeholders to expand the impact of the actions and create a collaborative ecosystem for knowledge sharing, resource optimisation, and wider adoption of successful solutions.

The proposals should provide help and guidance to the selected community-led actions regarding access to additional funding. The proposals should also identify, evaluate, and showcase feasible and scalable solutions demonstrated by the community-led actions, and provide guidance on deployment of these solutions.