MarTERA consortium, consisting of 16 collaborating countries, has opened a joint call for transnational research and innovation projects in maritime and marine technologies, including renewable energy generation.
The transnational call has a budget of around €30 million for collaborative projects in the areas of environmentally friendly maritime technologies; development of novel materials and structures; sensors, automation, monitoring and observations; advanced manufacturing and production; and safety and security.
Under the development of novel materials and structures priority area, the collaborative partners developing technologies for economic and environmentally sustainable renewable energy generation from sea are eligible to apply.
The 2017 call will be implemented as a two-step procedure, requiring interested parties to submit a pre-proposal, to be followed by a full-proposal, after the eligibility assessment.
The deadline for pre-proposals is set for March 31, 2017. The project coordinator of an applying research consortium must submit the pre-proposal on behalf of the consortium, MarTERA states.
Project consortia consisting of at least two independent eligible legal entities from at least two different participating countries listed below can apply for funding, and depending on the partner size, the expected range of requested funding is €1 million to €2 million per project.
Financial support for the projects will be awarded by the national/regional funding organizations according to the national/regional guidelines. Only those projects which receive funds from at least two countries will be supported.
The duration of projects is set for a maximum of three years.
The call is initiated by 18 funding organizations from countries of the former ERA-NET MARTEC consortium and JPI Oceans members, including Argentina, Belarus, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, South Africa and Turkey, and will be co-funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020.