to support the launch and implementation of concrete, cross-border cooperation initiatives between Member States in the Northern European Atlantic (Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coast), the Western Mediterranean (including Malta) and the Eastern Mediterranean (Adriatic, Ionian and Cyprus)

The BLUEMED initiative (as part of the Marine Research and Innovation agenda) represents a huge effort to create coherence amongst marine research and innovation priorities at EU, sea basin and national levels and to mainstream blue growth objectives into the relevant instruments. The BLUEMED initiative will be endorsed by nine EU Member States (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece and Cyprus) on 16 October in Venice, in the presence of Commissioner Moedas.

The main aim of this call is to support coordinated action in the context of the IMP, which will carry inter-sectoral and cross-border elements. The call seeks to promote mutual understanding, awareness-raising and joint responses to well-identified challenges hindering integration between maritime sectors in areas such as marine research, coastal and maritime tourism, maritime transport, marine environment, business and skills development, and clustering of maritime activities. Given these varied targets, the call will award one grant to each of the following actions:

The team has been set a number of challenges to test how well marine data in the Mediterranean meets the needs of users. The results will be presented to a panel of users.