Regional (sea-basins) components of the EU Digital Twin Ocean

This grant aims to establish regional components within the EU Digital Twin Ocean (DTO) core infrastructure (EDITO), supporting the development of local digital twin applications tailored to the unique priorities of regional stakeholder communities. Projects will aggregate regional data and digital twin assets, develop regional digital twin services for policy and Blue Economy challenges, engage stakeholders, promote adoption of innovative AI and big data methods, and create what-if-scenarios to support monitoring and sustainable management of regional seas.

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Agency	HORIZON (EU)
Region	EU
Country	N/A
Legal form	Company, NGO, Government organization, Other
Start date	4 Feb 2026
End date	23 Sep 2026
Max funding	EUR 4 000 000 – 4 850 000 per project
Budget	EUR 19 400 000 for all grants under this action
Coverage	Subject to Horizon Europe rules; see Work Programme General Annexes (typically up to 70% for Innovation Actions, with higher rates for non-profit organisations)

Grant application conditions

Admissibility Conditions	Proposal page limit and layout described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes Specific layout described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System
Eligible Countries	EU Member States and associated countries as per Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes Certain non-EU/third countries may participate under specific provisions
Other Eligible Conditions	If projects use satellite-based earth observation, navigation, or related timing data and services, Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS must be used (other data/services may be used additionally) International organisations with headquarters in an eligible Member State or associated country may be funded in exceptional cases
Financial and Operational Capacity/Exclusion	Applicants must demonstrate financial and operational capacity as described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes
Open Science Obligations	Projects collecting in-situ or marine observational data must make them openly available through EMODnet, following FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles
Sea-basin Coverage	Grants will be awarded to cover the four Mission basins (Atlantic & Arctic, Mediterranean, Baltic & North Sea, Danube/Black Sea), with at least one highest-ranked proposal per sea basin if thresholds are met
Application Forms and Templates	Use the application form specific to this call, available in the Submission System Refer to standard forms for Horizon Europe Innovation Actions (HE RIA, IA)
Documentation	https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-MISS-2026-03-OCEAN-05

Eligible expenses

Evaluation criteria

Business exclusions

Reporting

Application process

Application requirements