BlueActionBanos one year in: local communities thriving the Mission Ocean and Waters in the Baltic and North Sea

BlueActionBanos one year in: local communities thriving the Mission Ocean and Waters in the Baltic and North Sea

On 1 October 2026, ERRIN joined the BlueActionBANOS partners for an important meeting in Berlin, hosted by the SUBMARINER Network who is leading this project consortium, in which ERRIN is a full partner. This meeting marked an important milestone in the project's implementation being one year in. During fruitful discussions and co-creation sessions, the partners reflected on the progress made so far and deepened the co-designing process for for the second open call for Transition Agenda project, and the technical support programme which will be launched later this year for the first cohort of granted projects. 

First open calls received 222 applications

Partners had fruitful discussions about the first open calls process, which closed earlier this year on 29 May with an overwhelming number of applications. 

From 222 proposals received in total, the first Transition Agenda open call received 61 proposal submissions, and the Community-Led Actions open call received 161. Submitted proposals span across all countries in the Baltic and North Sea region, address multiple high-level policy objectives, and engage a varied subset of coordinating entities. All submitted proposals supported one or more of the EU Mission Ocean and Waters objectives. Across both calls, protecting and restoring marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity was the most frequently cited goal, preventing and eliminating pollution of the ocean, seas and waters ranked second and the goal of making the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular came in a close third. 

Who applied for the Open Calls? 

In the Transition Agenda open call, the most common coordinator type was locally-based commercial companies (26 submissions), followed by non-governmental organisations (13), regional or local authorities (7), foundations (6), and smaller numbers of research-performing organisations, knowledge brokers, enterprises fostering inclusion or skills development and educational establishments. 

In the Community Led Action open call, commercial companies again led (30), followed by research-performing organisations (25), enterprises or cooperatives focused on inclusion, skills development, or sustainable blue economy activities (24), regional or local authorities (13), educational establishments (10), foundations (10) and non-governmental organisations (10). 

What comes next? 

The evaluation process is close to reaching its closure, and applicants will be informed of outcomes in Autumn 2026. The selected projects will be announced publicly. The BlueActionBANOS partners are working behind the scenes on the support programme from which the local communities will benefit once their projects are launched. 

Interested members are invited to follow the BlueActionBANOS tag to receive future updates. 

About BlueActionBANOS 

ERRIN is a full partner in the BlueActionBanos consortium, involving 18 partners across 11 countries that support and empower communities to lead transformative change in the Baltic and North Sea to achieve the objectives set out in the EU Mission to restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030. BlueActionBANOS puts communities at the heart of ocean and water restoration in the Baltic and North Sea (BANOS) region and will support local actors in turning ambition into action, restoring marine and freshwater ecosystems, reducing pollution and accelerating the transition to a carbon-neutral and circular blue economy.

You can read more about ERRIN's role in BlueActionBANOS here.