EU Mission:
Restore our Ocean and Waters

This Mission focuses on one of the most urgent challenges: restoring the health of the ocean, seas, and inland waters by 2030. It uses research and innovation, public engagement, and targeted blue investments to drive systemic change across marine and freshwater ecosystems.​

Core objectives

  • Protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030.​

  • Prevent and eliminate pollution of oceans, seas, and waters, consistent with the EU Action Plan “Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil”.​

  • Make the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular, aligned with the proposed European Climate Law and the Sustainable Blue Economy Strategy.​

Lighthouses and implementation

  • Implementation is organised through area-based “lighthouses” in major sea and river basins: Atlantic-Arctic, Mediterranean, Baltic-North Sea, and Danube-Black Sea.​

  • These lighthouses act as living labs where solutions are demonstrated, deployed, and scaled up in real conditions.​

Mission Charter and portal

  • A Mission Charter invites Member States, regions, cities, and stakeholders to pledge concrete actions, with over 1,000 pledges already contributing to the Mission’s objectives.​

  • A dedicated Mission Portal supports progress tracking, knowledge sharing, and access to funding and partnership opportunities.​

Digital Twin Ocean

  • The Mission is developing a Digital Twin Ocean, a virtual representation that integrates diverse datasets to simulate the impacts of different actions and explore future scenarios.​

  • This tool will support real-time monitoring, predictive analysis, and more informed decision-making for sustainable management of marine and freshwater ecosystems.​

Stakeholder engagement

  • The Mission engages public and private organisations, national, regional and local authorities, coastal, riparian and island communities, businesses, and citizens.​

  • By empowering this broad stakeholder community, the Mission fosters shared responsibility and active participation in shaping the future of Europe’s marine and freshwater ecosystems.​

Build Horizon Europe-ready consortia using the VCW Funnel, myVCW AI, and targeted matchmaking.

Register

Horizon Europe offers €95B in funding until 2027. This summit prioritises participants with a clear role or ambition in Horizon Europe proposals.

Horizon Europe context and partnership opportunities

Between 2026 and 2027, Horizon Europe will allocate approximately €14 billion across European organizations to work on cross-national projects. Below, you can explore the Horizon Europe calls for the 2026–2027 programming period, organized by Cluster to reflect the Horizon Europe framework and to facilitate the identification of opportunities aligned with your project, sector, or strategic priorities.

By attending the 2nd Sustainable Value Creation Summit (19–28 January 2026, Nova SBE) and visiting each Cluster page (see links below), participants can access detailed information on relevant calls, objectives, and funding opportunities, while simultaneously working on concrete challenges using the Value Creation Wheel methodology.

  • Day 4 – Education, Science & Innovation | All Clusters and All EU Missions

    Thursday, 22 January 2026

    A cross-cutting day bringing together education systems, scientific knowledge, research excellence, and innovation ecosystems across all thematic clusters and EU Missions, focusing on how learning, science, and innovation translate into sustainable value creation and long-term societal impact.

  • Day 5 - Leaders and Executives from Organizations & Public Institutions | All EU Missions

    Friday, 23 January 2026

    A leadership-focused day convening executives, policymakers, and senior decision-makers from organizations and public institutions across all EU Missions, addressing strategic governance, organisational transformation, and long-term value creation in complex and uncertain environments.

Register here