TRANSNATIONAL ACCESS
Transnational Access Funding Calls
- Call 1 Regional Lighthouse Access Call: Open 11 November 2024 – 20 January 2025
- Call 2 Super-integrated Lighthouse Call: Open 2 September 2025 – 28 October 2025
From November 11, 2024, a dedicated Call Platform will open for the development and submission of applications for Call 1.
The AQUARIUS transnational access programme aims to:
Support research and innovation projects that contribute to the goals and challenges of the EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters, and Lighthouse regions.
Provide researchers with access to state-of-the-art facilities, equipment, data, samples, expertise and networks of the Lighthouse Regions.
Facilitate the mobility, training and networking of researchers across the Lighthouse Regions and beyond.
Enhance the visibility, impact and dissemination of the research outcomes and best practices of the Lighthouse Regions.
Strengthen the cooperation and synergies among the Lighthouse Regions and other relevant initiatives and stakeholders of the ocean and waters.
Furthermore, the programme will encourage interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and participatory approaches that involve researchers from different fields and sectors, as well as stakeholders from the public, private and civil society.
The programme has the overall objectives to:
Enhance the quality and efficiency of research and innovation activities by enabling cross-disciplinary and cross-border collaboration and exchange of knowledge, data, and skills.
Increase the visibility and accessibility of research infrastructures by facilitating the dissemination and sharing of RI information, resources, and best practices.
Support the sustainability and competitiveness of research infrastructures by stimulating the demand and utilization of research infrastructures facilities and services, and by encouraging the involvement and feedback of research infrastructure users and stakeholders.
Supporting Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters
The thematic and geographic scope of the AQUARIUS transnational access calls are related to the concept of the EU Mission Ocean and Waters area-based “Lighthouses” in major sea/river basins: Atlantic-Arctic, Mediterranean Sea, Baltic-North Sea, and Danube-Black Sea, each prioritising one of the three Mission objectives:
- The Atlantic-Arctic and the Danube & Black Sea regions focus on protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems.
- The Baltic & North Sea is focused on making the blue economy carbon neutral and circular.
- The Mediterranean Sea targets preventing and eliminating marine pollution.
To further define the call challenge areas, AQUARIUS partners analysed knowledge and data gaps in each of the four Lighthouse regions. This work is summarised in the following reports.