MarTERA Call 2020

Deadline: Mar 27, 2020  
CALL EXPIRED

1. Introduction

1.1 Objectives of the MarTERA

The overall goal of the ERA-NET Cofund MarTERA is to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA) in maritime and marine technologies as well as Blue Growth. The ERA-NET Cofund MarTERA is a network of 18 ministries, authorities and funding organisations responsible for funding research and innovation projects in maritime and marine technologies from 16 countries.

The consortium has organised and co-funded, in cooperation with the European Commission under Horizon 2020, a joint call for transnational research and innovation projects on different thematic priority areas in 2017. A call without co-funding by the Commission was implemented in 2019 and the consortium will launch further calls.

1.2 The objective of the Call

The realisation of a European research and innovation agenda requires a broad and systematic cooperation in all areas of waterborne transport, offshore activity, marine resources, maritime security, biotechnologies, desalination, offshore oil & gas, fisheries, aquaculture etc. for a sustainable development of the maritime and marine sector. Research and innovation activities in these fields cannot be tackled either at national levels alone, or solely by a single sector. Coordinated actions are required for the maritime industry to strengthen Europe’s position in this important and complex economic field in a global market. The focus of development in MarTERA is given to technologies (instead of sectors) due to their potentially large impact to a wide range of application fields.

Sectors with a high potential for sustainable blue economy like waterborne transport, shipbuilding & ship repair, offshore and sub-sea activities, monitoring and observations, can support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors as a whole and use the potential of Europe’s oceans, seas and coasts for jobs, value and sustainability. Technological breakthroughs are of importance for improving ocean governance, which is by itself a big market for maritime industries recalling that European countries spend significant amounts annually on purchasing and running infrastructure to monitor the seas and oceans.

Concentrated and targeted Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) funding on common research priorities will foster maritime and marine technologies in Europe. In this highly competitive sector networking, trans-national collaboration and joint initiatives are the keys to success. The main objective of MarTERA is to address a number of actual challenges that can be identified as follows:

• While collaborative projects funded by the EC are often quite large and complex to attract participation especially of SMEs, national funding schemes offer limited opportunities to collaborate with foreign partners, especially if cross-border funding is impossible;

• The participation in trans-national projects offers advantages by using respective national funding, to tackle complex projects which cannot be accomplished by one nation alone;

• Transnational projects provide a better chance for innovation to enter into new markets;

• The cross-cutting perspective in technology development can lead to innovations capable of benefiting more than one sector, hence increasing the impact of the funded trans-national projects.

• Bringing industry and research actors across borders together will strengthen Europe’s economic position underpinning Blue Growth.

• Through trans-national cooperation, it is feasible to create critical mass and focus excellence on precompetitive breakthroughs, which can benefit marine and maritime industries in general and make them more competitive in the longer term, thereby maintaining Europe’s competitive edge.

• To create critical mass and address the needs for technologies in marine and maritime operations.

The positive effects of cooperation will lead to an increase of marine or maritime investments, which subsequently strengthen the industrial innovation and secure jobs. MarTERA project will continue improving implementation of joint activities and has ambitious goals for funding transnational research.

Funding of the projects is decentralised, so each country participating in the call gives funds to their entities. The proposals submitted to the call must be submitted using a procedure before the strictly enforced deadline.

The proposals are evaluated in order to identify those whose quality is sufficiently high to give guidance to national recommendations.

2. Scope and detail objectives of the Call

There is an urgent requirement for coordinated actions across the EU in order to tackle the challenges arising across a large number of sectors related to the oceans. The need for highly-specialised marine equipment, more efficient and greener waterborne transport systems, clean energy, increased seafood production, technologies for reliable ocean observations, and safe marine and maritime operations etc. calls for substantial innovations with respect to the whole spectrum of marine and maritime technologies.

The selection of topics for funding is done based on the overarching technological challenges, due to their relevance and possibility to benefit a wide range of applications and sectors. The topic area is a natural continuation and expansion of previous activities undertaken by MARTEC I&II and is in alignment with Strategic Areas of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) of JPI Oceans.

The participating organisations have agreed to split the topics of the call in the following five Priority Areas (PAs):

• PA1: Environmental friendly maritime technologies

  • Emission reduction:

    • -  Exhaust gas treatment (CO2, SOX, NOX, black carbon etc.)

    • -  Waste and ballast water management

    • -  Response to marine pollutions (e.g. oil spills, micro- and nano plastics)

  • Energy efficiency:

    • -  Voyage optimisation, on-board power, vessel efficiency and energy management,

    • -  Advanced technologies for the use of new fuels

  • Noise and vibration reduction

  • Innovative propulsion and powering systems (e.g. fully electric ships)

  • Technologies for sensitive regions

• PA2: Innovative concepts for ships and offshore structures

  • Novel materials:

    • -  Light, robust and resistant materials

    • -  Environmental impact assessment (material testing)

    • -  Joining technologies

    • -  Intelligent materials and metamaterials

  • Biofouling and corrosion prevention:

    • -  Coatings

    • -  Advanced technologies

  • Structures:

    • -  Development, monitoring, maintenance and dismantling of maritime structures

    • -  Development of technologies for economic and environmental sustainable renewable energy from sea;

- Sustainable and cost-efficient platforms for offshore technologies, including multi-purpose offshore platforms and deep-sea structures

• New vessel design incl. inland water vessels

• Improved models for marine vehicles and structures behaviour

  • -  Software and simulation tools

  • -  Advanced model testing procedures incl. hybrid testing

  • -  Full scale measurements

• Oil and Gas (Technologies for extraction of oil and gas in rough and ice-covered areas as well as extreme water depths, autonomous underwater production and extraction systems for oil and gas)

• Deep Sea Mining:

- Environmental friendly technologies for exploitation, exploration and monitoring of deep sea

resources

• PA3: Automation, sensors, monitoring and observations

  • Technologies for detection and removal of munition

  • Intelligent predictive maintenance systems

  • Sensor development:

    • -  Detection of marine pollutions (e.g. oil spills, micro- and nano plastics)

    • -  Robust and efficient technologies for detection, monitoring and observation (physical, geological,

      chemical and biological measurements, including remote sensing)

    • -  Sensor fusion technologies covering observation systems, condition monitoring

    • -  Miniaturisation of sensors

    • -  Data transmission, E-infrastructure and telemetry for data transfer. Remote control platforms

      and systems, including satellite and land based control systems

  • Underwater technology:

    • -  For inspection, intervention, monitoring and control (Robotics)

    • -  Development of intelligent and cost efficient systems and devices

    • -  Path planning, guidance, navigation (e-navigation) and control methodologies for ships and other

      marine vehicles, including multiple cooperative vehicles (incl. swarm technologies)

    • -  Innovative, robust and reliable power supply for automated sub-marine technologies

    • -  Underwater navigation and communication

• PA4: Advanced manufacturing and production

  • Digitalisation and automation of production

  • Optimisation of production: improved and novel production technologies for flexible manufacturing,

    with focus on organization and networking along the value chain

  • Circular economy concepts:

- Life cycle management

• Intelligent/innovative interacting components

• Human machine interaction, Augmented and Virtual Reality

• PA5: Safety and security

• Individual safety concepts harmonized with navigational requirements

• ICT tools for monitoring and optimization of maritime operations (e.g. routing following best weather

  conditions)

• Hinterland connection through inland waterways

• Early warning and accident management systems

• Evacuation and rescue concepts

• Decision support systems

• Improved operations:

  • -  Automation of processes

  • -  Dynamic positioning

  • -  Docking and mooring

  • -  Handling of goods

  • -  Subsea intervention

• Applications for increased fire safety

The Annexes of this document provide a matrix of the Priority Areas funded by each participating country/region and the National Regulations. Please be aware that not all the Priority Areas are funded by each participating countries/regions. It is required that each partner in a consortium contacts his/her National Programme Managers(s) to be informed about the rules in his/her country/region prior to submission of a pre- proposal and a full proposal.

3. Call Structure

3.1 Definitions

MarTERA Call Office

The MarTERA Call Office, hosted by Projektträger Jülich, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany, is the central contact point for applicants regarding all technical and general issues of the submission.

Steering Committee (SC)

The Steering Committee (SC) will be composed of one representative per participating funding organisations and will be the decision-making body in the framework of this call.

National Programme Manager (NPM)

Each participating funding organisation in this call has nominated NPM(s) to provide information on national/regional funding rules and procedures. It is required that each applicant in a consortium contacts his/her NPM prior to the submission of pre-proposals.

Project costs

The total sum of all eligible costs which is necessary for the implementation of the foreseen project. Regarding the conditions for eligibility of costs please contact your NPM.

Funding costs

Reimbursement rate of the eligible project costs which will be applied per partner according to the national/regional programmes.

3.2 Participating countries

The research projects initiated by this call can apply for funding or will get guidance (see National Regulations) from the partner institutions of the MarTERA consortium listed below. The participation of applicants from other countries is allowed, if a national organisation is willing to fund successful national participants. In this case, the commitment of this must be provided upon submitting the pre-proposal.

The indicative total available budget amounts to 13 million €.

The following ministries, authorities and funding organisations from 11 countries agreed to participate in the call:

Country Participating organisation name

Participant Committed short name Budget1 in

EURO

Germany Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie

BMWi 5,000,000

Belarus National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

NASB 70,000

Belgium Fund for Accompanying Economic and Innovation Policy

VLAIO 2,000,000

France Agence Nationale de la Recherche

ANR 1,000,000

Malta Malta Council for Science and Technology

MCST 300,000

Norway The Research Council of Norway

RCN 2,000,000

Poland Narodowe Centrum Badan i Rozwoju

NCBR 600,000

Romania

Unitatea Executiva pentru Finantarea Invatamantului Superior, a Cercetarii, Dezvoltarii si Inovarii

UEFISCDI 500,000

Spain Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial

CDTI 500,000

Turkey The Scientific and Technological Research Council of

TÜBITAK 750,000

South Africa Department of Science and Technology

DST 400,000

TOTAL in € 13,120,000

European Member States

Associated countries

Third countries

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