We will map the optimal locations for Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in European seas using measures covering the range of biodiversity from species to ecosystems, including habitats. The contribution of these measures to carbon storage will be quantified and mapped. The top 10% and 30% of the area that includes most species, habitats, and ecosystems, and maximises blue carbon benefits, will be prioritised as an MPA network. The geographic scope is the Atlantic Exclusive Economic Zones of the EU and its neighbours, and all of the Mediterranean, Baltic and Black Seas. Feedback from Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) stakeholders in the regional seas on the proposed MPA network and methodology will be reported. A first data-driven classification of ecosystems in European seas will use environmental data from Copernicus and EMODnet. Environmental niche models will map thousands of species and biogenic (fauna and flora structured) habitat ranges and add to existing seabed habitat maps in EMODnet. Analyses of spatial relationships between biodiversity measures and evidence of carbon storage will support the prioritisation analyses. Parallel modelling of current connectivity and the velocity of climate change will map connectivity within the proposed MPA network and how it will accommodate species distribution shifts due to anthropogenic climate change. All data and maps will be freely available through EMODnet, the Ocean Biodiversity Information System, EC Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity, and the project’s online atlas. The atlas will provide transparency, traceability and enable reproducibility of the results. Its synthesis will show stakeholders (MSP, NGO, students, researchers) why areas have been prioritised. The use of decision support software will enable alternative network designs based on stakeholder preferences and could thus support wider MSP beyond the subject and study area.

POMP will advance the scientific understanding of how climate change impacts biodiversity and carbon sequestration potential in emerging and rapidly changing polar marine ecosystems, and, through these impacts, the project will evaluate how resilience and adaptation potential in the polar regions are being altered. The aim is to provide new quantitative knowledge of the mitigation potential of blue carbon in emerging coastal and oceanic habitats and to assess the scope for their inclusion in carbon accounting at national and international levels. Our approach is to study each step in the biological carbon flow from CO2-capture by primary producers, through transformations and intermediate storage, to long-term sequestration. We will do this by combining analyses of new and existing data at several Arctic and Antarctic Learning Sites and use this to develop and validate new ecosystem models and remote sensing algorithms. These will then be used to provide large-scale assessments of changes in blue carbon habitat distributions and their CO2 capture and sequestration potential, both now and in the future. The new knowledge generated will be presented to the scientific community and to decision makers and managers as policy briefs to guide the designation of marine protected areas that recognize both diversity and blue carbon potential. The POMP consortium is highly qualified to meet this task with world-leading experts on blue carbon and climate change impacts in the polar regions, and partners that bring together scientific expertise, extensive unpublished data, polar infrastructure, and unique sampling opportunities as well as experience and resources from several national and EU projects directly related to this call. Participation of three Canadian partners eligible for national funding assures excellent opportunities for cross Atlantic collaboration with a pan-Arctic focus.

NiD4OCEAN will advance the emerging field of nature-inclusive designs, NiDs, (and nature-based solutions, NBS, in general) for offshore renewables by providing effective, novel, context-dependent solutions to industry, managers, and policymakers. This will accelerate their implementation to support the achievement of the international and EU targets for carbon neutrality, biodiversity restoration and sustainable blue economy. Three distinct European ecoregions (North Sea, Baltic Sea, and Western Mediterranean) have been strategically selected due to their different technologies, habitats, ecosystems, and sectorial conflicts with the development of offshore renewables. An Innovation Challenge Series will be developed to promote novel NiDs and NBS for each ecoregion's wind and floating solar structures (addressing issues such as design, material choice, noise, and laying cables). Each ecoregion will use a transdisciplinary approach to develop context-dependent metrics and impact assessment frameworks to evaluate the benefits and risks of selected NiDs for offshore wind. Moreover, data and monitoring requirements for evaluating the performance of NiDs will be identified to be later incorporated into recommendations towards standards. An evidence-based decision-support tool will be co-created with industry and managers to provide clarity on the selection process of NiDs in offshore wind farms. Finally, a co-created policy toolkit for the requirements of offshore wind development to comply with biodiversity protection and restoration targets will be delivered. The NiD4OCEAN consortium (involving scientists, industry, SMEs, NGOs, and the standardization community) together with the establishment of the NiD4OCEAN network, will be key to an ambitious communication and dissemination strategy designed to reach all relevant stakeholders. NiD4OCEAN strives to raise awareness across stakeholders on the need to prioritize win-win solutions for biodiversity and decarbonization.

Animal health and welfare are issues of high research priority for European aquaculture. In particular, improving animal welfare whilst reducing the use of veterinary drugs are current research priorities in line with minimizing the environmental impact of the industry. Preventing, or reducing the impact of disease is of prime importance for producers, researchers and stakeholders. In addition, public awareness of aquatic animal health and welfare leads to the increased attention of policy-makers, scientific community and the consumers into new methods for disease prevention. The IGNITION project aims to unveil new knowledge regarding animal welfare in the context of climate change and propose new tools to mitigate the adverse effects of stress. An improvement in animal welfare will translate in higher-quality farmed animals thus improving farming productivity and sustainability performance. Through IGNITION it is expected to provide new knowledge through genotyping and molecular phenotyping techniques to develop future breeding strategies for fish and shellfish. New innovative tools regarding immunization in fish will also be provided, aiming at improving fish welfare and targeting early life stages. Animal feeds will be formulated to include bioactive compounds extracted from halophytes through a novel upstream cascade salt removal. Special emphasis will be given to the study and discovery of new non-invasive biomarkers of health and welfare, which will in turn allow the development of biosensors and disease prediction through machine learning approaches. The tools developed in IGNITION will be able to avoid the colonization and spread of pathogenic microorganisms, including multi-resistant microorganisms, among farmed animals and the subsequent spread to humans through the food chain.

GES4SEAS will inform and guide marine governance in minimizing human pressures and their impacts on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, while maintaining the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services. This will be achieved through developing an innovative and flexible toolbox, tested, validated, demonstrated and upscaled, in the context of adaptive Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM). This will allow competent authorities to assess and predict the effect of multiple stressors (including climate change) and pressures from human activities, at the national, sub-regional, regional and European level. This will ensure they achieve Good Environmental Status (MSFD), and support different policies at national, European and global levels (e.g. BHD, Biodiversity Strategy, SDG). This will be achieved by integrating stakeholders and the key competent authorities in a Practitioner Advisory Board, in co-creating and validating the toolbox and the EBM approach. In this, we focus on real problem solving and following an iterative and incremental development approach. This will allow GES4SEAS to achieve Technological and Societal Readiness Levels 6, since our solutions will be tested and demonstrated at 11 Learning Sites (LSs) covering important regions and environments. These LSs have been selected to explore geographical specificities, in the four regional seas, with regards to the impacts of cumulative pressures (including climate change) on the functioning of ecosystems, and their capacity for providing ecosystem services, to ensure better management. This includes LSs to explore transboundary issues and a LS at pan-European scale, to explore comparability and harmonization across regional seas, and gain understanding on the functioning of transverse topics (e.g. invasive species, HABs and jellyfish blooms, and top predators). Finally, to internationalize outputs, we have included a LS in the Caribbean Sea, in relation to the SDGs framework and intense extreme events.