Coordinating and supporting the combined activities of member and associated states towards the objectives of the Zero Emission Waterborne Transport partnership so as to increase synergies and impact (ZEWT Partnership)

EU Member States and Associated Countries have previously cooperated in the framework of the Horizon 2020 ERA-NET Co-fund MarTERA (“Maritime and Marine Technologies for a New ERA”) which engaged 16 countries which together launched joint calls that supported nearly 50 joint projects with €56M of funding. This has established valuable coordination between national and European research, including with the waterborne transport sector. The benefits from synergies towards the achievement of common goals which align with the objectives of the ZEWT partnership. This requires better coordination and harmonisation of individual national funding programmes as well as consideration and alignment with the ZEWT partnership and its related calls and projects. Furthermore, national administrations are best placed to facilitate this alignment and the increased participation of SMEs within European projects which are aligned with the objectives of ZEWT. Amongst a critical mass comprising national authorities and R&I funding bodies from multiple EU Member States/Associated countries will contribute to increasing the impact from the activities of the partnership and its related calls and projects as well as accelerating implementation of the partnerships SRIA and enhancing the efficiency, synergies and impacts of national activities which are aligned with ZEWT objectives, also engaging with relevant networks of Horizon Europe National Contact Points.

With respect to actions which are aligned with the objectives of the ZEWT partnership, activities should include all of the aspects below:

• Facilitating collaboration between member and associated states in a variety of configurations including possibly joint calls to increase synergies, impact and efficiency of national activities as well as accelerating progress towards achieving the objectives of the ZEWT partnership. However, activities will not include support to the projects themselves and their management.
• Reinforcing the complementarity of national schemes towards the take up and deployment of European R&I results which are aligned with the objectives of ZEWT and thereby increasing impact and value from European and national investments.
• Reinforcing synergies between ZEWT related actions addressed within Horizon Europe and those of EU Member States and Associated States within other EU programs such as the Blue Economy Partnership, European Regional Development Fund, Connecting Europe Facility, Innovation Fund and other national programs

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Zero Emission Waterborne Transport’ (ZEWT). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on results to the European Partnership ‘Zero Emission Waterborne Transport’ (ZEWT) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.