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MARHAB

Project description

Restoring Northern Europe’s marine ecosystems

Most marine habitats and species protected under the EU Habitats Directive remain in poor condition, with the Kattegat-Skagerrak region in Northern Europe particularly hard-hit. The EU-funded MARHAB project aims to reverse this trend by using advanced technologies, such as genomics, tracking, and machine learning, to restore and sustain these fragile ecosystems. By aligning fisheries management with biodiversity conservation, the project addresses the urgent need to protect marine resources that underpin climate resilience, food security, and livelihoods. Timely in its alignment with the EU’s 2030 Biodiversity Strategy, MARHAB also focuses on stakeholder engagement and raising public awareness. Its approach will deliver vital knowledge to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Kattegat-Skagerrak Seas and neighbouring coastal waters.

Objective

The vast majority of marine habitats and species protected under the EU Habitats Directive still show an unfavourable conservation status. This situation is particularly pressing in Northern Europe, where the conservation status of marine habitats in the Kattegat-Skagerrak region is consistently bad. MARHAB’s objective is to improve the conservation status of marine ecosystems by demonstrating an ecosystem dynamics approach to restoration and maintenance of protected habitats. By employing cutting edge technology (genomics, tracking, in situ observations, machine learning) in state-of-art ecosystem research, the project will provide the scientific underpinnings needed to bring about the long overdue reconciliation of fisheries management with biodiversity conservation. Moreover, it will generate a leap in knowledge urgently needed to sustainably manage the productive but severely overexploited ecosystems harboured in the Kattegat-Skagerrak Seas and adjoining coastal waters. MARHAB is urgent, timely and innovative. Urgent, because key habitats and species are in the worst environmental status of the European waters, while European citizens rely on a healthy ocean for climate resilience, and marine resources support livelihoods and food security. Timely, because international agreements such as the 2030 European Biodiversity strategy and the Global Biodiversity Framework (COP15) committed parties to reach important conservation targets in less than 7 years from now, including effectively protecting 30% of the ocean, and 10% with strict protection (in EU). And innovative, because this is a highly understudied region in what concerns marine protection effectiveness. MARHAB engages with the full range of relevant stakeholders at local, regional, national, international, EU and global level. Through a communication strategy tailored to target audiences, MARHAB will contribute to increasing the public and politicians’ understanding of marine biodiversity conservation.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01

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Coordinator

HAVFORSKNINGSINSTITUTTET
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 319 375,00
Address
NORDNESGATEN 50
5817 Bergen
Norway

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Region
Norge Vestlandet Vestland
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 319 375,00

Participants (5)

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