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Smart and Sustainable Governance for Plastic and Litter-Free River-to-Sea Ecosystems in the Danube Region

Objective

This project aims to co-design effective tools and solutions with public authorities, service providers, and other stakeholders to combat plastic pollution and marine litter across the Danube River Basin and the Black Sea. Adopting a comprehensive land-to-river-to-sea approach, the initiative will develop a user-friendly toolbox for regulatory bodies to monitor, prevent, and remediate plastic and microplastic pollution. The project will include at least three demo sites across different countries, focusing on key pollution hotspots and strategic point sources such as wastewater treatment plants, maritime industries, agriculture, fisheries and landfills. The toolbox will address litter, plastic and microplastic in rivers, both surface and underwater, while aligning with the MSFD guidelines. A suite of solutions will be piloted, from plastic barriers to adsorption and membrane filtration at wastewater plants, and phytoremediation for agricultural runoff. Each will be tested operationally for removal efficiency, environmental impact, scalability, and cost effectiveness. The work includes cross national analysis of legal and institutional gaps, co development of stakeholder briefs aligned to EU water and plastic directives, and community outreach to build shared governance and public engagement strategies. At least three associated regions will be engaged to adopt toolbox elements via funding and technical support, training and exchange programmes, and engage municipalities, utilities, and innovators. The project will develop business models and value propositions to integrate the technologies into broader markets and ensure long term sustainability. Expected outcomes include a significant reduction in plastic pollution, increased uptake of innovative mitigation solutions, and measurable progress toward EU Zero Pollution targets. The project will contribute to the Mission’s Digital Ocean and Water Knowledge System through open data and enhanced marine observation.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

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Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

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-IA - HORIZON 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-MISS-2025-03

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Coordinator

University of Novi Sad Faculty of Sciences
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.

€ 427 313,00
Address
Trg Dositeja Obradovica 3
21000 Novi Sad
Serbia

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Region
Србија - север Регион Војводине Јужнобачка област
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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.

€ 427 313,00

Participants (19)

Partners (1)

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