Under water noise mitigation and environmental (RIA) | 3 December 2019

The call opened the 3 December 2019 and it is classified as a “ RIA – Research and Innovation Action ” and the focus area is: Smart, green and integrated transport.

Underwater noise from shipping and boats affects the behaviour and health of water organisms in rivers and at sea, including marine mammals. However, despite previous research, the environmental impacts from effects and the propagation of underwater noise at different amplitudes and frequencies remain poorly understood and largely unquantified.

All following aspects should be addressed:

Develop standardised methods to measure and assess the impacts from underwater noise generated by shipping and boats. Consideration should be given to the acute and cumulative effects on different water species in rivers and at sea including marine mammals.
Establish a stakeholder group to support methodology and standards development and its dissemination. The group should include researchers within the domain of underwater noise assessment and mitigation and other relevant actors , such as for example NGO’s, marine and waterway authorities, industry, ship owners, naval industry etc.
Identify, quantify and validate any negative impacts from different types and amplitudes of underwater noise from shipping and boats.
Propose the most effective feasible solutions to mitigate the effects of underwater noise and to establish appropriate limits.

Expected impacts include:

To enable appropriate mitigation measures, increase understanding of the short and long term environmental impacts of underwater noise from shipping and boats. Identification of the most harmful underwater noise characteristics and the acute and longer term impacts on different organisms including marine mammals. Establishment of standards which can be widely adopted for underwater noise measurement to increase the comparability of data between research programs. Develop cost effective solutions to measure underwater radiated noise from shipping. Identification and assessment of solutions to reduce harm from underwater noise. Develop innovative solutions to reduce the most harmful radiated shipping noise. Provide a foundation for policy. Support implementation of the marine strategy framework directive.

More information here.

Deadline

The deadline is 21 April 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time (single stage).

Project duration

The signature of grant agreement is expected maximum 8 months from the deadline for submission (Evaluation results: maximum 5 months from the deadline for submission). No maximum project duration indicated.

Financial allocation

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of €8million would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. The total budget expected for this call is €8million. The funding rate is equal to 100% of eligible costs of eligible costs.

Partnership

The list of eligible countries for funding can be found in Annex A. However, some non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon 2020 projects.
Eligibility conditions for participation in RIA : At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other.
Sole participants formed by several legal entities (e.g. European Research Infrastructure Consortia, European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation, central purchasing bodies) are eligible if the above-mentioned minimum conditions are satisfied by the legal entities forming together the sole participant.

Further information

Further details on the scope and expected impact of of the call can be found in the “Work Programme 2018-2020 – 11. Smart, green and integrated transport”pp. 114-115.

Further info on eligibilities could be found in Annex B and Annex C.