Colin Ruel and frederick Herpers moderating the workshop on EU funding in room filled with people

French stakeholder info session on the new Horizon Europe call nr 6

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On 23 May 2025, WestMED’s National Hub France, together with Pole Mer Mediterranée,organised a national stakeholder event in Mottpellier, to inform and discuss EC funding opportunities. Thirtyfive people joined in-person and online for this event that mirrored a similar national event organised for the Atlantic Strategy on May 13 in Brest.

This event was dedicated  to the funding call related to Horizon Europe cluster 6 on Aquaculture and Biotechnologies. Next to this, there was also a reference to Cluster 1: Health.

On behalf of the the French ministry in charge of research with its national Horizon Europe focus (Ministere de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche), Fatiha Fort presented ongoing calls. She also pointed to the existence of specific hubs that serve as accelerators such as the EIC which supports start-ups and SME’s to develop and scale-up innovations.

It was also the opportunity to recall the added value of the WestMED initiative with its Assistance Mechanism, offering different forms of support to national stakeholders through WestMED’s national hub. On the one hand, by supporting projects and project-ideas with finding relevant project funding as well as possible project-partners to form international consortia.  On the other hand, by supporting the alignment of sustainable blue economy policy frameworks at local, national and regional (Western Mediterranean) level. This also included referencing to synergies that exist with the other sea basins strategies such as the Atlantic, the Black Sea and the emerging North Sea.

Clémence Le Corff, from Pôle Mer Méditerranée highlighted the strong link between the WestMED National Hub France and Pole Mer Mediterranée showcasing the robustness of support for project development, capitalizing on its strong experience in EU funded projects.

Finally, the event was also the opportunity to present the different WestMED National Hub networks that cover 10 countries in total. Some Tunisian, Morrocan and Algerian stakeholders attended online, underlining the importance and involvement of southern shore countries.

French expertise to support projects with capacity building was also presented by Frédérick Herpers, French National Hub for the WestMED and the Atlantic and Philippe Dubois from Innofluence. As an example (funded by the EU), the blue Economy Program for Algeria was presented. This program allowed for the specific training of Algerian researchers related to EU project submission and using the National Hub’s networks for helping to find project partners. It underscored the point that challenges are common for all countries bordering the Mediterranean sea basin and that cooperation and sharing practices across both shores are pivotal.

This event’s objectives to inform and discuss funding opportunities under Horizon 2025 were met thanks to the presentations and exchanges with the audience while demonstrating the existence and the readiness of the Assistance Mechanism (National Hub) to support. Views and experiences were shared related to project submission and participants were invited to consider project leadership and/ or partnership to apply for the new batch of funding opportunities under Horizon Europe.

The location of the event in Montpellier (Cité des métiers de demain) was strategic in order to engage stakeholder from Occitanie and regional authorities.