Recently, the European Commission published the work programme ‘climate, energy and mobility’ of Horizon Europe for 2025, which includes numerous topics for the waterborne sector, including six topics of the Zero-Emission Waterborne Transport Partnership (ZEWT).
This partnership, a cooperation between the European Commission Services and the Waterborne Technology Platform, is aimed at developing and demonstrating zero-emission solutions for all main ship types and services before 2030, to enable zero-emission waterborne transport by 2050.
In addition to the six dedicated topics for the ZEWT partnership, the work programme includes the topic ‘Real time monitoring of regulated and non-regulated emissions from all types of vessels and other port activities in order to enforce emission limits in waterfront cities’. This topic has been co-programmed by the ZEWT partnership and the Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission. Furthermore, the projects which will be funded will share their best practices with relevant projects selected by the EU Mission ‘Restore our Oceans and Waters’.
There is a pressing need to measure the different types of emissions in coastal and port environments located near to cities, because of their impact on the environment and human health. Ports, as environments showcasing a variety of vessels including novel designs, pose a challenge to the development of standardised technologies capable of collecting and assessing real-time pollutant emissions data from these ships docking at ports. This is vital for enforcing emissions limits and validating the data for enforcement purposes.
Creating synergies between different partnerships, as well as between partnerships and missions, has been at the heart of Horizon Europe since the programme was launched in 2021. The joint topic included in the work programme 2025 is seen as timely and unique since it has been co-programmed between the ZEWT partnership and an EU Mission, and projects should ensure synergies with the EU Mission ‘Restore our Oceans and Waters’. It fully complies with the principle of synergies by design, focussed on ensuring healthy living environments in waterfront cities.
Jaap Gebraad, Secretary General, Waterborne TP, said: “The Waterborne Technology Platform welcomes the topic jointly programmed by the Zero-Emission Waterborne Transport Partnership and the Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission. The call for proposals is relevant for both initiatives, and by the principle of joint programming, we will avoid duplication of efforts and aim at increasing impact. Furthermore, the liaison of the projects with the EU Mission ‘Restore our Oceans and Waters’ will be another key feature of this unique cooperation. In addition, the topic re-emphasises the importance of an ecosystem approach, looking both at the vessels as well as port activities, which will provide fundamental input for future developments. Thereby, it will serve as a stepping stone for planning future initiatives, not only in the context of Horizon Europe, but certainly also in the next European framework programme, which will kick off in 2028. By ensuring joint objectives and actions, we will be able to contribute to the objectives laid down in the upcoming port and industrial maritime strategies.”
