Applications open for the Atlantic Project Awards 2025

The Atlantic Project Awards feature outstanding initiatives, successful collaborations and achievements relevant to the implementation of the Atlantic Action Plan 2.0. These projects have taken place within the EU Atlantic Action Plan Member States over the past year and showcase success stories, best practices and partnership models that could be scaled up at the regional, national, European and international level, while promoting the key priorities of the Atlantic Strategy.

The Awards are organised by the Atlantic Strategy Committee, supported by the Atlantic Assistance Mechanism. The winners (1 winner in each award category) during a ceremony at the 12^th Atlantic Stakeholder Platform Conference (ASPC 2025), to be held in November 2025 in Galway, Ireland.

Award Categories:

The Atlantic Project Awards 2025 consist of five award categories, in line with the Pillars of the Atlantic Action Plan 2.0:

1. Atlantic Ports: Projects, initiatives and actions that feature ports as gateways and hubs for the blue economy and/or catalysts for business in the Atlantic

2. Blue Skills and Ocean Literacy: Projects, initiatives and actions that boost blue skills and blue jobs, featuring quality education, training and lifelong learning, and that promote ocean literacy

3. Marine Renewable Energy: Projects, initiatives and actions that promote carbon neutrality through marine renewable energy

4. Healthy Oceans and Resilient Coasts: Projects, initiatives and actions for stronger coastal resilience and which reinforce the fight against marine pollution

5. International Cooperation: Projects, initiatives and actions that reflect an international dimension to the Atlantic Action Plan as embodied in the Galway (2013) and Belém (2017) Statements and the All-Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance

The award winners will receive:

• A trophy and certificate;

• Opportunity to present their awarded project during the ASPC 2025;

• Promotion of the project through the Atlantic Community’s web-based communication channels (Atlantic Strategy website, Atlantic Assistance Mechanism social media and electronic publications- e.g. Implementation Report), by DG MARE/CINEA communication channels and by general media coverage;

• An Atlantic Project Award Seal[1].

Eligibility Criteria:

Project applications may be submitted by any individual, organisation, business, group, network, consortium or institution that:

• Is headquartered, domiciled or present in an EU Atlantic Member State – France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain;

• Has a funded project or initiative that is in progress or completed. A funded project is a group of tasks, actions, activities carried out by a consortium or a group within the framework of a larger and longer collaboration. Any type of funded project (at local, regional, national, or European level from public and/or private sources) that has been delivered or is being delivered inside the Atlantic Strategy geographical area is eligible to apply;

• The project applied for must have been initiated within 36 months prior to the announcement of the Call for applications (specifically for the 2025 call, as eligible projects are considered the ones with a start date later than 01/09/2022).

How to apply:

 Download the Guidelines to explore key dates, selection criteria, and everything you need to know.