Mission ocean in Slovenian seas — Call for proposals for the provision of financial support to third parties for the implementation of small-scale projects under the RISTANC project

1. Eligible applicants

The call is open to a wide range of applicants, including innovators, researchers, artists, individuals, representatives of civil society, non-governmental organisations, local communities, informal and local initiatives, start-up companies, schools, research teams and other individuals and organisations whose projects contribute to achieving the objectives of the call. The following entities are eligible to apply for the call:

• public and private legal entities (e.g. non-governmental organisations, associations, institutes, commercial companies, local communities, research organisations, educational institutions, social enterprises and other legal entities),
• natural persons.

Additional conditions:

• If the applicant applies as a (public or private) legal entity, the registered office or business address of the applicant must be located in a Member State of the European Union, its overseas countries or territories (OCTs), or in a country associated with the Horizon Europe programme. If the applicant applies as a natural person, they must hold a permanent residence address within the European Union Member States.
• Applications may be submitted individually or in partnership. If the applicant includes partners in the project implementation, they remain the project lead and responsible for the project implementation, including financial responsibility for its execution.
• Each (public or private) legal or natural person may participate in only one application under this call, either as an applicant or as a partner. In the event that the same applicant submits or participates in multiple applications, only the first application submitted will be considered, and the remaining applications will not be processed.
• The proposed project must address one or more of the challenges set out in the call, and the planned activities must be implemented in the Slovenian territorial sea, including the coast,or contribute to addressing challenges in this area.
• The selected applicant must have settled all outstanding tax liabilities and, where relevant, social security contributions before signing the funding agreement. The contracting authority will verify compliance with this condition prior to the signing of the contract. If the verification reveals that the condition has not been met, the contract shall not be concluded; the project may be rejected and financial support awarded to the next highest-ranked project.
• Consortium partners of the RISTANC project are not eligible to apply for this call, either as (public or private) legal entities or as natural persons.
• Informal or local initiatives may apply through a natural person acting as the applicant, who shall be responsible for the project implementation.
• The project or activities for which financial support is claimed under this call must not be funded by other European, national, or local public sources. The applicant shall provide a declaration to this effect in the application documentation.
• Applicants who are personally, professionally, economically, or otherwise linked to the RISTANC consortium partners must disclose their connections.

The valid Slovenian Maritime Spatial Plan is used to define the geographical scope of this call.

2. How to apply

The application for funding, together with all required attachments in PDF format, shall be submitted by email to the address ristanc-funding@zrs-kp.si. In the email subject line, please state: RISTANC – application for the call [name of applicant]. The application may be submitted in Slovenian or English.

The application submission deadline is from 28 September 2026 to 28 November 2026 until 23:59 (CET).

An application shall be considered timely if the email is sent by the deadline specified in the call. The application must include a completed and signed application form, including the required annexes as defined in the application form.

An information seminar will be organised for all (potential) applicants, which will take place on Tuesday, 6 October 2026, on the Zoom online platform. Applicants may send questions regarding the call to the email address ristanc-funding@zrs-kp.si no later than 31 October 2026. Answers to questions will be published on the project RISTANC website and will form an integral part of the tender documentation.

3. Selection procedure and project evaluation

The opening of Applications is not public**.** Following the expiry of the application submission deadline, the expert commission shall first verify the timeliness and formal completeness of the Applications received. If the commission finds that an Application is formally incomplete (e.g. unclear administrative data in Sections A and B; this does not apply to Section C), it may request the applicant to supplement it. Supplementing the Application is intended to rectify formal deficiencies and must not affect the project content, the requested amount of financial support, or its evaluation. The deadline for supplementation is five (5) working days from receipt of the call, which the commission shall send only once. If the applicant fails to supplement the Application within the prescribed period or if the supplementation is inadequate, the Application shall be rejected**.**

Only complete applications shall be admitted to the evaluation process. An application shall be considered complete if: it contains all required application forms, evidence, declarations, and annexes specified in this call for applications; it was submitted within the prescribed deadline and in the manner specified in the call; all mandatory information in the application forms has been completed; it is signed by the applicant's legal representative (or an authorised person) if the applicant is applying as a (public or private) legal entity; it is signed by a natural person if the applicant is applying as a natural person. Applications that do not meet all the above conditions will be considered incomplete.

Projects are evaluated by a five-member expert commission on the basis of pre-determined and published criteria. The applicant will receive the Evaluation criteria together with the application form. A priority list of projects is established on the basis of the scores achieved.

Before the evaluation starts, the expert commission adopts a formal decision on the prevention and management of conflicts of interest. Each commission member signs a declaration of confidentiality and absence of conflict of interest. A member with an actual or perceived conflict of interest with an applicant or its partners does not assess, discuss or rank the application concerned; such cases are recorded in the evaluation minutes.

To be eligible for funding, a project must achieve at least 55 points in the evaluation.

Where two or more applications obtain the same total score, priority is given to the application with the higher score under criterion 1 and, if still equal, under criterion 4.

The highest-rated applicants will be invited to a short oral presentation of the project idea, which is expected to take place on 10 December 2026, either in person or remotely. The purpose of the oral presentation is to provide a brief overview of the project idea and an opportunity for further clarification before the final project selection decision is made. No new content may be introduced and the requested amount may not be increased. The final scores are confirmed solely on the basis of the published evaluation criteria, and the final priority list is recorded in the evaluation minutes.

In the event that no submitted project reaches the minimum funding threshold or is selected for financing, the call organiser reserves the right to repeat and adapt the call.

4.Evaluation criteria

Applications are evaluated against the following award criteria (maximum score): 1. Consistency of the proposed project with the challenges set out in Call, clarity and appropriateness of the main project objective, and appropriateness of the approach for monitoring its achievement (20); 2. Quality and feasibility of the implementation plan and timeline (20); 3. Degree of innovation and originality of the proposed project idea (10); 4. Expected impact of the project, including the impact on target groups (20); 5. Sustainability plan for results (10); 6. Competencies and experience of the applicant in relation to the submitted project and the content of the call (10); 7. Cost-effectiveness of the budget (10). Total: 100 points.

5. Notification of results and funding agreement

Applicants will be notified of the results of the call by 15 December 2026 at the latest. The results of the call, including a description of the selected projects, award dates, project durations and the legal names and countries of the recipients, will be published on the RISTANC website and on the F&T portal.

The selected applicant shall be deemed not to accept the funding if, within 10 days of receipt of the selection notification, they fail to provide written confirmation of acceptance of the funds (written confirmation via the email address provided in the application form is also valid). In the event of withdrawal by the selected applicant, funding may be approved for the next applicant on the priority list.

6. Legal protection

No appeal or objection is admissible against the substantive decision, assessment, and evaluation of projects by the expert commission. An applicant may lodge an objection solely in the event of suspected procedural errors (breach of the public call procedure). An objection shall be lodged with the call organiser within 8 days of receipt of the notification of the outcome of the call. The head of the procedure shall decide on the objection within 15 days of its receipt. If the objection is upheld and a procedural error is identified, the challenged decision on selection or non-selection shall be set aside, and the applicant's application shall be returned to the expert commission for reconsideration and a new decision. The commission must rectify the identified error in the reopened procedure.

1. Call organiser and responsibility

The call is organised by the Science and Research Centre Koper (ZRS Koper), coordinator of the RISTANC project, on behalf of the RISTANC consortium. The consortium remains fully responsible towards the European Commission for the proper implementation of this financial support scheme and for compliance with Grant Agreement No. 101217089. Recipients of financial support under this call are third parties: they are not beneficiaries of the EU Grant Agreement and have no contractual relationship with the European Commission. Their rights and obligations are set out exclusively in the funding agreement concluded with ZRS Koper.

2. Amount of financial support

A total of EUR 60,000.00 is available for the implementation of this call.An individual project may receive financial support in the amount of EUR 7,500.00 to EUR 12,000.00. This maximum is below the EUR 60,000 threshold for financial support to third parties and, for projects implemented in partnership, applies to the project as a whole.

Funding is awarded at up to 100% of the project’s total costs, but must not exceed the maximum amount allowed per individual project as specified in this call.

It is anticipated that approximately 5 to 8 projects will be funded, depending on the amount of funding approved for individual projects.

Funding of projects within this call is implemented as lump sum funding – a lump sum is a flat-rate contribution towards the implementation of the project,paid out on the basis of results achieved or activities carried out, and not on the basis of proof of actual costs incurred.

3. Method for determining the amount

The amount of financial support is determined based on the estimated project budget submitted by the applicant in the application form, within the limits of available funds and the maximum allowed amount of financial support per individual project.

If the applicant meets all the conditions of the call and the project is eligible for funding based on the evaluation, financial support shall be set at the amount of funds requested by the applicant in the application form, up to a maximum of EUR 12,000.00. The expert commission may reduce this amount where individual items of the financial plan are clearly excessive or not necessary for the planned activities; the final amount is fixed as a lump sum in the funding agreement.

The lump sum covers costs that are directly linked to the implementation of the approved project and are necessary to achieve its objectives. Costs categories include: personnel costs (staff) for persons directly involved in the implementation of project activities (for the project duration, up to a maximum of 12 months), costs of materials and equipment strictly necessary for the implementation of project activities, service costs required for the implementation of the project (e.g. external contractors, expert reports, analyses, development services), costs of implementing activities such as pilot actions, experimental activities, workshops, training, field activities and similar, dissemination and communication costs related to public information, stakeholder engagement and the promotion of project results, indirect costs at a flat rate of 25% of personnel and purchase costs (A + C), as set out in the financial plan of the application form.

Projects shall be funded in the order of their ranking on the priority list, established on the basis of the evaluation, until the available funds have been exhausted. In the event that the available funds are insufficient for the funding of the last eligible project in full, partial funding or an amount lower than that requested may be approved, even if this is lower than the minimum specified amount of financial support.

4. Payments and reporting

The funds are paid out in three instalments: 20 % as an advance payment upon signing the funding agreement; 30 % following the approval of interim results and/or achieved milestones, as specified in the agreement; 50 % following the approval of final results, including the final project report and all required supporting documentation.

Recipients are required to submit substantive reports on project implementation and other evidence specified in the agreement within the deadlines specified in the funding agreement.

As the funding is implemented as lump sum funding, Recipients do not report actual costs using accounting documents, but instead report on the activities carried out, results achieved and the fulfilment of contractual obligations. At the request of the call for applications issuer, they must be able to demonstrate the implementation of activities and the achievement of results.

Mandatory reports include:

• an interim report covering a description of the activities carried out and milestones achieved;
• a final report including a description of the overall project implementation, the results achieved and the impact of the project;
• evidence of the activities carried out, such as reports, materials, photographs, documentation of workshops, prototypes or other project results.

5. Obligations of recipients

Projects participate in a research process guided by the RISTANC project Ethical Protocol, approved by the Scientific Council of ZRS Koper. Applicants commit to:

• adhering to ethical principles when planning project activities,
• indirect participation in the research process, subject to prior and informed consent.

Both aspects are covered in the Ethical Aspects document. A breach of ethical principles or failure to participate in the research process may result in the termination of funding.

Recipients are required to appropriately acknowledge funding under the RISTANC project and the Horizon Europe programme in all communication and dissemination activities related to the project. All materials produced as part of the project must contain: The RISTANC project logo, The 'Funded by the European Union' logo, and Disclaimer.

6. About the RISTANC project and the Mission

The call is published as part of the implementation of the European RISTANC project, co-financed by the Horizon Europe programme. The project contributes to the EU Mission “Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030”, with a focus on the Slovenian marine area, part of the cross-border North Adriatic region. The Mission has three main objectives: 1) protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity; 2) prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas and waters; 3) establish a carbon-neutral and circular blue economy in the EU. More information: https://missionoceanwaters.eu/

RISTANC strives to achieve the goals of the Mission in the Slovenian sea, with an emphasis on social innovation. It develops solutions to specific local challenges through broad cooperation between stakeholders and aims to demonstrate the value of transdisciplinary collaboration, including by showcasing successful small projects. More information: https://www.ristanc.eu/

The call is specifically intended to encourage the participation of individuals, organisations and communities that have not previously participated, or have participated less frequently, in European research and innovation projects. Particular attention is paid to less common forms of activity, new interdisciplinary partnerships, the involvement of local communities and innovative solutions.

7. Call documents and contact

Full call documentation is available on the RISTANC website (section “Documentation and application forms”): https://www.ristanc.eu/en/news/call-for-small-project-funding-ristanc

Contact: ristanc-funding@zrs-kp.si