Deadline: February 17, 2026
The European Commission announces a call dedicated to understanding and minimizing the environmental impacts of offshore wind energy.
This topic focuses on understanding and minimizing the environmental impacts caused by offshore wind energy installations. The key areas of focus include understanding the impacts of offshore wind energy deployment on marine and coastal ecosystems, pollution, and habitat loss, and developing strategies and technologies to mitigate these effects while supporting sustainable wind energy development.
The environmental impacts of offshore wind farms to be studied include displacement, collision risks, exposure to noise (both aerial and underwater), habitat loss and degradation, and pollution. Projects should analyze emerging impacts that may arise with the large-scale deployment of wind energy systems, such as those related to decommissioning, dynamic cables in the water column, submarine geohazards affecting cables, and microplastic production. Monitoring data must be made open source and shared with relevant European and international bodies.
The scope requires expanding field monitoring and analysis from localized site or species-specific studies to broader regional scales, improving environmental impact assessments and modelling tools compatible with maritime spatial planning and regulatory authorities’ needs. Technologies and methods tested and demonstrated should aim to identify areas suitable for wind energy deployment with minimal environmental impacts and foster technologies for avoiding, mitigating, or compensating impacts from bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind energy systems. Restoration measures and potential net-positive environmental impacts are also considered.
Activities should achieve at least Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 by the end of the projects. Data generated must follow the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and align with existing European data spaces and infrastructures, leveraging synergies with ongoing Horizon Europe projects and digital initiatives like the European Digital Twin of Ocean.
This initiative supports the EU’s Offshore Strategy that emphasizes maritime spatial planning and life-cycle perspectives for offshore wind energy projects, balancing economic, social, and environmental sustainability while ensuring security of supply and climate targets.
The Commission estimates that an EU contribution of around EUR 5.00 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of a proposal requesting different amounts.
The total indicative budget for the topic is EUR 15.00 million.
For more information, visit EC.
