Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature (OCEAN) Grants Programme
Updated 5 December 2023
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The Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature (OCEAN) Grants Programme is a competitive grants scheme to support projects that aim to deliver lasting change to the marine environment and coastal communities. The programme is funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA) as part of the UK’s £500 million Blue Planet Fund.
In the last 10 years, less than 1% (around USD ~$13 billion) of the total value of the ocean has been invested in sustainable projects, even though the ocean supports the livelihoods of 1 in 10 people globally. OCEAN seeks to redress this imbalance and support people and communities who have most acutely and disproportionately been impacted by climate change.
Organisations including Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) will be able to submit applications for funding to deliver projects in ODA eligible countries, with the first call for proposals due to open in early 2024. There will be two pots of funding available to bid for, with a smaller pot of up to £250,000 being targeted for small scale, local, in-country organisations and a larger one of up to £3 million to support organisations that can fund large-scale activities and scale up effective solutions.
OCEAN will directly support the International Development Strategy, which emphasises the necessity of localising ODA. The fund’s long-term objective is to increase the capacity of local organisations to drive equitable and inclusive decision-making, which will in turn enable communities to manage and benefit from marine ecosystems sustainably.
An initial investment of up to £20 million for OCEAN was announced by the Environment Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, in December 2022 at the Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 in Montreal.
OCEAN Expert Committee
To ensure a range of views have been considered when making funding decisions, a committee of marine and development experts will be appointed to provide high quality, specialist advice on which applications should receive funding based on set criteria.
Applications to join the OCEAN Expert Committee are closed - however, we will be running a further application round later in 2024.
We are looking for individuals who, as leaders in their field, can contribute at the highest levels and work effectively as part of the Committee.
Members will be expected to:
- assess and score applications against the published criteria, to agreed timelines and standards, to enable Defra to award funding to high-quality projects,
- provide strategic advice
- champion the OCEAN grants programme
We would like to encourage applications from a wide range of backgrounds and global contexts, including the private sector, academia and professional institutions, non-governmental organisations, and other stakeholders. Applicants can be based anywhere, but applications from those in low- and middle-income ODA-eligible countries are particularly encouraged.