D2.5 Call for data grants_M16

Despite significant advancements in Europe to collect, harmonise, and make available data on marine biodiversity, a large portion of data remains unavailable or inaccessible. This type of data is referred to as "sleeping data". To activate these sleeping data, two calls for marine biodiversity (monitoring) data are organized within the context of the project DTO-BioFlow. This document details the second of these data calls, launched on the 17th December 2024. The primary goal of the call is to establish workflows and procedures that promote and facilitate the sharing of critical missing marine biodiversity data, and ultimately to facilitate sustained and long-term ingestion of previously inaccessible data into the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (EU DTO) through publication in EMODnet Biology. Applications can be submitted until February 28th 2025, at 23:59 CET. The evaluation process is scheduled to occur in March 2025. Eligible proposals will be selected based on multiple criteria, including their relevance, potential impact, ability to sustain data flow and automate processes, uniqueness, and overall proposal quality. Within the impact criterium, it will be assessed how much the proposed project would contribute to filling important identified gaps (temporal, geographic, taxonomic) in the biodiversity data coverage. Selected applicants will receive a Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) grant of up to €60.000.