To achieve the Ocean Decade vision, a wide range of partners will implement endorsed Decade Actions in the form of programmes, projects or activities over the next ten years.

Proponents of endorsed Decade Actions will have the opportunity to join a highly visible, shared, global effort that builds on decades of achievement in ocean science. There will be opportunities to create new collaborations across disciplines, geographies and generations, as well as opportunities to access new sources of support.

Via the first Call for Decade Actions (No. 01/2020), partners were invited to request endorsement under the Ocean Decade for transformative Decade Actions that contribute to the Ocean Decade vision. This Call for Decade Actions was the first of a series that will be launched as part of the Ocean Decade and it focused specifically on:
i. large-scale, multi-country, transformative Decade programmes; and
ii. large-scale contributions of in-kind or financial resources for Decade Actions or coordination costs.

Over 200 programme proposals and over 20 contribution proposals were submitted during this initial call and we would like to thank everyone who submitted a program or contribution for endorsement!

• Did you submit a proposed Decade Action and want to know what will happen next?
  

The process of reviewing the submissions is currently underway and will follow the following approximate timeline:

1. Initial analysis and clustering – February 2021

An initial filtering will check that submissions meet the basic requirements for Decade programmes or Decade contributions. Further analysis will then analyse submissions based on thematic and geographic similarities.

Following this process, if it is found that your submission does not align well with the requirements for a Decade programme or contribution(e.g. if it is closer to the scale of a Decade project or activity) we will contact you and provide guidance on next steps. This could include finding new partners or modifying the scope of your proposed Decade Action or re-submitting it during a Call for Decade Projects later in 2021.

2. Dialogue with proponents – March 2021

This phase will work with proponents of different Decade Actions to optimise synergies and coordination between different groups working on similar themes or in the same ocean basins. We will look for opportunities to cluster different initiatives to achieve the Ocean Decade’s goal of collective and shared global action to achieve the ocean we want!

3. Presentation to the Interim Decade Advisory Board – March / April2021

The first meeting of the Interim Decade Advisory Board will take place in late March / early April 2021 and will review and make recommendations on endorsement of programs and contributions. Final decisions on the endorsement of programmes and contributions will be made by the IOC Executive Secretary based on the recommendations of the Board and reported to the IOC Governing Bodies in April. Proponents will also be informed of the final decisions in April.

• Are you thinking of submitting a Decade Program or Project to a future Call for Decade Actions?

Over the course of the Ocean Decade we will be regularly rolling out further Calls for Decade Actions for programs and projects. Please monitor this webpage for those calls!

If you are interested in finding partners and collaborators for your future Decade Action, you should complete and submit this online form “Collaborator Form”  at any time. You can search for potential collaborators here, in the Collaborator Database.

A suite of documents, that can be downloaded at the bottom of this page, provides additional information on the Call for Decade Actions process including: 
• Frequently Asked Questions on the Call for Decade Actions
• Summary of the Implementation Plan

• Are you planning a Decade Activity?

A Decade Activity is a one-off standalone initiative (such as an event, a publication, a workshop, a conference, or a training opportunity) that contributes to a Decade programme or project or to one of the Ocean Decade Challenges.

If you have a relevant activity, you can submit your request for endorsement at any time here: https://oceandecade.org/news/85/Request-endorsement-of-your-Ocean-Decade-Activity-here .

• Are you a United Nations entity?

If you are registering a Decade Action led by a United Nations entity you can access the form here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UN-Decade-Actions-01-2020

• Any other questions? 

If you have questions you can contact the IOC Secretariat at oceandecade@unesco.org and for questions on specific themes or geographies you can also contact members of the Ocean Decade Executive Planning Group as follows:

Elva Escobar (Spanish speaker)
Western Tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea/Eastern Tropical Atlantic
Challenges 10, 9, 8, 7, 1, 2
escobri@cmarl.unam.mx

Karen Evans
Western South Pacific, Eastern Indian Ocean,  Southern Ocean, Australia and New Zealand
Challenges 2, 3, 4, 8, 10
karen.evans@csiro.au

Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade (Spanish speaker)
Western Tropical Atlantic (Caribbean/SIDS)
Challenges 6, 7, 8, 10
christa.vonh@noaa.gov

Suzan Kholeif (Arabic speaker)
Mediterranean & North Africa
Challenges 1,2,3,4,5,9
suzankholeif@gmail.com

Jens Krüger
Pacific SIDS
Challenge 7, 10
jensk@spc.int

Atmanand Malayath
Indian Ocean
Challenge 8
atmanandma@gmail.com

Margaret Leinen
Pacific and  Eastern Pacific
Challenges 2, 8
mleinen@ucsd.edu

Fangli Qiao (Chinese speaker)
Indo-Pacific Ocean; Asia
Challenges 5, 6, 7
qiaofl@fio.org.cn

Sergey Shapovalov (Russian speaker)
Arctic Ocean and seas, Far Eastern seas and Northwestern Pacific, Azov-Black Sea region, Caspian Sea
Challenges 1, 2, 5, 6,10
smshap48@gmail.com

Dismore Gilbert Siko
South Atlantic; South West Indian Ocean
Challenges 2, 8, 9
ramathudis@gmail.com; gilbert.siko@dst.gov.za

Martin Visbeck
All Atlantic
Challenges 5, 7, 8, 9
visbeck.oceandecade@gmail.com

Mitsuo Uematsu
Western Pacific
Challenge 1
uematsu@aori.u-tokyo.ac.jp

• Resources

- Frequently Asked Questionson the Call for Decade Actions
- Summary of the Implementation Plan

Additional resources that may be of use for applicants to the Call include OceanExpert and OceanBestPractices.

• Q&A sessions

Two Q&A sessions took place on October 20, 2020 and November 6, 2020 in relation to the Call for Decade Actions No. 01/2020 :

-30 October, 2020 (replay): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VagOY--Vuq8
-6 November, 2020 (replay): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZztQkj0xRoA

• Contact

For more information please contact oceandecade@unesco.org