The EU4Ocean Summer School on Ocean Literacy & Collaboration is a five-day training built around one question: how do ocean projects actually get built, funded and communicated across disciplines and borders? It is developed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (UNESCO-IOC) with the European Commission’s DG MARE, under the EU4Ocean Coalition and within the framework of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030). Each edition gathers roughly 20 to 25 Master’s and PhD students and early-career professionals in a European coastal city, and each is anchored to the sea basin in focus — Malmö, Sweden in 2024 for the Baltic and North Seas; Venice in 2025 and Milazzo, Italy in September 2026 for the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Participants work with international guest speakers, take field trips, and engage with the host city’s own institutions and local ocean issues. The programme opens with a self-paced online module before the in-person week, and all activities are held in English.
Benefits & funding
- Accommodation in shared rooms, provided for all participants.
- Lunches, plus a social dinner during the week.
- Five travel grants from IOC/UNESCO covering round-trip transport tickets — a fixed number awarded to a subset of the cohort, not to everyone; other participants arrange and pay their own travel.
- A self-paced online module before the in-person programme, then five days of sessions with international speakers and field trips.
- A small cohort — around 20 to 25 places per edition; the 4th edition brought together 22 participants from 12 countries.
- No participation fee is mentioned in the published calls.
Eligibility
- Master’s or PhD students, or early-career professionals. Applicants come from every sector — the organisers deliberately build an interdisciplinary group.
- Cohorts are drawn from EU and non-EU European countries, scoped to the sea basin each edition focuses on. No formal citizenship list is published, and the published criteria frame region as a priority rather than a bar.
- Priority is given to youth from the sea-basin region in focus, to members of the Youth4Ocean Forum, and to Early Career Ocean Professionals of the UN Ocean Decade. These are stated preferences, not requirements.
- Up to 35 years old, per the most recently published selection criteria.
- Selection also weighs gender balance, geographical representation and a mix of professional backgrounds.
- All activities run in English; no language certificate is requested in the published calls.
Can you apply?
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Education required
Master Enrolled · PhD Enrolled · Bachelor
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Age requirement
≤ 35 yrs
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We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.
Application process
- 1Watch for the call for the coming edition, published by UNESCO-IOC and circulated through the EU4Ocean Coalition, the Youth4Ocean Forum and ocean-science networks. Recent calls have appeared in the first months of the year.
- 2Submit the online application form before the stated deadline. The September 2026 edition used an online form with a deadline of 27 April 2026, 23:59 CET.
- 3Wait for the selection outcome — candidates for the 2026 edition were notified by 28 May 2026.
- 4Complete the self-paced online module, then attend the five-day in-person programme in the host city.
Program timeline
Application deadline for the September 2026 (5th) edition, 23:59 CET — now closed.
Apr 27, 2026
Date by which selected candidates for the 2026 edition were notified.
May 28, 2026
5th edition begins in Milazzo, Italy.
Sep 14, 2026
5th edition ends.
Sep 18, 2026
call for applications for the next edition. Recent calls have opened in the first months of the year; the host city and sea basin are announced with each call.
Early 2027 (expected)