Demonstration activities are expected to take place on at least [6] islands with at least [2] in each of the following basin lighthouses: 1. Atlantic and Arctic Sea basin, 2. Mediterranean Sea basin, 3. Baltic and North Sea basin, with strong and meaningful involvement of relevant public authorities.

Projects under this topic would be place-based and people-centred, with their activities implementing a systemic transition across all Mission objectives and enablers, in all lighthouses. Special emphasis should be placed on nature-based solutions, land-sea interactions, and transboundary actions. The projects should support the blue economy by integrating sustainable and environmentally friendly methods that are both ecologically and economically beneficial. They will also address resilience of island communities to climate related extreme events and sea-level rise.

The project should support islands (and are encouraged to work with islands that have small but growing populations, limited resources, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, vulnerability to external shocks, excessive dependence on external resources, and fragile environments, so that the projects help addressing their vulnerability to environmental changes, economic size, and isolation challenges. Furthermore, small islands and their communities offer the opportunity to function as models and living labs for piloting the needed transitions in a reasonably small-scale context. Following and expanding the example of the EU green energy pilot islands[4] , the project should help small islands to implement the ecological, socio-economic and circular transitions needed to ensure their ecosystems restoration, energy- and water-security, a sustainable and circular blue economy, and climate resilience, along the Mission objectives.

The project should:

• Assess the economic, social and ecological impacts as well as the societal acceptance of the proposed measures to achieve the Mission objectives and targets on islands;
• Identify, test and adapt innovative solutions to restore islands by addressing one or several of the specific Mission objectives and targets;
• Develop new innovative funding approaches to implement innovative solutions for the restoration of the ocean and waters on islands, which are all operating in different jurisdictions and governance contexts;
• Encourage citizen and stakeholders involvement and uptake through active participation in the restoration initiatives of islands (e.g. through living labs), and through the follow-up of the restoration process with citizen science initiatives;
• Monitor the effectiveness of the proposed solutions in relation to the Mission objectives and targets;
• Facilitate synergies with other R&I-relevant EU, national or regional programmes and leverage of funds through interactions with regional/local authorities and the private sector where relevant.

Under the Mission approach, collaborations to demonstrate, test and deploy innovative solutions between islands facing similar challenges are highly encouraged and considered as a means to secure greater impact. To facilitate replication of the solutions, proposals should already identify other suitable islands, where the solutions and approaches could be replicated. Projects should also systematically assess the potential barriers to their implementation and how these can be overcome. This would help enhancing the transferability of the knowledge and experiences to other islands and beyond.