1. Context and objectives
About Plan Bleu: This consultation is published by Plan Bleu, French association founded in 1977, Regional Activity Center of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP), based in Marseille, France. The MAP is one of the main components of the Regional Seas Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It has a legal instrument: the Barcelona Convention and relies on six regional activity centres (“RACs”) responsible in particular for promoting the implementation of the various protocols attached to the convention. Plan Bleu is one of the six centres mandated by the twenty-one countries Parties to the Barcelona Convention and the European Union (Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention). Plan Bleu acts as an observatory of the environment and sustainable development in the Mediterranean, and conducts thematic, systemic and prospective analyses to enlighten decision-makers of the region on the environmental risks and the challenges of sustainable development.
About the WaterLANDS project: The WaterLANDS project is funded by the European Horizon 2020 Green Deal programme under Area 7.1 “Restoring Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services”. The project officially started on December 1st 2021 for a duration of five years and is carried out by a consortium of 32 partners, including Plan Bleu. WaterLANDS aims to restore wetland sites across Europe which have been damaged by human activity and to lay the foundations for upscaling protection across more areas. The project sites are spread across six Action Sites (AS), where actions are needed to restore damaged freshwater and coastal wetlands, and fifteen Knowledge Sites (KS) which have been identified as examples of where successful restoration has been achieved.
Background and context: Plan Bleu co-leads with Wetlands International Europe WP7 Sub task 7.4.2, supported by ERINN Innovation (Communication Manager and WP7 leader) and the AS partners. This task aims to produce six country factsheets based on the WaterLANDS AS experiences to support policy outreach and advocacy. Ultimately, the objective of the factsheets is to showcase how wetlands restoration can positively impact other domains including climate change, disaster risk reduction and support the European Union (EU) to achieve its domestic and international goals.
2.Task description
The objective of the present call for applicants is to select an expert to work on the development and production of 6 ‘country’ factsheets based on the WaterLANDS AS experiences and which are due by project end (December 2026). In order to reach policy makers, country factsheets are being developed to target regional representatives and showcase specific areas of focus in participating countries. These country factsheets will be disseminated prior to meetings with relevant European Commission bodies such as DG ENVI, DG AGRI, DG CLIMA, country/regional representatives and UN agencies such as the FAO and UN Environment in Brussels. As this work focuses on the AS currently engaged in restoration work, these factsheets will be developed in close collaboration with Work Package 3 (WP) project partners who are currently developing a final advocacy paper to echo its messages. This paper will focus on encouraging Member States to implement the Nature Restoration Regulation to deliver wetland and peatland restoration on the ground across Europe.
The following priorities emerged from the consultations with the project consortium at the project General Assembly in May 2025:
- Focus on recommendations
- Highlight scientific and ecological work
- Align with WP3 policy brief and video
- Align with action site policy objectives
- Keep factsheets high-level to reach diverse stakeholders, particularly decision-makers
- Celebrate achievements at each action site and promote practical solutions
Following this consultation, Plan Bleu developed concept notes and shared them with action sites for feedback between June and September 2025. The consolidated concepts are now ready for further development.
The specific objectives of the assignment are:
- In a first phase, to review all relevant project materials, including key deliverables from WP3 and other relevant WPs (WP4, WP7), AS concept notes for country factsheets and finetune engagement strategy with the 6 sites.
- Starting from the concept notes, to organize meetings with AS to co-develop the different sections of the factsheets.
- As a result of the meetings, consolidate the 6 country factsheets and share them with UCD (project coordinator) and with WP3/WP7 project partners for feedback.
- Deliver final country factsheets
The expert is expected to propose in his/her technical offer a methodology to achieve the main objectives of the assignment with regard to the description above. The goal is to deliver the factsheets ahead of the WaterLANDS 5th Annual General Assembly in Estonia (week of 11-15 May 2026).
Regular communications between the consultant and project partners will take place online. A kickoff meeting will be organized at the beginning of the assignment. Coordination meetings and ad hoc communication will take place regularly between Plan Bleu and the selected expert. The final layout of the documents will be that from WaterLANDS and will be handled by ERINN Innovation, the communication manager of the WaterLANDS project.
All relevant project materials will be shared by Plan Bleu and ERINN Innovation with the selected expert to facilitate the onboarding process.
3. Timeline of services and deliverables
The duration of the service is estimated at 20 days spread over 4 months.
4. Work assessment
The Consultant will be supervised by Arnaud Terrisse (Biodiversity Programme Officer) and Alice Wittevrongel (Biodiversity Project Officer). Targeted support from Wetlands International Europe and ERINN Innovation is expected during meetings and in the different tasks.
5. Budget
The available budget for this consultancy is 8000 euros VAT included and proposals should not exceed this amount.
6. Selection of the consultant
- Previous relevant experience in drafting report, technical factsheets and policy documents towards policy-makers
- Previous relevant experience on wetlands and/or ecosystem restoration
- Experience in the EU region strongly desired and a good knowledge of actors and governance processes in Euro-Mediterranean countries will be appreciated
- Strong conceptual and synthesis ability combined with good writing and communication skills
- Ability to mobilise information and existing knowledge in an efficient way
- Relevant project and publications references
- Fluency in English as well as proven technical writing skills is required.
Clause 1 – Controlled use of artificial intelligence
The service provider is authorized to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, provided that their use is strictly limited to support functions: assistance with structuring, brainstorming, document exploration, or editorial optimization. The use of AI may under no circumstances replace the analytical work, source verification, or expert writing expected within the scope of the assignment. Artificial intelligence must under no circumstances replace human expertise or rigorous scientific methods. In particular, it may not be used to produce numerical estimates or to generate modeling results (economic, econometric, mathematical, or other), which must be based on validated, documented approaches implemented by the service provider. Any reference to a study, article, numerical data, or academic source must be rigorously traceable and verifiable through precise references (title, author, publication, date, or link).
Clause 2 – Responsibility for content and transparency
The service provider remains fully responsible for the quality, accuracy, reliability, and consistency of the deliverable, including in the case of partial use of artificial intelligence tools. All information, data, or quotations appearing in the final deliverable must have been verified by the Consultant, regardless of the method of production. In the event of a clear breach (fictitious sources, fabricated quotations, inconsistent data), Plan Bleu reserves the right to request a revision at no additional cost, or even to terminate the contract and cancel all or part of the payment in the event of failure to meet deadlines. The Consultant is obligated to explicitly declare any use of AI tools in the preparation of deliverables. The Consultant must transparently indicate the parts of the work that were carried out with the assistance of an AI tool and may be asked to provide the methodology or queries (prompts) used.
Clause 3 – Quality responsibility
The Consultant remains solely responsible for the accuracy, originality, verification, and professional quality of deliverables, including those produced or assisted by AI. The use of AI tools cannot, under any circumstances, justify factual errors, plagiarism, bias, or breaches of confidentiality.
Clause 4 – Non-compliance and consequences
In the event of non-compliance with this clause, the client may request the Consultant to:
- revise the deliverables at no additional costs
- or, in the event of serious or repeated breach, to apply the contractual provisions relating to non-conformity or termination.
7. Contractual and financial terms
The acceptance of the selected offer implies acceptance of the terms and detailed schedules outlined in these Terms of Reference, including the following payment schedule (negotiable) :
- 50% of the contract amount will be paid upon signature of the contract
- 50% of the contract amount will be paid upon validation of the final deliverables
A properly issued invoice will be required for the scheduled payments, containing the following mandatory details:
- Full name + address of the service provider
- SIRET number (France) or tax number (for non-France)
- Invoice issuance date
- Invoice number
- Service description (e.g., name of the deliverable)
- Amount excluding taxes (HT), VAT, and total amount (TTC), in the currency specified in the contract
- For individuals not subject to VAT (France): include the mention “TVA non applicable, article 293B du code général des impôts”
- Payment due date
The tax legislation in force at the date of acceptance of the offer will be applied.
8. How to apply
Interested candidates are invited to submit the following documents :
- A technical offer, including a resume showcasing relevant experience related to developing technical reports, technical factsheets and/or project documents, in a context of multi stakeholder EU Horizon 2020/Europe or other EU-funded projects.
- A financial offer with an estimation of working days.
The application files must be submitted no later than 10 December, 2025 to [email protected] and [email protected]
