Deadline: December 1, 2025
Proposals are invited for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Ocean Stewardship Fund 2025. The MSC Ocean Stewardship Fund provides grants to support fisheries on their journey towards sustainability. MSC commits 5% of annual royalties from certified product sales to the Fund and combine these with third-party donations.
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organisation. They want future generations to be able to enjoy seafood and oceans full of life, forever. Their vision is of the world’s oceans teeming with life, and seafood supplies safeguarded for this and future generations. Their mission is to use their ecolabel and fishery certification program to contribute to the health of the world’s oceans by recognising and rewarding sustainable fishing practices, influencing the choices people make when buying seafood and working with their partners to transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis.
Funding
- The maximum funding available is £50,000 over a period of up to 2 years. Funds can be used to cover a range of costs, including the services of an Improvement Program Manager, improvement actions, essential fixed assets, staff salaries and activities related to addressing traceability risks.
Eligibility
- Open to all fisheries that are verified as improving towards MSC certification in the MSC Improvement Program.
- Applications must be linked to a fishery or fisheries in the MSC’s Improvement Program. At the time of application, fisheries must have undergone an independent verification demonstrating that they meet MSC’s Improvement Program entry requirements and are in receipt of an “Adequate” progress verification if applicable.
- Fisheries are no longer eligible to apply once they enter MSC Full Assessment.
- Only one application is permitted per fishery. Fisheries targeting the same stock(s) must apply together if they have similar actions, and one organisation must have overall responsibility for managing the grant.
- Any previous Transition Assistance Fund grants must have ended by the time of application.
- Applications must support the implementation of one or more actions in the fishery Improvement Action Plan(s)
- The lead applicant must be the Improvement Program Manager for the fishery(ies) or an individual who works closely with the Improvement Program Manager.
- The lead organisation must also be the grant holder if the application is successful.
Assessment Criteria
All Transition Assistance Fund applications are assessed using quantitative appraisal criteria including:
- rationale for the selection of Improvement Actions for which funding is being sought
- expertise of project action leads and contributors
- risk of non-delivery
- degree of match funding, both internal (in kind) and external, already secured for implementation of the Improvement Action Plan
- project feasibility
Application
Interested applicants must contact their local MSC representative to begin the application process. Find your local MSC fisheries representative
For more information, visit MSC Ocean Stewardship Fund.
