On 16 May, the project team of the AER Secretariat took part in an event organised in Brussels by ERRIN’s Working Group on Blue Growth: the Blue Growth Project Development meeting.

European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) is a Brussels-based platform aiming at strengthening regional research and innovation capacities. ERRIN is a partner network of AER, having had the opportunity to closely cooperate together as on occasion of the Brokerage Event: going Green in Seventeen!

What is Blue Growth?

Blue growth is a long term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sector. As emphasised by one of the speakers, Claus Schultze from DG of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), it is a broad and challenging field. It concerns every activity linked to the sea, from fishery to ocean energy.

Representing more than 5 millions jobs in the European Union, it can be an economic asset for European regions, especially in emerging sectors, such as marine renewable energy.

What is going on?

During the event, we had the opportunity to discover 5 projects.

• The University of Cantabria (ES) is designing a project within the Horizon 2020 call Multi-use of marine space, offshore and near-shore: pilot demonstrators, which aims at developing a pilot test of a multi-use marin space scheme where aquaculture and marine energy are co-located. You can find more information on their presentation;
• The second pitch was about energy efficient small boats. The Advanced Aerodynamic Vessels enterprise creates boats for 20-60 passengers which needs half the fuel of a small boat. Furthermore, they are looking for partners to develop cleaner motorisations and maritime drones;
• Blue Ocean World Cruises and Eco Sail the World presented us the blue ocean project, which is a catamaran made out of ecological materials, which are recyclables. Thus the boat is eco-friendly;
• Okahina wave introduced the first artificial and eco-friendly ecological surf wave during their presentation;
• Last but not least, ERRIN Blue Growth Working Group gave an overview of projects to tackle the poor situation small harbours are facing nowadays, because of the competition with bigger harbour. One of this project will be submitted under INTERREG Sudoe and aims at developing an innovation network on regional and local business. It would focus on advance tech products and services while generating the hybridisation with the traditional coastal industries.

Funding opportunities

Given the high number of sectors blue growth covers, a lot of funding opportunities can be found. Here are few examples that can be interesting for you:

• Within Horizon 2020 Food Security Work Programme, we can mention the call on Sustainable European aquaculture 4.0: nutrition and breeding but also the call for proposal Coordination of marine and maritime research and innovation in the Black Sea
• Within the Transport programme, there is a call on Moving freight by Water: Sustainable Infrastructure and Innovative Vessels
• Currently DG MARE has one call for proposals opens, entitled “Preparatory actions – Common curriculum for skippers of small commercial vessels“

If you want to learn more about blue growth, we invite you to have a look at the various presentations delivered that you can find here.

If you would like to design a project within this area or if you have stakeholders in your region who could be interested by this opportunity, please do not hesitate to contact AER Secretariat.

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