Blue Economy Window 2019

Yesterday, the EASME-MARE virtual kick-off meeting for the winning projects of the 2019 EMFF Blue Economy Window (“BlueInvest grants”) call took place

 In a nutshell, the meeting aimed at:

• Providing project coordinators with information on the EU policy objectives in which their projects fit in;   
• Providing project coordinators with information on project implementation;
• Facilitating networking among project coordinators and get to know their counterparts in the European Commission.

The meeting kicked off with EASME’s Director Luisa Prista opening speech with three main messages:

• To congratulate the winners of this very competitive  call;
• To remind representatives the importance of communication and providing constant feedback throughout the duration of your projects;
• To take full advantage of the kick-off event to share knowledge, network and create synergies.

Following EASME Director’s speech, the floor was given to Mr Vincent Favrel, Head of Unit, EASME A.3. who provided information on the call for proposals and its results while Ms Andreea Strachinescu, Head of Unit, DG MARE A.1. explained the policy context.

Engagement with the audience showed that over 90% of the projects will contribute to the EU Green Deal and in particular to a carbon neutral economy (62%) while 15% will also directly address the circular economy. As far as the geographical dimension of the project activities is concerned, about 50% of the projects will be implemented in the Atlantic.

The projects were then given a tour of the various reporting and communication obligations under their grant agreements. Finally Ms Daniela Cedola from Pwc  presented the BlueInvest Platform and its opportunities & services for newly started projects.  30% of the participants had benefitted from their services and in particular two winners of the current “BlueInvest grants”: XOCEAN and NOTILO+ had benefitted from assistance readiness. Mrs Cedola encouraged all awardees to check the BLUEINVEST services and apply to relevant services to grow their business.

The afternoon session included short presentations of 9 projects and networking time.

The 9 projects address a wide variety of topics ranging from energy, transport, digital ocean or aquaculture. They perfectly align with the EU policy priorities and the EU Green Deal in particular:

• ATOMS (Auxiliary towable operation and maintenance system for offshore wind towers),
• FLEETUSV (Future of the ocean data collection market: Commercialisation of the novel low-cost, efficient, high-performing autonomous unmanned surface vessel);
• CLEANERSHIP (Retrofit fuel and emissions reduction for large ship engines);
• POWERFLEX (Low-cost and flexible onshore power supply for containerships consumers’ and onboard batteries charging);
• SEASAM AI (Autonomous inspection of ship hulls, aquaculture nets and offshore wind farms);
• AREONES (Offshore Robotic Wind Turbine Blade Care System);
• INNOVAFEED (Support InnovaFeed in its next level innovation and industrial deployment across Europe);
• ZBOXBluelogistics (Foldable shipping containers for sustainable blue growth);
• WaveFarm (WaveRoller Wave Farm Scale-Up - Preparing to deploy the world’s first commercial wave energy farm).

Throughout the meeting, representatives from the projects were able ask questions, network and create synergies.

You want to be next?

Register to the Infoday for the next call for proposals that will take place on 24 November and get insights from newly selected projects : FLEETUSV and ATOMS. 

Background

The blue economy plays an important role in the transformation to a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, which is one of the EU political priorities included in the European Green Deal. The 2019 Blue Economy Window call was the first EMFF call addressing exclusively for profit SMEs, and it is part of the service package ‘BlueInvest platform’ offered by DG MARE. The platform supports investment readiness and access to finance for early-stage businesses, SMEs and scale-ups in the blue economy. The total budget of the call is 22,5M euros.