The BLUE ECOSYSTEM partnership met last 15 and 16 October 2024 in Sines (Alentejo) to discuss the upcoming activities, focusing on the pilot regions of the Balearic Islands, Emilia-Romagna, Région Sud-Occitanie, Zadar County, Alentejo, Attica and Albania.
In the last few months, the partners’ efforts have pivoted on two main activities:
- Blue Transformation challenges at MED level and priority matrix: It presents a detailed analysis of the challenges facing the EU-Mediterranean region and the specific actions that must be undertaken through innovative solutions to effectively address them. The process started by the identification of the competitive advantages and challenges in the pilot regions, the alignment with specific objectives of the EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters and a search and evaluation of innovations to transform business models in the Mediterranean region towards a sustainable blue economy. In fact, BLUE ECOSYSTEM has identified applications with cross-sectoral potential within the blue economy, facilitating the integration and widespread adoption of emerging technologies.
- Territorial co-design of the transformative portfolio of missions/challenges: It highlights key areas where potential innovators should concentrate their efforts, according to the priorities, strengths and weaknesses of each region.
After sharing the vision of the conceptual framework at project level (at the Innovation Camp in Barcelona last May 2024 and the meeting in Sines), these two activities allowed pilot regions to identify the main missions/challenges to be addressed and the stakeholders to be involved. Project partners were expected to organize a first workshop to define the principles of co-creation and co-design.
For instance, from January to June 2024, Emilia-Romagna launched a call for interest to all the stakeholders that were interested in the process, based on the challenges pre-identified at regional level (blue economy, coastal zone and conservation, marine manufacturing) and organized different meetings.
Unlocking the potential of regions and setting the ground for the TRAIN LABS
From now on, the focus shifts to a regional territorial level. Partners will organise a co-design/co-creation activity (such a workshop, but other formats are possible) up to early December 2024:
- to validate the identified challenges and missions in local context;
- to engage the quintuple helix;
- to finetune the ongoing methodology for the TRAIN LABS
Following the previous regional example, Emilia Romagna will be using the Ecomondo Exhibition (5-8 November) for the co-creation and co-design activity and to strengthen the common methodology.
During the meeting, the partners dedicated a working session to discuss the TRAIN LABS acceleration process, one of the key activities of the project to:
- Ensure the proper involvement of the stakeholders
- Communicate the added value of the process
- Define the duration of the process and the activities
- Harmonize the outputs of the process for further use
Subsequently, a call for transformative innovation solutions will be launched, based on the portfolio of missions/challenges and the inputs from the co-design/co-creation activities…The chosen solution(s) will count on acceleration process in the frame of the TRAIN LABS, lasting from 3 to 5 months and including technical workshops, mentoring program, study visits…
With the 8 established TRAIN LABS, the project will start a MED transnational open innovation process to address MED complex challenges and match, connect and identify transnational opportunities for the solution acceleration. All in all, a transformative Book for Blue sustainable economy, sharing the overall project approach, the main outcomes and best practices for the mutual learning about transformative innovation will be one of the main deliverables created.
Interested to know which format the regions will choose for the co-design/co-creation activities? Stay tuned to our social media to discover it.
For further information about the project, please contact jordi.juarez@crpm.org
