Black Sea blue economy investment and innovation capacity building pilot

 

In support of the implementation of the Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea – endorsed by Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine – this call topic aims to boost innovation and digitalisation in blue economy sectors. The selected pilot project(s) will contribute to the implementation of the European Green Deal objectives, the Digital Agenda and the EU Communication on Sustainable Blue Economy.

 

• Strengthening the capacity of blue economy SMEs and start-ups to identify and tap into potential public/private investors.

• Improving the visibility of investment opportunities in the Black Sea blue economy and capacity of public/private investors to identify SMEs and start-ups.

• Develop stakeholder capacity to establish/enhance concrete cooperation and networking approaches and methods to improve the business environment and strengthen value chains.

• Contributing to the development of a networked, multi-stakeholder blue investment and innovation ecosystem in the Black Sea.

 

Proposals will bring together blue economy stakeholders in EU and eligible non-EU Black Sea countries to identify and tackle local capacity building needs to boost innovation, digitalisation and investment in the Black Sea blue economy.

Proposals will seek to create a bridge between local stakeholders and activities developed at the level of the Black Sea CMA. In their proposals, applicants will clearly identify the local areas of the Black Sea on which the project will focus.

 

The scope of the call encompasses traditional and emerging blue economy sectors with high potential for the development of the sustainable blue economy in the Black Sea. Proposals should primarily focus on the following sectors identified as priorities by the CMA Steering Group: coastal and maritime tourism, fisheries and aquaculture and maritime transport.

However, proposals may also consider other blue economy traditional sectors, such as shipbuilding, as well as emerging ones such as blue biotechnology, marine renewable energies, etc. Proposals may also explore the potential for SMEs/start-ups in the development of ports as blue economy accelerators.

 

In their proposals, applicants should describe target sectors and justify their choice, including in terms of their contribution to sustainability and decarbonisation. Only activities that make a substantive contribution to environmentally sustainable objectives and do no significant harm to any other environmental objectives will be considered in the scope of this call for proposals.

In addition, proposals should describe how they build on and complement other completed or ongoing relevant projects or initiatives, at international, EU, national or regional level, including those supported by EU funds and those funded/financed from other sources. Particular attention should be given to EU-funded Blue Economy cluster initiatives of relevance and relevant HORIZON 2020 projects, such as SEAS-ERA , Black Sea HORIZON , B-SEENOVA , DOORS and BRIDGE-BS as well as the Black Sea CBC Programme and horizontal clustering actions such as DIGICIRC.

 

• Development of a supportive regional ecosystem with durable partnerships/ network of Blue economy SMEs and start-ups, research organisations, maritime clusters, financing bodies, public/ private investors and other relevant members.

• New, applicable and replicable methods/approaches to concretely support innovation in the blue economy in the Black sea.

• Improved visibility of the role of, and funding opportunities offered by, various public/private institutions.

• Increased number of blue economy SMEs/start-ups actively seeking and applying for financial investment opportunities (e.g. BlueInvest).

• Increased capacity of SMEs and start-ups, research organisations, maritime clusters to bring research and innovation results to the market.

The list of impacts is non-exhaustive and applicants are expected to include others, as appropriate for their proposal.