We are delighted to be working with European Commission DG MARE to co host a brokerage event in Brussels, Belgium, on the topic of  Smart Specialisation for a Sustainable Blue Economy

The event will take place on the morning 0f 21 June 2022, with participation free and open to all.  Further details follow below.

DG MARE has identified smart specialisation strategies (S3) as a key tool to implement the Communication on Sustainable Blue Economy adopted in May 2021.

Accordingly, in coordination with DG REGIO, DG MARE is setting up a smart specialization platform for sustainable blue economy and is organising a series of brokerage events to promote smart specialisation interregional partnerships and blue economy value chains.  EATiP have been pro-actively working with DG MARE since the summer of 2021 to ensure that aquaculture is successfully included in this work.

These events will support matchmaking activities in order to:

• facilitate aquaculture and wider blue economy stakeholders’ networking and exchange
• promote the definition of stakeholders’ complementarities and synergies in terms of interregional value chains/partnerships
• support exchange of potential partnership ideas and expression of interest
• share best practices and lessons learned on S3 interregional partnerships set up and implementation

Background to the Overall framework

In May 2021 the Communication on Sustainable Blue Economy (SBE) was adopted as integral part of the European Green Deal.

DG MARE has identified Smart specialisation strategies (S3) as a key tool to implement the Communication. In fact S3 represent a key opportunity, not only to prioritise regional research and innovation investments in blue economy sectors, but also to promote interregional partnerships and blue economy value chains across borders.

Accordingly, DG MARE in cooperation with DG REGIO, is setting up the S3 thematic platform for sustainable blue economy to support interregional partnerships and value chains thus facilitating the cooperation among blue economy 4 helix stakeholders.

Main objective

S3 is a useful tool to support transition towards a sustainable blue economy by creating the necessary innovation ecosystems in Member States and Regions while promoting investments that boost the competitiveness of blue economy sectors.

DG MARE, in cooperation with EATiP is organising this dedicated brokerage session to promote the potentialities of S3 aquaculture interregional partnerships, in particular in the framework of the I3 instrument and the currently open calls.

Target participants

As a multi-stakeholder platform for promotion innovation and research in aquaculture, EATiP is ideally placed to reach out to the target audience for this event.  The brokerage session seeks  participation from all actors that are part of the smart specialisation quadruple helix stakeholders’ matrix:  regional and national authorities, SMEs/start-ups/industry, clusters/business hubs, universities and research institutes, innovation and technological transfer entities and experts on technological transfer/ internationalisation and scale-up.