GALATEA – New Value Chains of the European Blue Economy

During January and February 2021, GALATEA partners have organized several innovation clubs and B2B meetings  to encourage SMEs in proposing innovative solutions to the identified challenges in a cross-fertilization framework.

eBlue_economy-Marek Grzybowski
eBlue_economy-Marek Grzybowski

By : Marek Grzybowski

Innovation Clubs.  Around 60 SMEs and 10 experts from 5 European countries have participated in this ideation process in which an innovative “design thinking” methodology has been applied. SMEs joined around different working tables to respond to digitalization, environment, security and other specific challenges on the 4 GALATEA’s Blue Economy domains: Smart Ship, Smart Ports, Smart Shipyards and Maritime Surveillance. SMEs had the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas. Following the methodology to facilitate creativity and supported by facilitators and experts, more than 35 ideas have been generated by the SMEs to address the identified challenges.

eBlue_economy
eBlue_economy

The workshops were organized by two strong French clusters: Pôle Mer Méditerranée and Aerospace Valley. Despite the fact that the meetings were held online, it was possible to identify a whole range of needs and problems faced by ports and shipyards and generate many new ideas for solving them. An additional challenge for the proposed projects is the need to operate in the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts from Greece (Corallia Clusters Initiative / Research Center Athena), Spain (Asociación Clúster de Movilidad y Logística de Euskadi and Fundació Eurecat, Catalan Water Partnership) and Romania (Asociatia Cluj IT) were also involved in the preparation and conduct of the meetings. Poland was represented by the Baltic Sea and Space Cluster with a team of experts on smart ports and smart shipyards and smart ship.

More: https://www.eblueeconomy.com/marek-grzybowski-write-galatea-new-value-chains-of-the-european-blue-economy/