Last week UMBRELLA Communication Team from BISER – Bałtycki Instytut Spraw Europejskich i Regionalnych represented our project in a beautiful city of Lisbon for the 2019 edition of the European Maritime Day!
During the opening session on 16th May we’ were welcomed by the Fernando MEDINA, President of the Municipality of Lisbon and Ana Paula VITORINO, Minister of Sea, Republic of Portugal.
They were followed with the speech from Karmenu VELLA, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. Afterwards, we took part in the panel: What lies ahead? What is at stake for the oceans?
- Karmenu VELLA, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
- Gesine MEISSNER, Member of European Parliament, Chair of Intergroup on Seas, Rivers, Islands & Coastal Areas (SEARICA), EP Special Envoy on Maritime Policy
- Ricardo SERRÃO SANTOS, Member of European Parliament, Vice-Chair SEARICA Intergroup
- Marcella HANSCH, Ocean Entrepreneur, CEO Pacific Garbage Screening
- Darko MANAKOVSKI, Ocean Activist, Lead for Scandinavia, Global Development, Rare
- Vanessa DRAPER, Director, Sky Ocean Ventures
?#EMD is the annual meeting point for Europe’s maritime community to network, discuss and forge synergies.
The focus in 
was on blue #entrepreneurship, research and innovation for healthy seas and oceans.
?Among many workshops we participated in one on the #bluegrowthregional cooperation Smart Specialisation and the Emerging Blue Sectors. Acting together in a regional ecosystem organized by the Errin (European Regions Research & Innovation Network) & POMORSKIE Regional EU Office with the representatives of Polish Maritime Cluster mentioning their cooperation with our #UMBRELLA Interreg South Baltic project, Instytut Morski w Gdańsku,#SouthNorway EU Office – Leader of the #PERISCOPE – North Sea Region Programme and Mistral MED Interreg project.
Building on the competence of a region, this workshop showcased how investments in blue growth have a positive cross-sectorial impact on the entire regional innovation ecosystem. Speakers presented strategies and gaps in RIS3 as well as tools and methods for knowledge transfer in the blue economy.
Moderator:
- Mr Tomasz Szymczak, CEO, STARTER
Speakers:
- Ms Fedra Francocci – Scientific Officer, Institute of Research on Terrestrial Ecosystems, National Research Council Italy.
- Mr Marek Grzybowski – Cluster Manager, Baltic Sea & Space Cluster.
- Mr Karsten Aust – EU Advisor, PERISCOPE project, South Norway European Office
- Ms Joanna Przedrzymirska, Maritime Institute in Gdańsk.
Other workshops we attended were:
- Blue Generation: Youth & Blue Economy. This workshop introduced and discussed the Blue Generation Project that brings together the Youth Sector and the Blue Economy Sectors. Its aim is to inspire and engage Youth & NEETs between 15 and 29 years to pursue a sustainable career in one of the Blue Economy growth areas.
- EU Blue Economy report II: Growing contribution of emerging sectors. During the session, the 2nd Blue Economy Annual Economic report was presented by its authors. The report measures the scope and size of the blue economy describes sectoral trends and analyses their drivers providing a crucial evidence-base for policy-makers and stakeholders. The session aim was to raise awareness of data limits to properly assess the growing contribution of emerging sectors to the EU’s blue economy and the need for an improved data collection framework for these sectors. It included presentations on measuring and monitoring the economic benefits of activity areas such as Desalination, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Blue biotechnology.
- Blue Circular Economy. Marine Litter: Gaps, barriers, solutions and & innovation.
The discussion was about the existing gaps, barriers, potential solutions, and business and innovation opportunities, for the prevention & reduction, monitoring & quantification, recovery and transformation of marine litter.
- Blue economy at the local level. Title of the workshop: Ingredients for a local blue growth recipe.This workshop tackled the challenges to blue growth at the local and regional scales and showcase solutions from locations in Europe and beyond. Speakers presented how different regulatory and policy instruments are used for promoting innovations for sustainable local and regional development.
During the Handover Ceremony on 16th May, the EMD2020 host was announced – next year’s event will take place in Cork.
he project UMBRELLA is partly financed from the Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020 through the European Regional Development Fund.
Project name (EN): Boosting cross-border cooperation capacities of local actors in the South Baltic Sea
Project acronym: UMBRELLA
Project start date: 2018-01-01; Project end date: 2020-06-30
Total budget/expenditure: EUR 986.566,00
European Union funding: EUR 786.652,00
