Athens, June 20th-21st, 2018 – The Blue Growth Community, driven by the InnoBlueGrowth project (Interreg MED), celebrated its third transnational CAP&COM Building event on Cluster Approach last 20th-21st June in Athens. The event was organized by ASCAME together with all the InnoBlueGrowth partners, untitled ‘’The Cluster approach for a sustainable Blue Growth in the Med’’, gathering several stakeholders ranging from Higher Education & Research institutes to SMEs, Sectoral Agents, Business Support Organizations, and Private Sector.

The Cluster approach for a sustainable Blue Growth in the Med

The 2-day workshop had a dual approach: The first day was focused on Capitalization Activities of Maritime Surveillance in the Mediterranean area with leading actor the PROteuS project; a project aiming at exploiting the growth potential of the emerging Maritime Surveillance industry that can play a crucial role in the socio-economic development of MED area and in the generation of new job opportunities, through the creation of a “Cluster of Clusters”, meaning that the Cluster will be composed by National Nodes operating in MED countries (Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus).

Among the highlighted points addressed during the maritime surveillance thematic session was the astonished contribution of Hellenic Coast Guard presenting the aspects of Maritime Surveillance though a memorable video and the debate followed, focusing on immigration and cybersecurity vulnerability. The debates then slid to the hearing of the demand to establish a clear harmonized policy & regulatory framework for strategic actions, in order to facilitate the growth and development of the maritime surveillance sector. For that reason, the establishment of a public-private partnership ‘’with a clear vision from the start’’ and ‘’the right government in place’’, are essential. An open innovation approach to bring together public and private sectors is fundamental, however, bearing in mind the ‘’risks served due to different cultures involved’’.

Following the debate among the powerful audience and interest speakers, the last session was focused on the strength that derives from knowledge creation and knowledge capitalization. ‘’Lack of awareness means that we create open doors’’. In the digital transformation world, new skills, training, scientific and technological expertise are major components, so as to support the new era of a holistic maritime eco-system.

Projects for the blue economy

The next workshop day had a community-building approach, with the aim to outline the cluster methodology & challenges and promote the benefits for sustainable development of the blue economy. Starting with MAESTRALE project by presenting the Blue Energy Geodatabase platform and the transnationality of Blue Energy Labs, the floor was given to the newly launched INTERREG MED project 4HELIX+ ‘’Empowering the 4Helix of MED maritime clusters through an open-source/knowledge sharing and community-based approach in favour of MED blue growth’’. The project intends to improve conditions for bridging the gap between eight MED regional formal or informal maritime clusters involved in its activities and their 4 helixes. This will be achieved through an open source, knowledge sharing and community-based approach. The last part of the first session was focused on training and educational part of the sector, and the importance of highly-skilled personnel availability for the cluster performance. ‘’Companies cannot compete on sophisticated services without well-educated employees’’.

Choosing the right partner

The possibility of co-operation and co-opetition in the Mediterranean level was afterwards presented by PELAGOS project and the newly launched Online Platform of the Blue Energy Cluster, http://www.be-cluster.eu/; a platform that offers to kind of opportunities the ‘’cooperation’’ and ‘’technology’’.  Among the very interesting questions that raised during the debate was the query ’’does a cluster need government’’, being also the topic of one of the four round table discussions that followed, in terms of team building activities.

Participants discussed issues such as funding resources for a cluster, how to choose an appropriate partner, the importance of governance and the contribution of a cluster in sustainable development and economic growth. Among the highlighted issues suggested, was to include the environmental helix in the process model, as the environment can be a driving force for the future policy-makers.