Partners Subcontractors

Assistance Mechanism for the Atlantic Action Plan Contract No: EASME/EMFF/2015/1.3.1.4/SI2.720347

3rd Atlantic Stakeholder Platform Conference Event Report, Dublin, 27 September 2016

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Client: Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME)

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This is the Executive Summary of the Event Report for the 3rd Annual Atlantic Stakeholder Platform

Conference (3rd ASPC) that was held in Dublin, Ireland on September 27th, 2016. The conference

concentrated on Priority 1 of the Atlantic Action Plan “Promote Entrepreneurship and Innovation”

emphasizing on project development so as to promote activities linked with the Atlantic Best

Practices and the Atlantic Project Awards. Furthermore, it highlighted the international dimension

of the Atlantic Strategy embodied in the Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation and its

potential support to the Blue Economy.

In total, 443 registrations from stakeholders were recorded. The Conference was finally attended by

276 stakeholders from the private sector, academia and research centres, public national and

regional authorities and the EU institutions.

The format chosen for the 3rd ASPC included two morning plenary sessions that combined policy and

specific case study presentations on innovation and entrepreneurship and two afternoon parallel

workshop sessions that demonstrated AAP priorities and objectives in action. The closing plenary

session included the presentation of the Atlantic City of the Year Award which is the recognition of

efforts of the Atlantic Arc Cities to find sustainable models adapted to their geographical identity

and the presentations of the workshop session outcomes.

Networking and Matchmaking Activities were prominent during the entire conference as they were

implemented through the presence of 40 exhibition stands (project promoters, networks, workshop

organisers, other stakeholders exhibiting documentation, promotional material, and videos), as well

as, through a designated matchmaking area for appointments between participants (project

promoters, funding agencies).

The opening plenary session commenced with welcome addresses from the following

representatives:

Brendan Carr, Lord Mayor of Dublin;

Michael Creed TD, Government of Ireland- Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine;

Karmenu Vella, Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries European

Commission;

Deirdre Clune, Member of the European Parliament;

Alain Cadec, Member of the European Parliament (video message).

The abovementioned representatives, highlighted the ways by which the Atlantic Strategy has

managed to capitalize on the potential of the sea to offer new economic opportunities, as well as

the opportunities it has developed to invigorate and drive the 'blue economy' forward. Moreover,

several speakers noted the size of the Atlantic Blue Economy and further underlined the potential of

the Strategy and the utility of the Action Plan.

The welcome addresses were followed by the Award ceremony for the 1st Atlantic Project Awards,

which are designed to honour outstanding success stories, achieved by projects in the geographical

area covered by the Atlantic Strategy and that are related to the implementation of the Atlantic

Action Plan. The Atlantic Project Awards were presented by the Commissioner for Environment,

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Mr. Karmenu Vella and covered four categories in line with the

priorities of the Atlantic Strategy, namely Entrepreneurship and innovation, Atlantic Marine and

coastal environment, Accessibility and connectivity, Sustainability while a special award was given

for International Cooperation.

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The Awards Ceremony was followed by a session dedicated to Cooperation and Funding

opportunities in the Atlantic Area involving two speakers:

Vicente Rodriguez Saez, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European

Commission;

Alexandros Chloros, Support Team for the Atlantic Action Plan.

The main focus of the speakers’ presentations and further exchange with the audience was to

outline European Structural Investment funding possibilities that are aligned with the priorities and

goals of the Atlantic Action Plan. Additionally, matchmaking services and tools offered by the

Support Team for the Atlantic Action Plan were further outlined.

After the 1st break, the conference continued with the second Plenary session: Promoting

Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Atlantic Area: From Atlantic Policy objectives to Best

Practices with panellists comprising of representatives of Member States, EU institutions and

networks that delivered an overview of their experiences and views on the state of play and future

development of the Atlantic Strategy implementation. The panellists were in order of appearance:

Peter Joyce, Department for Business Innovation and Skills (UK);

Mania Muñoz, Programming and Evaluation of EU Funds Dept., Spanish Ministry of Finance and

Public Administration (ES);

John Daly, Sláinte Ól Teo (IE);

Joe Greeney, WestBIC and President Emeritus of EBN (European Business and Innovation Centre

Network) (IE);

Nuno Almeida, CCDRN (ES);

Valerie Cummins, Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster – IMERC (IE);

Jacques Fuchs, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission;

Antony Grehan, National University of Ireland Galway (IE).

The main plenary session demonstrated that Members States have taken great strides with regards

to policy that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship within the Blue Economy and in the few

years since the Atlantic Strategy and Atlantic Action Plan have been put into action, successful case

studies that demonstrate AAP’s priorities of innovation and entrepreneurship have been established

that are already bearing results and will continue to do so, furthering the growth of the blue

economy and its affiliated fields.

In the afternoon, two sessions of 4 parallel workshops took place, each of them facilitated by one or

more organisers. Workshop organisers were encouraged to facilitate their workshops by focusing on

project ideas’ development and to assume an interactive session format with the participants.

Title Organiser

W1A: Marine test sites and demonstration areas: hubs to drive Blue

Technologies into the market place

The Oceanic Platform of the Canary

Islands (ES)

W1B: Supporting implementation of maritime spatial planning in

the Celtic seas (SIMCelt): exploring entrepreneurship and innovation

opportunities

SIMCelt (University of Liverpool) (UK)

W1C: Bridging skills gaps in the Maritime Sector: how to adapt

maritime training to the industry’s needs?

CPMR Atlantic Arc Commission

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Title Organiser

W1D: Bluelabs.I/O – developing a collaborative open innovation

network for the Atlantic blue economy

Vertigolab (FR)

W2A: Can combining Blue Sectors in multiple-use of space or multi-

purpose platforms produce viable business cases: Case study

analysis using Maribe H2020 projects

Maribe project, MaREI Centre, UCC (IE)

W2B: Strengthening Atlantic competitiveness: the opportunity of a

Maritime Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project

University of Cádiz (ES)

W2C: Resilient coastal communities and efficiently managed

harbour inlet areas

Instituto Hidrográfico (PT)

W2D: Open data for Blue Growth in the Atlantic area European Marine Observation and Data

Network (EMODnet)

The Plenary Closing session commenced with the presentation of the Atlantic City of the Year Award

which is the recognition of efforts of the Atlantic Arc Cities to find sustainable models adapted to

their geographical identity. The award was delivered to Las Palmas de Gran Canarias, the capital of

the island of Gran Canarias, Spain by two local authority representatives, namely Mr. Jerry Lundy,

from Sligo County Council and Atlantic Strategy representative to the Committee of the Regions and

Mr. Jose Maria Costa, Mayor of Viana do Castelo, President of the Portuguese Delegation at the

Committee of the Regions and President of Atlantic Cities. The Atlantic City of the Year Award

ceremony was followed up by the presentation of workshop sessions outcomes.

The Plenary Closing session concluded with the presentations of Mr. Felix Leinemann, Head of Unit,

Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, European Commission and Ms Marcella

Smyth, Irish Chair of the Atlantic Strategy Group. Both speakers commemorated on the successful

outcomes of the event, especially as those related to networking, workshop facilitation and

innovative idea exchanges. Additionally, both speakers stressed the need for closer cooperation of

all relevant stakeholders (the Commission, ASG, the European Parliament and Managing Authorities

across the Atlantic in order for partnerships to be formulated, project ideas to be gathered and

funding opportunities to be identified.

As regards matchmaking and networking activities, a total of 46 meeting requests were received

online prior to the event. The AM Team contacted beforehand all involved parties to facilitate the

process and scheduled meetings in a suitable time and place. Moreover, 14 additional postcards

were collected and posted on the Cooperation Wall during the conference, increasing the total

number of matchmaking requests to 64.

The 3nd Stakeholder Platform Conference in Dublin, through its dedicated Twitter account, achieved

very high trending rates. The dedicated #EUAtlantic hashtag, at the beginning of that afternoon was

the 3rd most trending hashtag in Ireland; 182 people used the hashtag, 514 tweets were made,

431.755 people and 1.231.565 impressions (potential views) were reached.

More information on the event can be found at the dedicated section of the Atlantic Strategy

website. (http://atlanticstrategy.eu/en/news-and-events/news/atlantic-stakeholder-conference-

dublin-ireland )

Workshop 1A: Marine test sites and demonstration areas: hubs to drive Blue Techologies into the market place

Organiser: The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands

01 Objectives

1. Sharing challenges, knowledge, experience and best practices among offshore renewable energy test sites

2. Promoting innovative tools to support technology developers to conduct sea-trials and demonstrations

3. Exploring new opportunities to demonstrate technologies on pilot and pre-commercial studies

4. Support match-making opportunities among relevant stakeholders and experts of the Atlantic Regions.

02 Follow-up actions - Recommendations

1. EU funding to be available to share challenges, knowledge, experience and best practices among test sites (i.e. Ocean energy forum, ESFRI-ROADMAP-MARINERGI, OCEAN ENERGY EUROPE, etc.)

2. More support for technology developers to conduct sea-trials and demonstrations (i.e. FORSEA, MARINET 2, etc.) using PPP, innovative public procurements, Juncker funds, Connecting Europe

3. EU support for project developers to demonstrate innovative business case on pilot and pre-commercial studies (i.e. H2020)

4. Improve connections among relevant stakeholders, experts and policy makers across the Atlantic Regions (e.g. ATLANTIC AREA Cooperation Programme or COST).

Workshop 1B: Supporting implementation of maritime spatial planning (MSP) in the Celtic seas (SIMCelt): exploring

entrepreneurship and innovation opportunities

Organiser: SIMCelt (University of Liverpool)

01 Objectives

1. To have fun playing the MSP Challenge games and understand more about the marine planning process it outlines, at different scales

2. To understand where and how MSP and marine activities might reinforce and benefit each other rather than get in each other’s way

3. To consider whether marine activities and land/sea interactions are taken into account by MSP processes and responsible authorities

4. To see the opportunities for innovation and Blue Growth in MSP.

02 Follow-up actions - Recommendations

1. Audience engaged with enthusiasm in the game, demonstrating

1. the importance of engaging key interest groups in the MSP process

2. the scope for co-location and partnership working

2. Publicity about the development of the game should be distributed widely

3. The SIMCelt project could be used as a starting point for innovative applications of related tools for public engagement in Atlantic Action partnerships.

Workshop 1C: Bridging skills gaps in the Maritime Sector: how to adapt maritime training to the industry’s needs?

Organiser: CPMR Atlantic Arc Commission

01 Objectives

1. To better understand what is needed from the Maritime industry sector

2. How training centers/universities can evolve to match

these needs

3. To understand how Regional authorities support and

promote maritime training to retain skilled personnel in

their Regions.

02 Follow-up actions - Recommendations

1. Investigate methods to engage all players (e.g. industry, regional authorities, universities) to identify and bridge training gaps in the maritime sector

2. Early intervention - provide information about maritime career opportunities to younger generations earlier in the education cycle (in line with Blue Careers)

3. Overall, a long term education strategy for encouraging business innovation in the Blue Economy.

Workshop 1D: Bluelabs.I/O – developing a collaborative open innovation network for the Atlantic blue economy

Organiser: Vertigolab

01 Objectives

1. Explaining the EASME candidate project BlueLabs.I/O a transnational project linking European blue economy, open innovation and digital agenda;

2. Exploring the potential of hack-a-thons and open-innovation as tools to address challenges faced by fisheries and aquaculture communities;

3. Building a network of stakeholders interested in designing open innovation events for fisheries and aquaculture.

02 Follow-up actions - Recommendations

1. To involve end-user communities (e.g. fishermen) to develop tailored solutions that can be easily adopted by the market

Important to engage with fisheries sector from early stage, to follow up and support solution up to market

2. To use a value-net perspective (e.g. valuing the social/inclusive elements of innovation), in addition to a traditional value-chain process.

Workshop 2A: Can combining Blue Sectors in multiple-use of space or multi-purpose platforms produce viable business cases:

Case study analysis using Maribe H2020 projects

Organiser: Maribe project, MaREI Centre, UCC

01 Objectives

1. Introduce the audience to the Maribe project

1. The goal of the Maribe project 2. The background context reports 3. The selection process for the case studies

2. Introduction to the Maribe techno-economic financial tool and Maribe financial indicators

3. Introduction to the Maribe risk assessment and mitigation methods 4. Round tables debate to discuss the technical and non-technical

barriers faced by the Maribe projects 5. Conclude whether the Maribe projects have technical merit and are

worth financing.

02 Follow-up actions - Recommendations

1. Marine spatial planning could be a driver for multiple use of space

2. Small scale energy projects, providing autonomous power replacing diesel, are viable to large scale project combinations

3. Incentives such as clawback deals were suggested, if pilot projects become viable, so that funders recoup their investments.

Workshop 2B: Strengthening Atlantic competitiveness: the opportunity of a Maritime Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project

Organiser: University of Cádiz

01 Objectives

1. Engage maritime stakeholders to support a future project proposal Maritime Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in the Atlantic

1. Establish an open innovation model

2. Develop educational and training programs

3. Foster the creation of innovative companies

4. Attract private capital

5. Diversify the investments of the maritime companies.

02 Follow-up actions - Recommendations

1. Managing IP is crucial, IP mechanisms need to favourable to entrepreneurs and other stakeholders

2. University speed of development, coupled with regulations could align better to the private sector’s required speed to market

3. Funding and training are key accelerators for the entrepreneur to succeed

4. An understanding that the road to commercialistion is stepped – it requires mentors, investors and stakeholders input at several stages

Workshop 2C: Resilient coastal communities and efficiently managed harbour inlet areas

Organiser: Instituto Hidrográfico

01 Objectives

1. Present and discuss new technological possibilities of promoting more sustainable and predictable littoral areas, with consequent increase in income and reduction of losses, both in lives and property

2. Introduce innovative and economically affordable management tools to reduce operational management limitations in harbour inlets created by hydro-morphologic response to incoming wave conditions

3. Identify potential additional partners, interest stakeholders and recruit end-users for project proposals

4. Evaluate the degree of public response to the proposed tools and services

02 Follow-up actions - Recommendations

1. The set up process of the systems and services proposed for the littoral and harbour areas should be expedited and submitted to operational tests in concerted actions with end-users

2. Coastal municipalities are open to be provided with information (and knowledge) for intelligent strategic decision making, but not that much for emergency or short term actions

3. When (and if) using crowdsourcing to update the littoral bathymetry, ways should be found to reward the data providers

Workshop 2D: Open data for Blue Growth in the Atlantic area

Organiser: European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet)

01 Objectives

1. Illustrate the value of open marine data as a prerequisites for innovation and sustainable economic development in the Atlantic area

2. Discuss progress & bottlenecks in streamlining the marine knowledge value chain from data acquisition to information products/services for users

3. Share results & experiences from SMEs, maritime clusters, the EMODnet Atlantic Checkpoint & Transatlantic Seabed Mapping collaborations in the frame of AORA. What’ s in it for the private sector?

4. Discuss with Atlantic maritime industry stakeholders the opportunities & challenges linked to the development of marine data products & services Formulate recommendations for follow-up actions.

02 Follow-up actions - Recommendations

1. Need more intense dialogue/collaboration with private sector along the entire marine knowledge value chain – from acquisition, management/access to development of products and services – Maritime Clusters can be play an important role in facilitating

2. Intermediary users developing commercial info services require transparency & stakeholder engagement about public data/products/services available

3. Collaboration across Atlantic MS is essential to unlock the wealth of marine observations & data to foster blue growth in balance with protection of environment – initiatives such as the EMODnet Atlantic Checkpoint, the AORA Seabed Mapping WG, ATLAS and ATLANTOS as these provide important opportunities for SMEs/industry – support for more such initiatives is needed