EMFAF Project Grants: Maritime clusters as an Innovative Enabler for a Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean

Deadline: 31-Jan-23

The European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund has launched project grants to foster an effective network of maritime clusters across the Mediterranean in order to support medium, small and micro enterprises in the blue economy.

Objective

• This topic aims at contributing to the Goal 2 “A smart and resilient blue economy” of the WestMED Initiative (“Maritime Clusters Development”), by building up on clusters currently cooperating (e.g. WestMED Clusters Alliance) or similar co-operation agreements and actions in the region developed by EU networks for industrial policy, interregional collaboration and integration of SMEs into EU and global value chains.
• The referred second UfM Ministerial Declaration on SBE also calls for the establishment of blue economy clusters – including transnational ones, the strengthening of existing clusters, and increased cooperation between national clusters in the Mediterranean.

Scope

• This topic focuses on establishing new national maritime clusters and enhancing cooperation between Northern and Southern clusters across the Mediterranean and among clusters, SMEs, academia and research centres, institutional actors and financial institutions. It also aims to improve the involvement of maritime clusters in policy-making at the regional/national levels, in particular as regards the definition/upgrade of smart specialisation strategies.

Funding Information

• The available call budget is EUR 7 600 000. This budget might be increased by maximum 20%.
• Maritime clusters as an innovative enabler for a Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean: EUR 1.000.000

Eligible Activities

• Activities that can be funded:
  • Benchmark against best practices and/or use cases to assess maritime clusters’ needs to achieve a critical mass and build sufficient capacity towards internationalisation, and a sustainable blue economy sectoral specialisation and improve cluster management;
  • Establish new national maritime cluster organisations across the Mediterranean and enhance cooperation between northern and southern Mediterranean maritime clusters;
  • Formulate recommendations to relevant public authorities to harness existing clusters’ practices for the benefit of coastal communities through greater regional cooperation in the Mediterranean;
  • Promote cooperation between key actors of maritime clusters (business, research, education and training institutes, public authorities), accelerators, incubators and financial intermediaries;
  • Undertake concrete joint activities, e.g. joint investment in research and innovation, developing cluster strategies and practices;
  • Strengthen cluster services to business, e.g. promoting start-ups through accelerators and business angel services, developing business services, facilitating access to finance;
  • Promote capacity-building and knowledge transfer activities, e.g. exchanging good practices, transferring capacity and enhancing mutual learning;
  • Improve the involvement of maritime clusters in the policy-making, including the definition/upgrade of smart specialisation strategies;
  • Support policymakers in dealing with cluster policy by creating synergies with the European Cluster Collaboration Platform and the European Network of Maritime Clusters.

Expected Impact

• Applicants will describe in their proposal the concrete and measurable results within the duration of the project and their expected impact, including indicators for the monitoring and measurement of progress.
  • Projects are expected to achieve the following impacts to the maximum extent possible in line with the proposed activities:
    • Strengthened competitiveness of the maritime clusters;
    • Enhanced cooperation among clusters and financial institutions, and between SMEs, academia and research centres;
    • Increased participation of coastal stakeholders (including public authorities) and their engagement into clusters activities, notably linked to market opportunities;
    • Improved governance structure of clusters and management of skills;
    • National maritime clusters established across the Mediterranean and enhanced cooperation between EU and partner countries;
    • Maritime clusters involved in the policy-making, including the upgrade of smart specialisation strategies;
    • Increased cooperation between the activities of WestMed Maritime Clusters Alliance and/or other similar cooperation agreements/actions, WestMed National Hubs and clusters.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • Be legal entities (public or private bodies)
• Be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs);
  • Non-EU countries;
• For Sustainable Transport and Ports in the Mediterranean: Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register before
• Submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation). For the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin.
• Other entities may participate in other consortium roles, such as associated partners, subcontractors, third parties giving in-kind contributions, etc.

For more information, visit EMFAF.

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