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EMPORIA4KT event celebrates project highlights and showcases Blue Technology Transfer Programme

emporia4kt logo and interreg combined v4

Press release: 7 February 2022

The EMPORIA4KT project held a virtual highlight event celebrating the project’s contributions to forging links between academic, bu­siness and government stakeholders across the Blue Economy. Launched in 2019 and funded by the EU INTERREG Atlantic Area programme, EMPORIA4KT has developed novel tools and training methodologies to train researchers to identify specific potential marine and maritime users of their findings, ensuring their real-world applications.

The event provided insights into the emerging needs for Blue Economy industries and policies in the Atlantic Area, and how properly implemented knowledge and technology transfer from academia can address these needs. Attendees learned how EMPORIA4KT’s Joint Action Plan to enhance Blue Economy in the Atlantic Area establishes a roadmap for achieving knowledge transfer and addressing trends at national, interregional and transnational levels.

A whitepaper produced by the project was highlighted, which identifies barriers to transfer and lays out policy and funding recommendations to overcome these obstacles. Attendees also received a demonstration of the project’s Academia Innovation Enhancer tool, a unique training platform for researchers to improve their knowledge and technology transfer skills.

Keynote speaker Roberta Zobbi, from the European Commission’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, provided an overview of the EU’s Blue Economy goals. Her address outlined the policy context for current marine strategy and the importance of solutions from projects such as Emporia4KT to bridge critical gaps of communication and understanding between academia and industry.

The event also served as the culminating stage of the project’s Blue Economy Technology Transfer (BETT) Programme, an 11-month training exercise in which teams of Early Career Researchers from France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the UK identified paths to industry for their respective Early-Stage Technologies (EST). The top team from each region delivered a pitch of their EST to a jury of five Blue Economy experts.

The BETT presentations covered environmentally-friendly concrete, floating solar arrays, high-value uses of seafood processing waste, an autonomous solution to marine plastic pollution and a harmful algal bloom advanced warning system for shellfish farmers. After a tough deliberation for the jury, the team from Ireland was awarded first place with the team from Portugal presented as runners-up.

For more information on the EMPORIA4KT project and its outputs, visit emporia4kt.com

EMPORIA4KT event celebrates project highlights and showcases Blue Technology Transfer Programme