Maritime clusters as an innovative enabler for a Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean

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^[1] and/or other similar cooperation agreements/actions, WestMed National Hubs and clusters.

The above list of expected impacts is non-exhaustive and applicants may add others if deemed relevant to achieve the objectives of this topic.

The overall objective of this topic is to foster an effective network of maritime clusters^[2] across the Mediterranean in order to support medium, small and micro enterprises in the blue economy.

This topic aims at contributing to the Goal 2 “A smart and resilient blue economy” of the WestMED Initiative^[2] (Priority 2.2. “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.

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.

Activities that can be funded:

Selected projects should carry out to the maximum extent possible the indicative (not exhaustive) activities listed below:

• 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.

[1] https://www.westmed-initiative.eu/westmed-maritime-clusters-alliance/

[2] Study on maritime clusters in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea | Maritime Forum (europa.eu) Initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the western Mediterranean (SWD(2017) 130 final)

[3] Study on maritime clusters in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea | Maritime Forum (europa.eu) Initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the western Mediterranean (SWD(2017) 130 final)