The Municipality of Burgas hosted the first two-day partner meeting under the project “Digital Blue Economy and Innovation Acceleration Network” – DBAN, which took place on 31.08 and 01.09.2022 in the Exhibition Center “Flora”, city of Burgas.
The leading partner and coordinator of the project is the Municipality of Burgas with partners: Southeast Digital Innovation Hub – Burgas, Bulgaria, State Agrarian University – Odessa, Ukraine and Center for International Business and Economy – Batumi, Georgia.
The project idea is designed around the concept of establishing a regional blue economy and innovations acceleration network – based ecosystem, which supports existing and emerging businesses and business initiatives in the Blue economy sectors, building upon their potential for innovation, circular and bio-based solutions as well as their capacity to contribute to the local/regional sustainable development performance indicators.
The project aims at creation of regional digital Blue Innovation Acceleration Network for the Black Sea region that will be first implemented between the partnering cities of Burgas, Batumi and Odessa.
Within the framework of the project, a regional strategy of the Black Sea region for Blue economy and smart specialization with local action plans will be developed.
It is planned to develop digital training modules to increase the capacity of SMEs and entrepreneurs in the field of the Blue economy and conduct hybrid (digital and face-to-face) training campaigns.
Another key activity of the project implementation is the holding of local competitions for blue innovations and two-day hackathons in each of the partner cities – Burgas, Odessa, Batumi.
A BlueEcoMar website and mobile application will be developed, which aim to help SMEs and start-ups from Ukraine, Bulgaria and Georgia in their development (especially in the context of integration into the tourism sector) in two dimensions: promoting services and improving capacity for Blue economy market integration.
Within the framework of the project, an exhibition for blue and green innovations, products and services will be held with the participation of companies that will present digital, technological and innovative products and solutions in the field of maritime sectors, tourism, resource management, urban environment (planning and design). Thematic conferences on intelligent specialization in the Blue economy will also be organized within the framework of the exhibition.
Project “Digital Blue Economy and Innovation Acceleration Network” GC No. 101077599 — DBAN is implemented with the financial support of the Program “Natural Resources, Climate, Sustainable Blue Economy and Clean Energy” of the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund 2021-2027.
