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European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency
  • News article
  • 14 September 2020
  • Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
  • 1 min read

Blue Economy Window call 2019 - Selected projects kick off

New EMFF “BlueInvest” grants aim to boost innovation and investment in sustainable technologies for the blue economy

BlueInvest call 2019 visual

New EMFF “BlueInvest” grants aim to boost innovation and investment in sustainable technologies for the blue economy, by supporting market readiness for early-stage businesses, SMEs and scale-ups. 

Europe’s blue economy and especially SMEs play a crucial role in supporting coastal communities and in decarbonising our economy. In that context, the Blue Economy Window call was launched in 2019 with the aim to accelerate the sustainable development of the blue economy SMEs across the European Union. The total call budget is of EUR 22,505,000 provided under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

Also branded as  ‘BlueInvest Grants’, these projects   belong to a package of measures set up under the BlueInvest platform launched by the European Commission (Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries/EASME).  It encompasses assistance services for investment readiness and access to finance for early-stage businesses. 
More specifically, the grants aim to:

  • Accelerate innovation in the blue economy;
  • Enhance SMES profitability and growth performance;
  • Create and maintain high quality jobs in the blue economy.

All the selected projects have officially started and they are:

  • ATOMS (Auxiliary towable operation and maintenance system for offshore wind towers),
  • FLEETUSV (Future of the ocean data collection market: Commercialisation of the novel low-cost, efficient, high-performing autonomous unmanned surface vessel);
  • CLEANERSHIP (Retrofit fuel and emissions reduction for large ship engines);
  • POWERFLEX (Low-cost and flexible onshore power supply for containerships consumers’ and onboard batteries charging);
  • SEASAM AI (Autonomous inspection of ship hulls, aquaculture nets and offshore wind farms);
  • AREONES (Offshore Robotic Wind Turbine Blade Care System);
  • INNOVAFEED (Support InnovaFeed in its next level innovation and industrial deployment across Europe);
  • ZBOXBluelogistics (Foldable shipping containers for sustainable blue growth);
  • WaveFarm (WaveRoller Wave Farm Scale-Up - Preparing to deploy the world’s first commercial wave energy farm);
  • SATHScale (Engineering and upscaling of new floating renewable wind energy platform);
  • Photolicer (Development and commercialisation of safe, effective and user-friendly photonics based sea lice removal system for salmon farms).

For further information, click here.

Details

Publication date
14 September 2020
Author
Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises