The current results of the strategic Italian-Croatian project InnovaMare were presented at the first InnovaMare Roadshow in Dubrovnik, which was held from 27 to 29 April 2022, organised by the University of Dubrovnik as one of the project partners.
During three active Roadshow days, numerous workshops and presentations of the scientific-research sectors in the area of marine technologies for the private and public sector were held. Also, expected trends and future development forecasts were presented alongside funding opportunities for new project ideas. The focus is on the opportunities and networking through dialogue, knowledge transfer, joint development of new project concepts and establishment of partner consortia.
On Friday, 29 April 2022, in the Laboratory for Mariculture of the University of Dubrovnik at Bistrina, the BLUE EVENT 2 was organised. This included a presentation and demonstration of new models and solutions for Marine Technologies within the Italian-Croatian InnovaMare project, H2020 SeaClear & Italian-Croatian MARLESS. The participants had the opportunity to attend the presentation of unmanned submarine and surface vessels and unmanned aircrafts for locating and gathering litter. Also, autonomous robot system that identifies and collects sea surface litter was presented as well as autonomous vehicle that is able to map the congested water areas. The presentation and demonstration of innovative solutions for the preservation of the Adriatic Sea was organised in order to demonstrate the importance and the possible use of these solutions, which have opened up new possibilities in the area of marine technologies. During the presentation, it was possible to record prototypes and demonstrations of the new solutions and to talk to project representatives about any additional questions.
The strategic Italian-Croatian InnovaMare project has identified the need to preserve the Adriatic Sea, which includes an ecosystem of the stakeholders and a multi-disciplinary approach, and it brings together universities, industry and policy-makers. Such networking is precisely the aim of this project, which is being implemented within the Interreg programme Italy-Croatia. One of the main challenges of the strategic InnovaMare project is to increase the efficiency of innovation activities in the area of blue economy, by advancing knowledge transfer through mutual cooperation. The project has achieved very good results in terms of the cooperation of the partner consortium through various project activities. These include the developed InnovaMare innovation ecosystem which presents the Digital Innovation Hub InnovaMare and InnovaMare innovation platform. Together, they open up further possibilities of cross-country cooperation in boosting the growth of the blue economy.
The total project budget amounts to € 5,555,755.45, and the main coordinator of the project is the Croatian Chamber of Commerce. The University of Dubrovnik is one of the 14 partners. The University’s project lead is Associate Professor Ivana Palunko, PhD from the Laboratory for Intelligent Autonomous Systems – LARIAT. Besides researchers from LARIAT, researchers from the Department for Applied Marine Ecology are also included in this project.
