Our European projects

Move2Digital aims to ensure the appropriation, by VSEs/SMEs in the French SUD-PACA region, of technologies linked to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and connected objects. The project aims to support companies through a complete portfolio of services and expertise based on 4 pillars: prototyping, access to innovation ecosystems and networking, support for investment research and training.

Community4Innovation aims to develop and strengthen innovation capacities in order to facilitate the transition towards a circular, climate neutral and resilient society. To do this, the main objective of the project is the creation of a “Mediterranean cluster of sustainable and innovative economy”. A multi-sectoral space designed to support innovative initiatives, promote new knowledge exchange and mentoring programs, and develop tools that synthesise best practices in the circular economy.

The primary goal of MedBAN is to gather and assist SMEs in the blue economy in adopting greener and increasingly digitised processes. This transition towards a more resilient, greener and increasingly digitised economy aims to strengthen the EU's strategic autonomy and resilience in several sectors of the blue economy. For this, MedBAN will provide training support, in order to help SMEs identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats linked to the blue economy ecosystem while establishing a network between Mediterranean clusters, along with other stakeholders who could contribute to a more sustainable blue economy. MedBAN will provide financial support to SMEs and startups through the launch of two calls for expressions of interest, one aimed at supporting innovation and the other focused on internationalisation.

The ELBE EUROCLUSTER project aims to support European SMEs in offshore renewable energies in their ecological and digital transition. This support comes in 4 different types of support: direct financing of collaborative and transnational innovation projects, financing of support services for growth and innovation, training towards digitisation and ecological transition, and finally assistance for internationalisation. This project is a continuation of the ELBE + project, the objective of which was to support and strengthen the internationalisation of European SMEs in the blue energy markets.

DOORS delivers on the four pillars of the Black Sea Research and Innovation Strategy, transforming challenges into opportunities. The project provides the infrastructure to better understand the unique characteristics of the ecosystem, develops the framework to support blue growth and startup development, and offers recommendations to guide policy and behavioural changes.

The project aims to design a European centre of expertise in underwater robotics intended for oceanographic research. This new European Research Infrastructure (RI) will aim to coordinate European observation capacities at sea, promote a collaborative approach in the collection and sharing of oceanographic data, in order to contribute to the sustainable management of the marine environment and its resources. By focusing on the capabilities of gliders, this centre of expertise will help to widely observe the oceans, both at the surface and at depth, and provide essential ocean variables for science, observation, monitoring and commercial activities.

The main objective of the ELBE+ project was to support and strengthen the internationalisation of European SMEs in blue energy markets. Blue energy is key to tackling one of the EU’s biggest challenges: an energy transition towards a system based on renewable resources. Three areas were targeted: offshore wind, wave energy, tidal energy. ELBE+ made it possible to support European SMEs in their internationalisation process and to accelerate the deployment of the European “blue energy” sector on a global level. Five markets were targeted: North America (the United States and Canada), and Japan, Korea and Taiwan for Asia.

The objective of Space2Waves was to support European SMEs in their internationalisation process and to accelerate the global deployment of the use of earth observation technologies applied to blue growth. Several key areas were targeted: maritime security, port infrastructure, fight against illegal fishing, aquaculture, coastal protection, climate change. 4 missions took place in countries with high potential: Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, the objective of which was to enable SMEs to identify and meet new business partners. Pôle Mer Méditerranée was coordinator of the project. This project was funded by the COSME program of the European Commission.

B-Blue aimed to create a community of actors around blue biotechnology, in order to create new commercial opportunities in the sector. Led by the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), this 22-month project brought together 10 partners from 7 Mediterranean countries: Italy, Slovenia, Montenegro, Greece, France, Spain and Portugal.

In the long term, B-Blue was aimed at:
1. Identifying actors linked to the blue biotechnology sector in the target territories;
2. Bringing together, on an online platform, examples of good practices as well as tools and methodological elements to increase the innovation potential of the sector.

This project was co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

WESTMED is a European Union initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the Western Mediterranean. The WESTMED joint initiative aims to enable the EU and countries on the Southern shore to work beyond their borders for security and safety, ecosystem preservation, and the promotion of sustainable blue growth that creates jobs in the Western Mediterranean. Coordinated at the national level by the General Secretariat of the Sea and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the initiative mainly covers, in France, the coastal regions of the Mediterranean. It was created to help public institutions, academic institutions, local communities, small and medium-sized businesses on both coasts of the Western Mediterranean to develop local and regional maritime projects together. Pôle Mer Méditerranée plays the role of National Hub for France for the WESTMED initiative.

The objective of BlueConnect2 is to establish a financial assistance mechanism to support existing companies in acquiring strengthening and development services (diagnostics, advice for accessing specialised structures, access to facilitator networks, studies for commercial product positioning, business plans, prospective studies) in priority cross-border sectors (Nautical and shipbuilding, Innovative and sustainable tourism, Blue and green biotechnology, Blue and green renewable energies).

PSAMIDES linked two important blue growth sectors: ports and coastal and maritime tourism. A significant part of MED tourism goes through ports and is concentrated in coastal areas. However, a particularity of the area is the constellation of hundreds of small and medium ports (SMP) which play a fundamental role in the articulation of coastal and maritime tourism, connecting the hinterland and communities. The objective of PSAMIDES was to optimise the operation of SMPs and the management of marinas by implementing innovative tools to manage tourist flows, better control costs, provide more services to customers and stimulate eco-innovation in these ports.

The BLUEfasma project integrated and implemented circular economy principles in the key sectors of blue growth, including fishing and aquaculture, to benefit Mediterranean island and coastal areas. The project team addressed the transnational challenge of the ongoing depletion of natural resources and the below-average innovation performance of actors in the two targeted sectors, compared to the EU average. Its overall objective was to strengthen the innovation capacity of SMEs, maritime clusters/networks, and to stimulate blue growth in island and coastal areas. The BLUEfasma project, of which Pôle Mer Méditerranée is a partner, was funded by the INTERREG-MED program of the European Union.

GALATEA aims to promote cross-border and cross-sector collaborations between innovation players, particularly SMEs, in 4 key areas of blue growth with high potential for development and adoption of innovative solutions by companies: Smart port, Smart ship, Smart shipyard, maritime surveillance. Building new value chains through the integration of technologies and know-how from the ICT and aerospace communities is essential to make the modernisation of these key economic sectors more efficient, greener and safer, and to improve their competitiveness at the global level.

The overall objective is to coordinate the development of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) in the Black Sea, based on the principles defined in the Burgas Vision Document, and to support the development of blue growth. The SRIA and its implementation plan will guide stakeholders from academia, funding agencies, industry, policy and civil society to jointly address the fundamental challenges of the Black Sea, promote blue growth and the economic prosperity of the region.

The MISTRAL project aims to create a transnational community of Clusters in the Mediterranean, active in the areas of the blue economy, and more particularly the sectors of marine renewable energies, fishing and aquaculture, sustainable maritime and coastal tourism, blue biotechnology and maritime surveillance. The objective is to strengthen partnerships between eight Euro-Mediterranean countries in order to:
- Make marine knowledge and innovation essential drivers for Blue Growth;
- Support clusters in the Mediterranean to become facilitators for excellence in developing the blue economy;
- Design and implement development harmonised with the specialisation strategies of the regions concerned.

This partnership, based on an Open Innovation approach, will act as a catalyst for cooperation and innovation actions. The public authorities are fully involved in this action, in order to play a role in coordinating and monitoring the overall project — particularly around the harmonisation and implementation of political instruments responding to the needs outlined in MISTRAL. The MISTRAL project, of which Pôle Mer Méditerranée is a partner, is funded by the INTERREG-MED program of the European Union.

SpaceWave aims to implement an internationalisation strategy to access high-potential markets derived from earth observation applied to blue growth. For this purpose, the partners are working on identifying target countries, key players, and sectors. They are studying the international markets for earth observation in blue growth to analyse the associated value chains and thereby determine an action plan for companies in these sectors. As a main partner, Pôle Mer Méditerranée coordinates the study phase, establishing international market trends in the blue growth sector.
This project is funded by the COSME program of the European Commission.

PROteuS aims to harness the growth potential of the emerging maritime security industry, which could play a crucial role in the socio-economic development of the MED area and the generation of new employment opportunities. This objective will be achieved through the creation of a Mediterranean cluster in maritime security, strengthening capacities for innovation and R&D, knowledge and technology transfer, as well as through transnational cooperation between key actors. This cluster will provide tailored services to identify and leverage technologies related to maritime security and will have transnational coverage by establishing tangible links between Blue Growth sectors facing common challenges and offering growth opportunities. This project, in which Pôle Mer Méditerranée is a partner, is funded by the INTERREG-MED program of the European Union.

BlueConnect proposes to collect and analyse socio-economic data from port activities in Var, Alpes-Maritimes, Corsica, Sardinia, Liguria, and Tuscany within an observatory. The exploitation of this data will enable the construction of a cross-border network of territorial economic development actors, the sharing of knowledge and the analysis of high-potential markets. The organisation of participatory meetings and business support services, within the project, will help the growth and consolidation of VSEs/SMEs in the blue economy.
Within the BlueConnect project, funded by the INTERREG-MARITIME-France-Italy 2014-2020 program of the European Union, Pôle Mer Méditerranée plays the leading role.

The main objective of the MARISA project is to provide maritime safety organisations with a toolkit on data fusion. It will provide methods, techniques and modules to correlate and merge heterogeneous and homogeneous data and information from various sources, including the Internet and social networks, to improve information exchange, situational awareness, decision-making and reaction capabilities. Pôle Mer Méditerranée is a partner in this project funded by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union.

The BLUEMED project responds to the need to implement the Strategic Agenda of the initiative of the same name, developed by the European Commission, and aimed at developing the marine and maritime domains, technologies, and innovation, for the creation of blue growth and blue jobs in the Mediterranean. This project aims to promote and implement a shared vision of scientific and technological research in the Blue Economy sectors in the Mediterranean. BLUEMED wishes to lay the foundations for effective coordination of marine and maritime research and innovation activities, to consolidate existing networks and to put in place lasting mechanisms to support R&I projects in the area. Pôle Mer Méditerranée is a third party to IFREMER in this large-scale European project, funded by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission.

PELAGOS aims to set up a cluster dedicated to marine renewable energies in the Mediterranean, which will promote technologies and offer a set of support activities to beneficiaries such as technology suppliers, companies, financial operators, public authorities and citizen NGOs. The PELAGOS project, of which Pôle Mer Méditerranée is a partner, is funded by the INTERREG-MED cooperation program of the European Union.

EMSAC aimed to increase the innovation capacity of four important marine regions, focusing on opportunities arising from the management of coastal water resources in Europe. These regions were represented by different maritime clusters from three European countries (UK, Sweden and France).
Opportunities and barriers to investment, innovation and growth were explored in detail, and good practices were identified by partner clusters. This work was reflected in a joint action plan setting priorities for R&D, innovation and supporting infrastructure. EMSAC has also produced a database (http://data.remcap.eu/contenu/cluster_list.php?RubriqueID=12) bringing together the most relevant marine science and technology projects, infrastructure and clusters at the European level.
Pôle Mer Méditerranée was a partner of the EMSAC project and coordinated the analysis of key markets and technologies, support for emerging clusters and dissemination of results. This project was funded as part of the Knowledge Regions subprogramme of the 7th Framework Program for Research and Development of the European Union.

TROPOS aimed to respond to the European Union's initiative to finance and support the development of innovative concepts of multi-use offshore platforms. The latter is a response to the growing over-exploitation of coastal resources, but also an opportunity to ensure the availability of resources, while preserving the environment and fighting against climate change.

TROPOS has designed three multi-use offshore platform concepts:
- The Green & Blue Crete platform combines wind energy and aquaculture;
- The Sustainable Service Hub platform, including transport logistics and wind energy;
- The Leisure Island platform combines leisure equipment and solar energy.

The project also planned two future concepts that could be adapted to integrate other sectors such as ocean thermal energies. This project was funded under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Union. Pôle Mer Méditerranée, as the main partner, contributed to the environmental and socio-economic impact study conducted on the multi-use offshore platforms and coordinated the communication aspects of the project.

MedSeaties aimed to test and evaluate new approaches to governance and support systems to improve the management of coastal cities. As the main partner of the project, the role of Pôle Mer Méditerranée was to share its cluster experience, in order to provide a better response to the environmental issues of the territories and authorities involved in the integrated management of coastal zones, while encouraging Mediterranean partnerships. The Pôle Mer also contributed to the creation of a tool for coordinating six integrated coastal zone management approaches.

The MedSeaties project was funded by the multilateral cross-border cooperation programme 'Mediterranean Sea Basin' under the new European Neighbourhood Policy for the period 2007-2013.

MERMAID aimed to support the integrated development of Mediterranean ports through the analysis of environmental performance management systems. To achieve this, several activities were carried out during the project:

- State of the art of environmental performance management systems for port activity;
- Providing practical solutions to port authorities to enhance their roles through a continuous, real-time management system for environmental performance;
- Contributing to future-oriented thinking by offering insights into aligning policies and initiatives aimed at reducing the ecological footprint of port activities.

Pôle Mer Méditerranée, main partner of this project funded by the INTERREG-MED program, notably participated in the creation and management of a Committee of experts. The latter facilitated exchanges with project partners, enabled the sharing of knowledge on environmental monitoring, and stimulated discussions on reducing environmental impact in port areas.

LoToNo aimed to study the creation of a “Low Carbon” cluster bringing together players from the maritime, energy and construction sectors in the United Kingdom. The objective is to integrate SMEs wishing to make a transition to a low-carbon economy. Pôle Mer Méditerranée, project partner, participated as an experienced cluster. Through an exchange of good practices, the British partners observed and discussed the development model and the role played by the competitiveness clusters in France as well as the specificities of the governance mode of Pôle Mer Méditerranée. The project also enabled innovative SMEs to obtain financial support. The LoToNo project was funded by the European Union's Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Program (CIP) 2007-2013.

Through a public-private partnership, the ArtReefs project aims to promote innovative artificial reefs as a versatile tool to address current challenges in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, such as marine and coastal environmental degradation and conflicts of uses between users of the coastal zone. It proposes artificial reefs as tools to stimulate sustainable tourism and other sectors of Blue growth, by integrating the issues of preserving coastal ecosystems into all multi-stakeholder management plans, and supporting policy objectives public.

Aims to strengthen the innovation capacities of 6 European Clusters in order to cooperate for better use of marine resources. Pôle Mer Méditerranéé is a partner in the project and coordinates the part on international development.

Development of new cross-sectoral and cross-border industrial value chains to promote the development of three key themes linked to Blue Growth in Europe and around the world: water management in urban and rural areas, river and maritime transport and port logistics, the environment and renewable marine energies.

2B-Blue is the continuation of the B-BLUE project, which facilitated the creation of the Mediterranean blue biotechnology community. It is funded by the Interreg Euro-MED program. The objective is to continue structuring this emerging sector in the regions of South Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur and Occitanie.
This project aims to create a community of stakeholders around blue biotechnologies, in order to analyze best practices, key factors, obstacles, and the readiness of companies in the area to adopt these technologies.
2B-Blue has established five Hubs dedicated to blue biotechnologies to facilitate collaborations and knowledge transfer, thereby stimulating innovation within the targeted value chains. The project aims to capitalize on B-Blue positive results to :
• Create strategic alliances between different stakeholders to promote the adoption of advanced blue biotechnologies by Euro-Mediterranean industries,
• Establish national demonstration sites to test new technologies or practices, thus bridging the gap between research and industry in these fields.
• Illustrating identified best practices to help communities implement the research.
• Improve regional policies to enhance research and innovation capacities in the Euro-Mediterranean area.
As a partner, the Pôle Mer Méditerranée will be in charge of activities in the French regions in coordination with IFREMER, also a project partner.

The main objective of AZA4ICE, co-financed by the Interreg Euro-MED program, is to develop an approach to identify suitable areas for inland and nearshore aquaculture (lakes, lagoons, etc.) and to enhance the transition towards an inclusive and circular economy in the aquaculture sector.
AZA4ICE establishes responsible R&D ecosystems by strengthening transnational cooperation, opening new business opportunities, and promoting an eco-conscious society.
As a partner, the Pôle Mer Méditerranée will be in charge of coordinating demonstration and animation activities in the associated French regions.

The objective of Blue Ecosystem, co-financed by the Interreg Euro-MED program, is to implement support actions for the development of SMEs in key maritime sectors in the Mediterranean.
Blue Ecosystem aims to develop new methods to help build sustainable territories by leveraging knowledge in the blue economy and relying on existing experiences gained through previous MED projects (MISTRAL, Blue BIo MED, and B-BLUE).
The strong and complementary partnership, led by the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, will ensure effective results and concrete steps towards a more sustainable and resilient blue economy in the Mediterranean region.
Blue Ecosystem will develop and test:
• "TRAIN LABS" in pilot regions (Balearic Islands, Emilia-Romagna, South Paca-Occitanie, Zadar County, Alentejo, Attica, Albania) in connection with regional blue economy action plans.
• The BLUE ECOMATCH program: a transnational open innovation process to solve complex challenges and accelerate the development of solutions.
• A book on sustainable blue economy presenting the project's approach, key results, and best practices for learning about transformative innovation.

The Pôle Mer Méditerranée will contribute its experience, knowledge, and network of blue growth actors, with the aim of strengthening research and innovation capacities.

TREASURE, a project co-financed by the Interreg Euro-MED program, has the primary objective of improving environmental quality in and around Mediterranean port areas by mitigating and reducing pollution. To achieve this, it tests a transnational integrated approach to environmental quality assessment and experiments with innovative techniques to restore degraded and polluted port areas, involving an ecosystem of stakeholders to create pilot transition labs.

CallMeBlue, a project co-funded by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), aiming to strengthen existing cluster alliances in the Mediterranean region. The objective is to accelerate north-south regional cooperation towards the emergence of strategic maritime clusters in North Africa. In this context, CallMeBlue acts as an accelerator for political objectives set by relevant regional initiatives, such as the Union for the Mediterranean Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy and the WestMED Initiative. The Pôle Mer Méditerranée shares its experience as an innovative cluster with stakeholders in the southern Mediterranean.

BlueMissionMed is a Coordination and Support Initiative (CSA) funded by the Horizon Europe program. Its main objective is to promote the development and implementation of innovative and transformative solutions across technological, social, economic, and political spheres.

This initiative is part of the European Commission's Mission Ocean, which aims to restore seas and oceans by 2030. To achieve these goals, BlueMissionMed has established seven national Hubs, including one in France, operated by Ifremer with support from the Pôle Mer Méditerranée.

The French Hub will engage stakeholders from policy, business, research and innovation, and civil society, along with Ecosystem Enablers, to synergize actions of the Mission Lighthouse in the Mediterranean basin.