Water and sustainable blue economy as funding priority areas

Our contribution to the Mission Ocean & waters results in synergies with the Regional Smart Specialisation for the programming period 2021-2027. The CCDRC, together with regional stakeholders, has selected has a priority area the “Water” including inland waters and ocean. While defining the strategic actions for this priority, CCDRC made sure to align it with the Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters objectives leaving references to it in the presentation document. Within this domain the regional ambition is to contribute to the development of new products, processes, and services that promote the social, environmental, and economic valorisation of water and its resources (with particular relevance to the sea and marine resources), through the application of concepts of bioeconomy and circular economy. The ambition is also to innovate in water management models, through its knowledge, monitoring, modelling, and protection, and by seeking more efficient forms of its use and reuse, with the aim of i) increasing its resilience to extreme weather phenomena resulting from climate change, ii) ensuring the sustainability of its ecosystems, and iii) positively impacting its quality and quantity.
By choosing this as a priority area, CCDRC is assuring that all regional research projects aligned with this thematic will be considered eligible for funding.
Nevertheless, aware that this facilitation might not be enough, CCDRC is actively seeking for new ways of promoting innovative projects within Centro Region that could contribute further to the Mission objectives. In this context, together with the managing authority of the Regional Programme, CCDRC has decided to allocate some funding (ESIF) to the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP). CCDRC has already participated in the two calls already launched by this Partnership, with a total budget of 650 000€, supporting all priority areas defined in each one of the calls. For the near future, CCDRC is planning to continue participating in SBEP calls, allowing regional partners to be a part of wider research groups, with common goals. Also in order to provide a right space for exchange and innovation to our regional stakeholders, in a European scale, within this domain, CCDRC is partner of a new Thematic S3 Partnership, in the field of Blue Economy (the BlueXChange partnership) as well as A-AAGORA Mission project.
Last but not least, until the end of the current year (2024), is CCDRC is planning to organise a set of meeting with regional stakeholders from this priority domain to identify challenges that the region still faces and possible solution that might be, in the future, supported by CCDRC.