\ Alta Tecnologia \ Blue growth in the Adriatic-Ionian area: BLUEAIR project presentation

Implementing a common policy in the Adriatic-Ionian area on issues concerning “Blue growth”, such as maritime transport, energy connectivity, water pollution, protection of the marine environment, promotion of sustainable tourism and social, environmental and economic sustainability: this is the objective of BLUEAIR, the new project designed to create a macro-regional system, which, under the slogan “BLUEAIR: two seas, different territories, together, moving blue growth forward”, was presented to policymakers, research bodies and other stakeholders in the ADRION area at the national event “Blue Growth and Macro-Regional Strategies in S3s: a comparison between the Adriatic-Ionian regions”. The regional administrations of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna, the Marche, Puglia and Sicily participated in the event, held online, presenting their Regional Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization 2021-2027 on Blue Growth.

The BLUEAIR project has a budget of EUR 2,240,000 funded by the Interreg ADRION 2021-2027 call and involves 11 partners – with Area Science Park in Trieste as lead partner – with specific research experience in blue technologies, fishing and aquaculture, joined by a further 20 associated strategic partners – regional and state public administrations, port authorities, research bodies and universities. The hope is that this collaboration will give rise to an ‘Innovation community’ able to seize national and transnational networking opportunities, with a shared strategic vision and the pooling of capacity building, methods such as Entrepreneurial Discovery Processes (EDP) and other intervention tools.

In its first months of activity, BLUEAIR has already identified three development trajectories and is preparing to start a screening phase, through questionnaires, to better investigate the needs of industry professionals. In any event, one of the territorial challenges facing the ADRION area today is to overcome the differences in approach to innovation and governance in the Blue Growth area, and to achieve a shared standard among the different regions involved in the adoption of S3 policies. The picture that emerged is, in fact, very mixed: the legislative bodies of the Marche, Emilia-Romagna and Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Administrations approved the 2021-2027 S3 system during 2021 and are waiting to receive final approval from the Commission. On the other hand, the S3 strategy is moving forward in Puglia, which, with its 4% of companies (of the overall total) operating in the blue economy, far exceeds the Italian average, and in Sicily, where there will be an important Blue Growth appointment within the areas of territorial development.

Additional information at Blue Growth Smart Adriatic Ionian S3 – BLUEAIR (adrioninterreg.eu)