Blue Economy Digital Opportunities for Social Economy Transition: BLUEDOTS

Programme(s): Single Market Programme (SMP)

Topic(s): SMP-COSME-2023-SEED-01

Type of action: SMP Grants for Financial Support

Project ID: 101167884

Objective
BLUEDOTS Project aims to build the capacities of Social Economy SMEs acting in the Blue Economy to apply digital-social innovation and principles, fostering a smoother and faster transition of the blue economy toward smart, sustainable, and inclusive models. The project acknowledges the vital role of the Blue
Economy in achieving the objectives of the EU Green Deal and recognizes its potential to enhance the competitiveness of social economy SMEs and vice-versa. The primary goal is to help social economy SMEs to strengthen their digital capabilities and digital transition. The secondary objective is to drive digital social innovation among “enabling organisations”. BLUEDOTS will focus on the following production areas, as they have the greatest concentration of social economy enterprises: - Fishery and food production (fishing, mussel farming, and aquaculture both at sea and in inland waters) - ICZM and MSP (integrated coastal zone management and maritime spatial planning) - Marine litter management - Fishing tourism and coastal blue tourism - Blue biotech (sustainable production of micro-algae, bacteria, and fungi) Aligned with the European Union's Green Deal and Recovery Plan for Europe, this project addresses the call's general objectives by fostering a sustainable and inclusive Blue Economy. The project covers 6 EU MS; the consortium combines 4 National/Regional Federation of Social Economy SMEs, in 4 countries: 1) Legacoop FVG in Italy; 2) COCETA in Spain; 3) InnovaEg in Germany; 4) ISEN in Ireland. One of the most important and advanced maritime clusters: the Polish Maritime Cluster. An EU-level SE support structure in Belgium: DIESIS NETWORK. This composition allows to bring local added value to a Pan-European level, maximising the identification of common lessons that facilitate scale-up and replication of the project outcomes, spreading the project results to other EU Member States and to other areas of the world not participating in the project.