Open Call for Blue Economy Challenges – Closed

Published on: Jul 23 2025

Results Now Available!

The open call for the identification of challenges in blue economy sectors is now closed — thank you to everyone who participated! You can view the results here.

This open call was conducted as part of the Cross-border Digital Innovation Hub for Innovative Marine Technology – DIH InnovaMare project, funded by the Interreg Italy – Croatia 2021–2027 cross-border cooperation program. The initiative supports the expansion of a cross-border innovation ecosystem (the Digital Innovation Hub), originally established through the InnovaMare strategic project.

Purpose of the Open Call

The aim of the call was to identify key challenges from various blue economy sectors that can be addressed through innovative marine technologies. These technologies are expected to improve operational processes, enable digital transformation, and reduce the negative environmental impact on the Adriatic Sea.

The selected challenges will now serve as the basis for an innovation competition involving stakeholders from both Croatia and Italy, including participants from private industry, academia, and research institutions.

Key Results

A total of 24 challenges were submitted, and 20 have been selected to move forward to the innovation competition. Selection was based on the following criteria:

  • Relevance to the blue economy
  • Innovation potential
  • Feasibility of proposed solutions
  • Potential impact on stakeholders

Benefits for Selected Organizations

Organizations whose challenges were selected will benefit from:

  1. Increased visibility within the broader innovation ecosystem, encouraging potential partnerships
  2. Collaboration opportunities with solution providers participating in the innovation competition
  3. Support in forming consortia between challenge owners and solution providers to jointly develop EU-funded project proposals

👉 Click here to view the selected challenges and organizations

Thank you to all applicants for your valuable contributions to advancing innovation in the blue economy!

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