The INNO2MARE project, financed under the Horizon Europe program, will unite 19 organizations from Croatia, Slovenia and Belgium with the aim of strengthening the capacity of the ecosystems of Western Slovenia and Adriatic Croatia for excellence in research and innovation through a series of jointly designed activities aimed at the digital and green transition of maritime industries.

The public call “Excellence hubs”, to which the INNO2MARE project was applied, aims to strengthen regional innovation ecosystems in the new members of the European Union through cross-border cooperation on a common research and innovation strategy. Innovation ecosystems are made up of academic institutions, companies and the state and civil sectors that connect in the development of innovations in accordance with the goals of smart specialization strategies and thus contribute to the excellence and competitiveness of regions.

During the four years of the project, the project consortium will create a long-term research and innovation strategy aligned with regional, national and EU policies, as well as a joint action and investment plan with concrete steps to create sustainable maritime innovation ecosystems.

Project partners from academia and the real sector will work on three research pilot projects aimed at solving challenges in maritime industries:

1. Development of an innovative augmented reality model for personnel training and increased safety on vessels during fire evacuation;
2.  Development of new systems of conversion and management of green energy sources using digital twins based on artificial intelligence, with a range of applications in maritime and related industries, including logistics and manufacturing
3.  Development of smart solutions for automatic detection of obstacles in maritime traffic and autonomous navigation using sensor networks and data analysis based on machine learning.

In addition, during four years, a number of programs will be implemented with the aim of involving citizens in innovation processes (workshops, events, Hackathons, Makeathons, camps for children and youth, Bootcamps), training in entrepreneurial and smart skills, encouraging the transfer of knowledge within and between innovation ecosystems, as well as attracting the best talents to the involved regions. The INNO2MARE project will connect key organizations in the regional innovation ecosystems of Western Slovenia and Adriatic Croatia, will contribute to reducing differences in innovation and competitiveness between older and new EU members, and will develop an innovation culture and a culture of excellence at all levels.

The project is coordinated by the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and in addition to the Center for Technical Culture Rijeka, the project partners are the University of Rijeka and its components, the Faculty of Informatics and Digital Technologies (Croatia), the Faculty of Engineering in Rijeka (Croatia), and the Faculty of Maritime Affairs in Rijeka (Croatia), STEP RI science and technology park of the University of Rijeka (Croatia), and MS Tech d.o.o. (Croatia), Maritime Center of Excellence d.o.o. (Croatia), Regional Development Agency of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County – Prigoda (Croatia), URBANEX (Croatia), Regional Energy Agency Kvarner – REA (Croatia), ISKRA d.o.o. (Slovenia), DIGITEH d.o.o. (Slovenia), Business Support Center Kranj (Slovenia), Center for Technical Culture of Slovenia (Slovenia), University of Antwerp (Belgium), Antwerp Maritime Academy (Belgium), Blue Cluster (De Blauwe Cluster) (Belgium) and Port of Antwerp ( Havenbedrijf Antwerpen) (Belgium).