One of the activities of the Blue Shuttle project, which is co-financed by ERDF through the Interreg Atlantic Area, involves organising targeted events related to the blue economy.
Blue Shuttle partner are organising these targeted events as part of the European Maritime Day in my country programme.
Throught this programme, the European Commission encourages smaller-scale local initiatives to raise awareness of the fundamental importance of the seas and oceans in the daily lives of European citizens and to promote the blue economy as a source of wealth in territories ranging from traditional maritime sectors to new, innovative activities.
The event provides a platform for professionals, experts and policymakers to discuss the sector’s challenges and opportunities and seek solutions to ensure the sustainable use of marine resources and guarantee prosperity in coastal regions.
France and Spain have organised events in May and June respectively, while Portugal and Ireland are planning an event to be held in the near future as part of European Maritime Day.
FRANCE
Our partner, Pole Mer, organised its event as part of European Maritime Day 2025 on 15 May 2025 at the UCO Guingamp.
The event focused on using marine biological resources to improve crops. Topics covered included the types of marine bioresources that can be used for sustainable agricultural development, market types, and the necessary tools.
Specifically, the event explained the technological tools necessary for developing blue bioeconomy value chains, which is one of the objectives pursued by the Blue Shuttle project.
SPAIN
The project partners – CEEI Bahía de Cádiz and the Aquaculture Technology Centre of Andalusia (CTAQUA) – organised their local event on 10 June 2025 in Conil de la Frontera, Cádiz.
Several European projects being carried out in the region were presented, including the Blue Shuttle project. Ana Suárez, the project coordinator, presented our project, its objectives and the actions carried out in recent months.
We also invited Pedro Luis Cebrián and Miguel Chavarrías from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) to present the results of their current research: the ANEMONA project and Computer Vision and AI in Aquaculture: From Biomass to Ethology.
The event also showcased technological advances in the maritime sector that will help create a more sustainable, environmentally conscious economy. The presentations were accompanied by two roundtable discussions featuring experts and other relevant figures from the maritime sector.
A round table was also organised with experts to discuss about the “Challenges facing technology and digitalization in the marine products value chain”.
The round table was moderated by María del Mar Barrios, General Director of CTAQUA who guided the experts participating, Miguel Chavarrías (Politecnic Univerisity of Madrid), Tziana Pacchiarini (NTT Data), María José Campos (Quality Responsible at Mariscos Apolo) and Juan Benito Calanche (University of Zaragoza / Agrifood Institute of Aragón) into an interesting conversation and exchange of knowledge about the utilisation of quality byproducts and the challenges that this presents in the seafood processing industry, the technical challenges to improve operational efficiency and sustainability of aquaculture systems or how the use of vision and digitalisation techniques can improve the development and optimization of aquaculture farming, among other.
We are delighted to be promoting a more sustainable future and fostering the blue economy. We are committed to Europe’s ongoing development.
