Fórum Oceano Association of Maritime Economy is a private non-profit corporate body created in 2009 and since then formally recognised by the Portuguese Government as the Nacional Maritime Cluster. It has 110 members representing all sectors of the blue economy, including companies and business associations, RTD centres, higher-education institutions, local authorities and other associative organisations. The cluster strengthens the dynamics of strategic cooperation between the members and other relevant stakeholders, whilst promoting the competitiveness of the main value chains that use the sea and marine resources as the central elements of their activities. As its final mission, the Cluster wants to contribute to sustainable economic growth and the growth of exports and employment as well as incresing the maritime economy’s importance to the national economy. Fórum Oceano will be leading the business plan tasks, under WP7, and the management of the Strategic Partners Network.

Magellan is a non-profit private law association for the representation of Portuguese interests abroad. Magellan is engaged in the promotion and advocacy of entities abroad, namely near the European Union institutions, providing advice to companies, business associations and other entities, aiming to assist them in maintaining a strong presence within the European Union. Magellan is aware that much of the legislation governing the Portuguese and European business structure originates within the European Union. That is why, from Brussels, Magellan cultivates a close contact with the most relevant actors within the European institutions and other correlated entities. The main lines of action include the identification of opportunities, support for the preparation of applications, management and coordination of proposals and projects retained for funding, as well as representation and policy advocacy with European institutions. In addition to supporting other entities applications, Magellan has a broad experience participating either as beneficiary or as subcontractor in large European consortia since 2014. Magellan is also a member of the WATERBORNE Technology Platform, which is an initiative that promotes the establishment of a continuous dialogue between all stakeholders in the waterborne transport sector and in other waterborne-related sectors on R&D. The main areas of Magellan’s work and specialisation are Transport, Environment and Circular Economy, which translate into large involvement in the deployment of a series of activities and projects in their realm: advocacy, consultancy, project management, access to funds and event organisation. Magellan will be co-leading WP1, together with Beta-i.

Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) is the government agency responsible for providing policy analysis and advice on the Ports and Maritime sector to the Department of Transport in Ireland. IMDO undertakes economic analysis on the maritime sector, socio-economic analysis of the ocean economy and it is currently engaged in research on port performance metrics, working with the Irish ports on the TEN-T core network corridor as well as its comprehensive ports. The networks and industrial links that the IMDO has established in Ireland and internationally, along with experience from collaboration with other agencies with the goal of doubling the size of Ireland’s ocean economy, will provide valuable knowledge and expertise to the development of the blue accelerator network. The IMDO’s capabilities and experience will be focused on leading WP2 and dissemination activities in WP8. The role of the IMDO as a national promotion centre will enhance the exploitation and dissemination activities from the ASPBAN project. The goals to increase the level of startups and scale ups for the Blue Economy, through a new smart-ports blue accelerator network, are perfectly aligned to the IMDO’s mandate and its role in the development of Ireland’s Ocean Economy.

NOAH Blue Consortium is driving a holistic approach to structure the Global Regenerative Blue Growth, aiming to bring innovative solutions for coastal regions and cities using ocean resources in a regenerative way, respecting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and empowering regional circular economies. To structure such a global blue revolution, NOAH is deploying four pillars: 1) Networking Platform – Blue International Federation (BIF); 2) Financial Platform – NOAH Blue Economy Blended Investment Platform (BEBIP); 3) Physical Platforms – NOAH’s Arks Series: Regional Floating Blue headquarters infrastructures hubs in Ports, meeting points of the Blue value chain to physically connect the Global BEBIP funds to regional Blue accelerators; 4) Digital Platform – NOAH Blue Digital Platform (Blue Digital). NOAH will be actively participating in WP4.

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