Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MarTERA (Maritime and Marine Technologies for a New ERA)
Período documentado: 2018-01-01 hasta 2022-11-30
The overall goal of the MarTERA is to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA) in maritime and marine technologies and Blue Growth. The realisation of a European research and innovation agenda needs a broad and systematic cooperation in all areas of waterborne transport, offshore activity, marine resources, maritime security, biotechnologies, desalination, offshore oil & gas, fisheries, aquaculture etc. covering all relevant maritime and marine sectors and regions for a sustainable development of the maritime sector. Research and innovation activities in these fields cannot be tackled either at national levels alone, or solely by a single sector. Coordinated actions are required for the maritime industry to strengthen Europe's position in this important and complex economic field in a global market. MarTERA consortium, consisting of 16 collaborating countries, has organised and co-funded, together with the EU one joint call for transnational research projects on different thematic areas in 2017. Furthermore, additional joint activities that go beyond this co-funded call contributed to the national priorities. The focus of development in MarTERA is given to technologies (instead of sectors) due to their potentially large impact to a wide range of application fields.
The coordinator established a management structure for the overall legal, contractual, financial and administrative issues as well as for the communication between MarTERA partners and the EC, which is in agreement with all partners. An efficient working environment for the preparation, implementation and monitoring of the MarTERA calls was created by extensive communications between the coordinator and all partners. The organisational structure provides a simple and efficient decision-making process and coordination of all efforts within the consortium (fig.1). Main bodies of an efficient project management structure consist of a Steering Committee (SC), the Project Coordinator (CO) and the Executive Team (ET). Main Goal of MarTERA during the first period was the organisation and implementation of the first co-funded call. For that, the call announcement and supporting documents in line with the objectives of the national programmes were prepared and finalised according to the ERA-NET Cofund rules. The coordinator established an adequate online submission system (electronic tool and forms), according to the agreed procedures of the co-funded call. One of the key objectives of MarTERA is to establish a framework for networking between project partners to seek complementarities and enhance exchange of knowledge and ideas. It was hence decided to organize brokerage events in the intermediate period between the launch of the calls and the deadline for submission of proposals.
For the communication and dissemination of MarTERA a website has been developed and leaflets for the dissemination activities were printed out and taken to different workshops, conferences, seminars. Press releases were published in magazines and disseminated via newsletters of the National Contact Points and ERA-LEARN platform.
The MarTERA consortium decided to prepare and launch 1 cofunded and 3 additional non-cofunded calls. 19 R&I projects were implemented in the co-funded call, involving 95 R&I partners. In total, 48 R&I projects were funded, including the additional calls, gathering 255 R&I partners, with 50% coming from the private sector.
The research effort in MarTERA’s projects has led to the development of a large diversity of new methods, models, protocols, services or products which can find applications in very diverse marine activities, including aquaculture, ship navigation, seabed monitoring, among others. Most of these achievements can be applied to various marine and maritime activities.
The involvement of companies has been large, e.g. by co-designed the R&I proposals and actively contributed to the research effort. A great effort has also been made by the consortia to connect to new stakeholders and end-users during the projects, and to ensure that the projects kept focus on market suitability. All these achievements have contributed to address the global objectives of MarTERA to increase the resource efficiency, security, safety and environmental compliance of marine and maritime activities. It paves the way toward sustainable activities in the European sea areas.
The results have been widely disseminated in the scientific community via publication of articles, participation to conferences, and valorization in patents and licenses. MarTERA has also contributed to strengthen the European R&I networks on marine and maritime topics via the organization of mingling activities in regular meetings to help people to connect and to share good practice in the development of their projects.
For the communication and dissemination of MarTERA a website has been developed and leaflets for the dissemination activities were printed out and taken to different workshops, conferences, seminars. Press releases were published in magazines and disseminated via newsletters of the National Contact Points and ERA-LEARN platform.
The MarTERA consortium decided to prepare and launch 1 cofunded and 3 additional non-cofunded calls. 19 R&I projects were implemented in the co-funded call, involving 95 R&I partners. In total, 48 R&I projects were funded, including the additional calls, gathering 255 R&I partners, with 50% coming from the private sector.
The research effort in MarTERA’s projects has led to the development of a large diversity of new methods, models, protocols, services or products which can find applications in very diverse marine activities, including aquaculture, ship navigation, seabed monitoring, among others. Most of these achievements can be applied to various marine and maritime activities.
The involvement of companies has been large, e.g. by co-designed the R&I proposals and actively contributed to the research effort. A great effort has also been made by the consortia to connect to new stakeholders and end-users during the projects, and to ensure that the projects kept focus on market suitability. All these achievements have contributed to address the global objectives of MarTERA to increase the resource efficiency, security, safety and environmental compliance of marine and maritime activities. It paves the way toward sustainable activities in the European sea areas.
The results have been widely disseminated in the scientific community via publication of articles, participation to conferences, and valorization in patents and licenses. MarTERA has also contributed to strengthen the European R&I networks on marine and maritime topics via the organization of mingling activities in regular meetings to help people to connect and to share good practice in the development of their projects.
Innovations, industrial competitiveness as well as high-quality research in the marine and maritime sector are important issues. Concentrated efforts, strategic measures and common policies at a trans-national scale are required in order to address this challenge in a significant way.
The MarTERA partners have agreed on a strong focus on innovation and bringing new products closer to the market. The MarTERA gave special emphasis on funding projects that present the best prospects of passing across the “valley of death” and bringing a product as close to the market as possible. Companies are the major drivers in bridging the gap between research results and innovation. Therefore, priority for funding has been given for projects which include at least one industrial participant.
Selected topics for funding in MarTERA, with a huge relevance for the marine and maritime field, are based on the overarching technological challenges, due to their relevance and possibility to benefit a wide range of applications and sectors. The development of innovations in these topics has been addressed within the cofunded call in Priority Areas.
With its activities MarTERA supported transnational, pan EU research networks and synergies among national/regional and EU research programmes. Cooperation among the funding organisations is essential to build a strong maritime and marine research community as most of the partners do not yet have dedicated national programmes in this field. The idea is to integrate emerging national activities directly into a coordinated European effort avoiding fragmentation and duplication of efforts from the beginning.
Monitoring of the MarTERA activities provided valuable feedback for national and trans-national research policies. Analysis and assessment of the funded projects and the other activities performed by MarTERA represent an information source of the networking of the European maritime and marine research groups. The degree to which participants contributed to establishing and strengthening durable cooperation between the partners and their national/regional research programmes is yet to be seen.
A more permanent framework of European countries in support on maritime and marine technologies in one form or another was established. The cooperation with JPI Oceans and other initiatives e.g. EU Technology Platform (WATERBORNE) contributed to the defragmentation of research efforts and avoided duplication of funding topics. Further R&I cooperative work is now expected, notably in the framework of the Horizon Europe partnerships Sustainable Blue Economy and Zero-Emission Waterborne Transport.
The MarTERA partners have agreed on a strong focus on innovation and bringing new products closer to the market. The MarTERA gave special emphasis on funding projects that present the best prospects of passing across the “valley of death” and bringing a product as close to the market as possible. Companies are the major drivers in bridging the gap between research results and innovation. Therefore, priority for funding has been given for projects which include at least one industrial participant.
Selected topics for funding in MarTERA, with a huge relevance for the marine and maritime field, are based on the overarching technological challenges, due to their relevance and possibility to benefit a wide range of applications and sectors. The development of innovations in these topics has been addressed within the cofunded call in Priority Areas.
With its activities MarTERA supported transnational, pan EU research networks and synergies among national/regional and EU research programmes. Cooperation among the funding organisations is essential to build a strong maritime and marine research community as most of the partners do not yet have dedicated national programmes in this field. The idea is to integrate emerging national activities directly into a coordinated European effort avoiding fragmentation and duplication of efforts from the beginning.
Monitoring of the MarTERA activities provided valuable feedback for national and trans-national research policies. Analysis and assessment of the funded projects and the other activities performed by MarTERA represent an information source of the networking of the European maritime and marine research groups. The degree to which participants contributed to establishing and strengthening durable cooperation between the partners and their national/regional research programmes is yet to be seen.
A more permanent framework of European countries in support on maritime and marine technologies in one form or another was established. The cooperation with JPI Oceans and other initiatives e.g. EU Technology Platform (WATERBORNE) contributed to the defragmentation of research efforts and avoided duplication of funding topics. Further R&I cooperative work is now expected, notably in the framework of the Horizon Europe partnerships Sustainable Blue Economy and Zero-Emission Waterborne Transport.