INNO2MARE consortium meeting and Innovation breakfast event – on Thursday 14th September a partner meeting was held, and on Friday 15th partners gathered at the Innovation Breakfast which was held at the Campus of University of Rijeka.
Partners spent two days actively thinking about their pilot projects, all the activities that await the next period of project implementation, but also about the challenges and potentials in the maritime sector. Representatives of Innovation Council joined them at their events live and online, and at the Innovation Breakfast, they mingled with stakeholders from the sector who are not part of the partnership.
Innovation Breakfast in Rijeka started with welcome speeches, after which the Belgian ecosystem development expert Deepak Mehta from the Maritime Campus in Antwerp gave a lecture on innovation in the context of maritime transport.
This was followed by the panel discussion “Innovations in maritime transport as a contribution to sustainable communities” in which the vice-rector for strategic projects of the University of Rijeka, Ph.D. Saša Zelenika, Director of the Regional Development Agency PRIGODA Vedran Kružić, Executive Director of Lurssen Design Center Kvarner Teuta Duletić, Commander of LNG ships and innovator Donatan Balog and partner in the investment fund Fil Rouge Capital Stevica Kuharski participated. During the discussion, the panelists gave their perspective on technological trends and innovations in the maritime sector, the role of the maritime sector in the transition to sustainable development models and the attraction and retention of talent, and the discussion was moderated by Hrvoje Marušić from the University of Rijeka.
The activities carried out are part of the INNO2MARE project financed under the Horizon Europe program, which unites 19 organizations from Croatia, Slovenia and Belgium in a series of activities aimed at digital and green transition of the maritime sector, all with the aim of strengthening the capacity of the ecosystem of Western Slovenia and Adriatic Croatia for excellence in research and innovations.