Last week, INNO2MARE was present at the maritime festival Oostende voor Anker, held in Ostend, Belgium (between 22 and 25 May). This yearly event attracts around 200 000 visitors, who joined the festival to enjoy craft demonstrations, live music performances, and maritime exhibitions. For one, the city dock showcased over 130 historic ships, ranging from majestic three-masters to smaller sloops.
Oostende voor Anker also offered an opportunity to research institutes and innovative maritime companies to show off their efforts and realisations in the blue economy by hosting a Blue Innovation village. In this corner of the festival, maritime mastodonts like dredging companies Jan de Nul and DEME and marine surveyor GeoXYZ informed the visitors about their activities at sea. The Flemish maritime administration showed how they coordinate diverse actions (from vessel traffic to piloting and coastal management) and the Flemish research institute for Agriculture and Fisheries (ILVO) taught the public a plethora of interesting things about life in the North Sea. And last but not least, two higher education institutes and INNO2MARE partners Antwerp Maritime Academy and University of Antwerp offered information and insight into a wide range of their blue research projects.
And that is where INNO2MARE comes in. Building a maritime ecosystem is a slow but rewarding process in which organisations with complementary interests and activities need to find each other, discuss their mutual needs and offerings, and brainstorm about possible future collaborations. And what better way than to support that with some folk music, shrimp croquets (a local delicacy) and a beer?
Even more – the proverbial public at large also enjoys these events. To quote one lady, after she got a long explanation of the different topics in maritime research at Antwerp Maritime Academy: “It is good that you are here. We hear so much about biomedical research, but few are aware of all the efforts done in other sectors, like the maritime industry.” Showing the outcome of our mutual alliance (and the flag of our sponsor, the European Commission) at public festivals therefore furthers our goals. Next year in Koper or Rijeka?
