SCALING UP INNOVATIONS TO MARKET AND JOB CREATION IN BLUE ECONOMY

The Association of Danube River Municipalities "Danube", together with international partners and local stakeholders, would like to invite you to attend an in-person workshop on Scaling Up Innovations to Market and Job Creation in the Blue Economy. It will be hosted by the Mayor of Tutrakan Municipality on 18-19 June in the Danube city of Tutrakan, Bulgaria.

This event will address the existing knowledge on projects’ outcomes, investigating the potential of scaling up some of the identified innovations towards the welfare of local communities & growth of regional businesses. The focus is on the Lower Danube, due to the existing potential to engage several stakeholders along the Danube. The initiative originated from local SMEs and is gradually growing to a multi-stakeholder cooperation aimed at unlocking the existing potential of the Lower Danube area.

The aim of this event is to explore pathways to scale up innovations to market and job creation, with the following objectives:

•     To identify innovations and assess their potential for implementation in the DRB – focus on the Lower Danube.

•     To investigate and analyse outcomes from DaWetRest & sister projects, with reference to Danube Lighthouse/EcoDaLLI.

•     To explore the stakeholders’ potential, with a focus on the business community.

•     To support the local community potential through practical examples.

•     To evaluate the current state and potential of the blue and circular economy in the region through practical case studies.

Participants will represent a wide range of stakeholders: partners in the Mission Ocean projects, municipalities and policy-makers alongside the Lower Danube, from both Bulgaria and Romania, local & regional businesses, local communities & NGOs.

The event will also include a Living Lab on Business Models organized in the framework of the DaWetRest project by the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests of Romania. A field trip to the Srebarna Nature Reserve is also included in the programme.