Technological Corporation of Andalusia (CTA) and La Palma Research Centre (LPRC), an independent and internationally active think-tank based on the island of La Palma, have published “Canarias4KT: White Paper for the promotion of Blue Knowledge Transfer and Innovation in the Canary Islands“. This work, born in the course of the European project EMPORIA4KT, of which both entities are partners, analyses the innovation and technology transfer ecosystem of the Blue Economy in the Canary Islands and its role in activating the regional economy.

The authors of the white paper are Macarena Ureña and Juan Carlos Moreno, Innovation consultants at CTA; and Ana Musicki, Laia d’Armengol and Emma Cristina Medina, project managers at LPRC. Available in Spanish and English in free access on the EMPORIA4KT website, the book has been presented at a round table on the occasion of the final event of the project, held on 20th and 21st June in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Under the title “Policies and funding mechanisms to promote blue innovation”, the round table included the presentation of the white paper by CTA and the participation of entities such as Frontier IP Group, the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI), the General Secretariat for Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy of the Andalusian Regional Government, the Canary Islands Technological Institute, the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and Archipélago Next.

The European project EMPORIA4KT, funded with 2.79 million euros by the INTERREG Atlantic Area programme, has aimed to develop tools and methodologies to connect the quadruple helix: academia, companies, administrations and other stakeholders of the European Blue Economy. CTA’s role in the initiative has been to involve Spanish companies in the Blue Economy sector and to carry out actions to influence policy makers.

EMPORIA4KT: connecting academia, business and government to boost the Blue Economy

Members of the EMPORIA4KT consortium

In January 2021, EMPORIA4KT requested an extension until the end of June 2023 to focus on the application of its concepts and methodologies in the Canary Islands. During this extension, its partners have focused on demonstrating how the Blue Economy can be a means to revitalise the island of La Palma after the eruption of the Tajogaite volcano in 2021.

Some of the activities carried out during this time have been a co-creation workshop, executed in May 2022 in La Palma, or the participation of the project in the Blue Economy Forums, held in December 2022 and March 2023. Also during this period, the project re-launched its Blue Economy Technology Transfer Programme to train researchers in the development of exploitation plans for early-stage technologies relevant to the Canary Islands.

The final event presented the results of all these activities through lectures, presentations and panel discussions, including an overview of the Blue Economy Risk Assessment Tool, the Blue Economy Dashboard and Academic Enhancer Learning Tool.

About EMPORIA4KT

EMPORIA4KT has been developed between 2019 and 2023 thanks to funding from the European Union’s Interreg Atlantic Area European Regional Development Fund. The initiative is coordinated by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa -Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnología and has involved 13 partners from Portugal, Ireland, France, Spain and the United Kingdom, including the Andalusian CTA, the Centre for New Water Technologies Foundation (CENTA), the Campus of International Excellence of the Sea (CEIMAR) and the Andalusian Knowledge Agency as an associated partner.

Link to consult and download the white paper: https://www.emporia4kt.com/documentation