Last Wednesday 7th June, the Port Authority Bay of Algeciras (APBA) participated in the “Sharing Day” of the European project AspBAN (Atlantic Smart Ports Blue Acceleration Network), considered by the European Commission as a flagship project in the development of the vertical of “Ports As Gateways and Hubs For The Blue Economy” of this organism.
The first part of the event was mainly focused on the latest advances of the project, whose objective is focused on the development of a dynamic acceleration platform that helps the Atlantic ports to promote Blue Economy centres based on open innovation. In particular, Ana Pinela, Senior Innovation Consultant at Beta-i and Project Manager of AspBAN, put the focus on one of the major milestones of the project, the establishment of a new network for cooperation between ports, with the capacity to bring together the relevant interest of industry and business, and thus obtain a real impact on the Blue Economy.
Then, the different partners of the project, including APBA, shared the work carried out for the development of pilot projects in their respective port ecosystems.
In particular, the APBA was represented by Ignacio Serra, member of the Technical Innovation Office. He explained the innovative business challenges presented to the programme, including the use of AIS data to support strategic and operational decision-making, the diagnosis and prediction of the environmental impact produced by port activity, or the decarbonisation of port activity, in favour of the preservation of the physical environment, biodiversity and the improvement of air quality in the facilities.
He also reflected on the work carried out by the APBA, which after analysing multiple start-ups and innovative solutions, and after studying some of them in depth, is currently assessing the possibility of developing two pilot projects in the Port of Algeciras. Firstly, a tool for the monitoring of marine biodiversity and the study of the impact produced by the activity of ships and, on the other hand, the development of a solution based on artificial vision aimed at reducing congestion in the port accesses.
After the rest of the speeches, Karolina Iwanowicz, Innovation Coordinator at Kaleido Tech, gave a presentation entitled “The readiness of ports for innovation”. She highlighted the common factors that lead the ports to embrace a change of mentality, where it is essential to promote collaboration and alliances with the start-up ecosystem, to be open and flexible to new ideas as well as to the needs of the market or, for example, to be capable of monitoring and evaluating the impact of innovation.
The day ended by inviting both partners and attendees to participate in the final events of the project, which will consist of a final conference and the participation of AspBAN representatives in the event entitled “Ports as Hubs of the Blue Economy”, of the European Commission’s Intergroup SEArica (Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal areas). This event, to be held in the European Parliament, will also have the prominent participation of the APBA, which will present how the Port of Algeciras is working, through innovation, digitisation and sustainability, to change its role as port to become an active hub of the Blue Economy.
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