The ongoing dialogue among research community, society and relevant companies, is funda-mental for establishing integrated coastal management, especially in the complex system of Mediterranean coasts.
The HCMR team which is participating in the Interreg MED MISTRAL project (https://mistral.interreg-med.eu/ ) has identified good practices with high innovation potential in Greece (MISTRAL Blue Growth Challenges), that can be followed to ensure a sustainable com-petitive maritime economy. The aspiring certification scheme “Costa Nostrum® – Sustainable Beaches” was among them. Costa Nostrum® initiates a close collaboration with the research team of HCMR, within the MISTRAL project, in order to validate the requirements of its certifica-tion scheme in both technical and conformity assessment aspects, as well as the assumptions that underlie the need for, and the acceptance of, the scheme. The overall goal of this collabora-tion is to substantiate a “Certification Scheme” and its widespread dissemination in the Mediter-ranean area. HCMR and Costa Nostrum® had previously agreed to build their collaboration by signing a Memorandum of Understanding, on February of 2020, to jointly advance the public awareness of sustainable integrated zoning in the coastal regions of Greece.
MISTRAL is part of the European Transnational Cooperation Program “Interreg MED” that aims to strengthen a transnational partnership made up of 8 countries (2 Ministries, 8 Regions, 5 Clusters, 3 RTOs and other organizations) in order to:
- make marine knowledge and sustainable innovation the key drivers for “Blue Growth”,
- support MED clusters to become an excellent intermediary of knowledge for increasing blue economy,
- design and implement sustainable development trajectories harmonized with the MED regions Smart Specialization Strategies.
MISTRAL has the ambition to develop a wider governance vision towards 2020 in the maritime economy as well as, assuring the effective policy mainstreaming. A clustering innovation service pack for BG clusters and operators will improve the innovation performance of at least 300 SMEs with at least 100 experts benefitting from the transnational activities and exchange pro-grammes on capacity building.
