One of AquaSphere’s core ambitions is to strengthen how higher education institutions support innovation and entrepreneurship in the Blue Economy. During Phase 2, partner universities have continued to build and enhance institutional support mechanisms, adapting them to their own regional ecosystems and organisational priorities.
Building on the innovation audits and guidance developed earlier in the project, partners have introduced a range of new and improved initiatives. These include specialised Blue Economy technology transfer support, stronger links between universities and regional innovation ecosystems, and enhanced entrepreneurship programmes for students and early-stage innovators.
For example, the Technical University of Crete has expanded its dedicated Blue Economy and Maritime Innovation Unit within its Technology Transfer Office, strengthening support for research commercialization and industry collaboration. Cardiff Metropolitan University has further enhanced its student entrepreneurship support through its Start-Up Business Bootcamp and Early-Stage Venture Support Pathway, providing intensive training, mentoring and networking opportunities while promoting Blue Economy innovation opportunities to participants.
Taken together, these developments represent an important shift from project-level activities towards longer-term institutional capacity. Rather than treating Blue Economy entrepreneurship as a stand-alone initiative, AquaSphere is helping partner universities embed innovation support more firmly into their existing structures and practices, creating a stronger foundation for technology transfer, venture development and regional collaboration. In doing so, the project is not only supporting individual innovators, but also strengthening the institutional environments that will continue to enable Blue Economy innovation beyond the lifetime of AquaSphere.
Although each institution is responding to different local priorities and opportunities, the initiatives share a common goal: improving universities’ capacity to support innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge exchange in the Blue Economy.
As implementation continues, AquaSphere partners will continue sharing experiences and lessons learned through the project’s Peer Learning Events, helping institutions learn from one another and further strengthen innovation support across the consortium.