Insight #2: Building an Inclusive Blue Economy — AquaSphere’s Gender Equality and Diversity Strategy
The blue economy is growing fast, but not evenly. Women, people from peripheral maritime regions, and individuals facing socio-economic or cultural barriers remain underrepresented in maritime research, blue economy start-ups, and innovation leadership. AquaSphere was designed with this gap in mind. Equality, diversity and inclusion are not compliance requirements bolted onto the project. They are embedded into its governance, curriculum design, and how the accelerator programme selects and supports ventures.
To turn this commitment into practice, AquaSphere established a dedicated Gender Equality Board with representatives from every partner institution. The Board is responsible for setting shared inclusion standards across all project activities, monitoring progress against agreed targets, and triggering corrective action wherever gaps emerge. It operates on the principle that inclusion cannot be managed from one institution alone — it requires shared ownership across the full consortium, and a common language for identifying and responding to barriers.
The Board tracks three targets that reflect the structural realities of the blue economy: female participation in training programmes, female-led ventures in the accelerator, and representation from under-represented maritime regions. These are not arbitrary figures. Each one responds to a specific pattern of exclusion that the sector has historically reproduced, from gender stereotyping in technical fields, to unequal access to venture capital, to the geographic distance that isolates peripheral coastal communities from innovation opportunities. Results are compiled quarterly, discussed across partners, and used to adapt outreach and delivery where needed.
What has emerged from this process goes beyond monitoring. Partners across the consortium have found the Board’s work genuinely energising, bringing their own regional perspectives to how inclusion is understood and practised in very different local contexts. The shared framework has created space for honest conversations that might not otherwise happen in a multi-country project. AquaSphere’s experience suggests that building equity into the structure of a project from the start, rather than adding it later, produces not just fairer outcomes but richer collaboration.
Insight #1: Ocean of Ideas: Turning Peer Learning into Action
As part of AquaSphere, Cardiff Metropolitan University (PDR) developed the “Ocean of Ideas” co-creation methodology to transform traditional peer learning into dynamic, hands-on collaboration. Instead of passive knowledge exchange, the approach brings together universities, industry and regional stakeholders to jointly explore challenges and co-create practical solutions.
The methodology is grounded in design thinking and co-design principles, drawing on frameworks such as the Double Diamond to guide participants from understanding challenges through to developing and refining solutions. It provides partners with a flexible toolkit of workshop formats, facilitation techniques and practical exercises that can be adapted to different institutional and regional contexts.
Already applied across AquaSphere events, including the AquaSphere’s 3rd Peer Learning Event in Cardiff (23-24 March, 2026), where the approach was used to bring together project partners and external stakeholders from across Wales and Europe to explore shared challenges in the blue economy and identify opportunities for collaboration. Through facilitated discussions and co-creation activities, participants were able to connect insights from research, innovation practice, and regional priorities, and begin shaping concrete ideas for future innovation support initiatives