The Government of the Azores, through the Regional Fund for Science and Technology and the Regional Directorate for Sea Affairs, is participating in the workshop to launch the SMARTBLUE project in Las Palmas, Canary Islands.
 
This project falls within the INTERREG VA Spain-Portugal MAC (Madeira-Azores-Canary Islands) 2014-2020 Cooperation Programme. It aims to ensure the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in the regional and cross-border markets of Macaronesia, through the creation of Clusters related to the blue economy by integrating various agents of the sector.  
 
The Regional Director for Science and Technology pointed out, that in the case of the Azores, the work to be carried out "is of particular interest as it provides a significant contribution to the ongoing process for the development of the Sea cluster; the latter is part of the cluster programme of the Smart Specialisation Strategy for Research and Innovation in the Azores (RIS3)."
 
Although the Government of the Azores "is working on the revision of RIS3, as planned," the Sea sector "will continue to play a key role in any strategy involving the archipelago," said Bruno Pacheco. In this regard, the government official highlighted the importance of projects such as SMARTBLUE.
 
Coordinated by the Marine and Maritime Cluster of the Canary Islands, SMARTBLUE, with a global budget of 1 million Euros and a duration of 36 months, will be composed of nine partners from the archipelagos of the Azores, Canary Islands, Madeira and Cape Verde.
 
The work to be carried out by the consortium intends to promote innovation and internationalisation processes by seizing the potentialities of synergies, skills and resources in a joint venture. Furthermore, it will also ensure a better of the activities related to the Sea sector throughout this geographical area of the Atlantic.