On 4th and 5th of June took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, the Conference and Matchmaking Business Cooperation and the European Green Deal organized by Innovation Norway in partnership with the Directorate-General for Maritime Policy (DGPM) and the Secretary General of the Environment (SGA), aiming to discuss business possibilities within the scope of the European Green Deal. The event had around 150 participants, with Portugal represented by 9 entities and 2 speakers in the thematic sessions: Digitalization of the Sustainable Blue Economy and Hydrogen for Greening Transportation. In matchmaking, around 31 meetings were held.
The plenary session started with the welcoming words from Magnar Ødelien, Director of EEA and Norway Grants at Innovation Norway followed by interventions from Iliana Ivanova, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Elisabeth Svanholm Meyer, Senior Vice President Innovation Norway, Zornitsa Roussinova, President of the Economic and Social Council of the Republic of Bulgaria, and Turi Bundlie Bakke, Senior Advisor at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The following session consisted of an overview of business opportunities within the scope of the European Green Deal, focusing on how it is possible to transform climate and environmental challenges into opportunities, in all political areas, creating wider possibilities for European companies to develop technologies and sustainable solutions that lead to value creation.
The afternoon was dedicated to two thematic sessions:
- Hydrogen for Greening Transportation to discuss how Hydrogen can be used in the transport´s decarbonization, accelerating its value chain's development. In this session, Vasco Amorim, from the Portuguese Association for the Promotion of Hydrogen, described the state of art in Portugal.
- Raw Materials for Zero-Emission Targets, to discuss the link between raw material availability and zero-emission technologies.
In the morning of the next day another two thematic sessions took place:
- The Role of Carbon Capture and Storage, to discuss what role Carbon Capture and Storage will play in the green transition and how it will allow us to timely meet our decarbonization commitment.
- Digitalization of the Sustainable Blue Economy, to discuss how digitalization in the blue economy could be important in sectors from resource management and monitoring tools to the optimization of offshore renewable energy. In this session, Carlos Pinho, from Fórum Oceano, described the state of art in Portugal.
After lunch, the matchmaking meetings were held between participants that included companies, clusters, researchers, policy makers, representatives of the main innovation agencies and other stakeholders from several European countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia. The Portuguese entities, Viva Lab, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Enhídrica, Itecons, Escola Náutica Infante D. Henrique, Built Colab, Atronia, Neutroplast e AVOS - Added Value Offshore Systems, had the opportunity to establish several contacts and hopefully future partnerships.
At the end of the event, the balance was very positive, contributing to achieving the objectives established in the European Green Deal, as well as identifying the challenges for business cooperation in green solutions, exploring the best way to cooperate in green business solutions and creating synergies between the EEA and Norway Grants and European and national funding programs.
See photos Galeria.