The Euroregion once again becomes the work setting for a research project promoted by the University of Vigo and included in the Poctep 2019 call. Named Sherpa do Mar and led by the REDE group, Campus do Mar and the R&D Office, the objective is to accompany, mentor and advise companies in the marine and maritime sector to improve their competitiveness and entrepreneurs to consolidate their business ideas in areas such as fishing and its transformation, the naval industry or the transport of goods or people.
The project, which started this summer with a total budget of €997,184 and will end in December 2021, held a workshop this week on the Vigo campus in which all the partners accompanying the University of Vigo in this initiative gathered: Consorcio Zona Franca de Vigo, the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN), the universities of Santiago and A Coruña, the Associação de Transferência de Tecnologia da Asprela (UPTEC), the University of Porto Inovação (UPorto-UPIN), the Interdisciplinary Marine and Environmental Research Center (CIIMAR) and the Ocean Forum-Association of the Sea Economy. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the needs of this sector in the field of entrepreneurship based on the results of the Diagnosis of the marine-maritime sector of the Galicia-northern Portugal Euroregion, prepared in the framework of the project and presented at this conference.
At the opening of the meeting, the director of the Campus do Mar and the CIM, Daniel Rey, highlighted the importance of developing initiatives that can be added to the Blue Growth strategy, while the vice-rector for Research, Belén Rubio, highlighted this initiative that, “by bringing together the different agents who are working in the field of marine and maritime entrepreneurship, can help to go much further”, making Sherpa do Mar the germ of a broader project that involves many more European partners through H2020 calls. The professor and coordinator of the REDE group, Xosé Henrique Vázquez, explained that the purpose of Sherpa do Mar is to coordinate all the initiatives that are already in operation, thus taking advantage of synergies in the field of entrepreneurship in the Euroregion in the marine-maritime sector. To this end, the different partners are working on the development of several items, such as a methodology for monitoring and promoting innovative technology-based companies (Sherpa Journeys) or a program for scientific-technical support and promoting knowledge transfer.
First Euroregional platform to promote competitiveness in the marine sector
Andrea Ogando, a researcher at the REDE group, explained during this conference how the project establishes three main objectives. On the one hand, work is being done on the “valuation and consolidation of a network of agents in the maritime and marine environment”, while another objective is the creation of companies in the marine environment with high added value and finally, the generation of jobs and self-employment, paying special attention to youth. To achieve these objectives, the first cross-border platform in this field will be developed, among other proposals, as well as a scientific advisory program, an initiative coordination system or a guided and personalized itinerary for business initiatives to improve their competitiveness. The REDE group expects that in the coming months a catalog will be developed to give visibility to 90 technology-based business projects; 24 new business projects will be evaluated through sherpas or mentors; A personalized diagnosis will be carried out for 120 companies, selecting 20 of them to design an itinerary for improving R&D&I capabilities and, finally, the valorization of 12 new business projects to accompany them in the entrepreneurship process.
A sector in solid growth
One of the main starting points of the project is the realization of a diagnosis that quantifies the importance of the marine-maritime sector in the Euroregion as a whole and in the economies of Galicia and northern Portugal, both in relation to GDP and the number of companies or employees, the productive structure and its profitability. The first conclusions of this study, carried out by the SPI consultancy, in collaboration with the REDE group and Campus do Mar, were also presented within the framework of this conference by the specialist André Novas.
The study shows that in 2017 the marine-maritime sector produced 1.6 billion euros of Gross Added Value in the Euroregion as a whole, which represents 1.4% of its GDP, employing 33,385 people – 1.24% of total employment in the Euroregion. For the expert, it is important to highlight that all the sectors it covers show a trend of “solid growth in the period 2015-2017, increasing the GVA produced by the marine-maritime sector as a whole in the Euroregion by 18.9%. The productivity of the marine-maritime sector is, in general terms, high, but with large differences between sectors, types of activities and regions. Thus, while in Galicia the activities with the highest productivity correspond to the “primary activities of the fishing sector”, in the north of Portugal the maritime transport sector stands out. These are also the activities with the highest operating margin within each region.
In terms of business opportunities, the diagnosis identified, for the Euroregion as a whole, “the maritime transport sector and, in particular, its ancillary activities, as a very important entrepreneurial opportunity, based on its relatively modest size and very positive productivity and profitability, especially in northern Portugal”. Other business niches were also identified in this region, such as extractive fishing, retail trade in seafood products and shipbuilding and repair. In Galicia, the “provision of technological services to companies, to take advantage of the great importance of primary and secondary activities in the sector and contribute to an increase in productivity, orienting the sector towards more innovative and high-tech intensive activities”, stands out above all.
Conference on employment in the fishing sector in Europe
The marine sector was also the protagonist this Friday of another day that took place at the Delegation of the Xunta de Galicia in Vigo within the framework of the project A European vision of the oceans and seas: maritime fishing and sustainable growth, of which Campus do Mar is part. The workshop focused on analyzing the employment opportunities offered by fishing in the European context, under the coordination of the professors of Labor Law and Social Security, Francisca Fernández Prol and Belén Fernández Docampo and Francisco Torres, professor of Commercial Law and dean of Legal and Labor Sciences.
Through different presentations, the conference sought to provide, from a practical perspective to students and society in general, the various professional opportunities linked to the fishing sector: jobs and professions on board, legal professions linked to the maritime fishing sector, employment in aquaculture and professions linked to the protection of fishing resources and the marine environment. The conference was attended by around 140 attendees, mainly students from the University of Vigo and the Maritime and Fisheries Institute of Vigo.
Source: DUVI
