EVENTS: Working Together for Innovation in the Blue Economy

Innovablue Working Meeting #3 – Venice, April 8-9, 2025

The third Innovablue Working Meeting, held on April 8, 2025 in Venice, marked a significant step forward in fostering transnational cooperation in the Blue Economy across the ADRION macro-region. This event, part of the broader Innovablue initiative, focuses on addressing regulatory challenges and promoting innovative solutions that support sustainable maritime development.

Driving innovation through regulation

This meeting brought together stakeholders, partners, and external legal experts to explore ways to unlock innovation by developing actionable regulatory solutions. The discussions centered on enabling real-life testing environments – Living Labs and removing barriers to innovation through policy reform and streamlined procedures.

Key objectives included:

  • Proposing regulatory sandbox models to facilitate testing of emerging technologies.

  • Comparing regulatory frameworks and gathering best practices from across and beyond the ADRION region.

The expert session led by Mr. Mladen Vukmir, founder of Vukmir & Associates, a leading intellectual property and innovation law firm based in Zagreb. Mr. Vukmir, a patent attorney and legal scholar, presented a comprehensive overview of the EU regulatory landscape for the Blue Economy, with a focus on legal tools to enable innovation without compromising international obligations.

His presentation covered:

  • The London Convention and Protocol, including the 2009 and 2013 amendments addressing marine geoengineering, which limit experimentation to legitimate scientific research backed by environmental impact assessments (EIAs).
  • Barcelona Convention Protocols, emphasizing legal constraints around offshore activity, waste dumping, and marine biodiversity protection.
  • The limits and possibilities of regulatory sandboxes, including examples from Germany and Italy in the AI and transport sectors, and implications for similar frameworks in maritime contexts.

Mr. Vukmir stressed the importance of aligning sandbox initiatives—temporary regulatory exemptions to support innovation—with international treaties such as the Offshore Protocol, warning against arbitrary interpretations that could lead to privileged treatment or legal conflicts​.

His key message: sandbox policies for the Blue Economy must be designed carefully to uphold environmental protections while allowing controlled, scientifically driven experimentation.

Special attention was given to the legal compatibility of innovation zones and Living Labs with international environmental obligations.

A collaborative, hands-on approach

Following the expert presentations, an interactive workshop invited participants to define concrete policy recommendations and map next steps. Key takeaways included:

  • The importance of regulatory alignment between regions to enable cross-border innovation.

  • The need for adaptive governance mechanisms to support technological experimentation.

  • Initial proposals for establishing Living Labs across rivers, lakes, and maritime areas within the ADRION region​.

Highlight: Green Port Initiatives in Venice

Participants also visited the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority for an exclusive insight into the green transformation of the ports of Venice and Chioggia. Through the Channeling the Green Deal for Venice project, the port system is piloting sustainable infrastructure including:

  • Cold ironing (OPS) systems to cut vessel emissions at berth.

  • A hydrogen ecosystem featuring renewable-powered production, refueling stations, and hydrogen-fueled inspection vessels.

  • Development of a LNG bunkering barge, the first of its kind under the Italian flag​.

The visit emphasized the balance between economic development and lagoon preservation—a key challenge addressed through real-time navigation models and sediment management strategies co-financed by the CEF Programme​.

Looking ahead

The meeting concluded with a strong call to continue collaboration, finalize contributions to the list of best practices, and prepare for upcoming activities. The outputs of this event will contribute to shaping a more innovation-friendly regulatory landscape for the Blue Economy.

The second day in Venice was dedicated to project partners meeting and next steps in implementation of the project activities.