This action will establish and provide the innovation support services addressing in general Croatian SMEs with significant innovation activities and in particular the beneficiaries of the SME instrument. This action will provide continuation of the SSBI-CRO-KAM-2 proposal which is currently implemented under the remit of H2020 In particular defining innovation support packages for: • Key Account Management (KAM) of successful SME Instrument applicants to identify bottlenecks to creation of economic impact in companies benefiting from grants by Horizon 2020, • Enhancing client SME’s capacity to manage innovation processes increasing their efficiency and effectiveness. Project partners UniSt, STEPRI, TPV, Tera and HAMAG-BICRO will each individually provide number of service packages according to the analysis of regional needs (regional coverage, number and readiness of clients). Envisaged outcome of this action is to provide services to SMEs in 2017-2018, including all beneficiaries of support under the Horizon 2020 SME instrument.

The main goal of the SeaTecHub project is to strengthen Croatian and Cyprus place-based innovation ecosystems and improve access to excellence for R&I actors by cross-border collaboration on a common strategy and alongside value adding chains within the area of eco-innovative technologies for healthy and productive seas, focusing on sectors 1. Aquaculture and fisheries, 2. Smart ports, 3. Maritime security and protection, 4. Research and Education, and 5. Maritime technologies, which are aligned with Croatian and Cypriot Smart Specialization Strategies and have been identified as emerging and established sectors in the EU Blue Economy Report 2021 . The objectives of the SeaTecHub project are: 1) to facilitate long-term cross border and inter-sectoral collaboration to advance eco-innovative technologies for healthy and productive seas, 2) to perform joint research work to close knowledge gaps, consolidate and reinforce quadruple-helix linkages, and validate strategy and action and investment plans (AIPs), 3) to implement a set of mutual learning and skills development measures, and 4) to raise visibility of Croatian-Cyprus innovation ecosystems by implementing strategic measures in the form of organizing networking, knowledge and experience transfer events. These objectives will be reached through a set of measures that include a) development of the strategy and AIPs and their digitalization through an innovative platform utilizing blockchain-based tokenization, b) R&I projects selected considering cross-border and cross-sectoral needs within, c) conceptual design and pre-planning for pilots and demonstrators, and d) a set of accompanying measures and outreach activities. The SeaTecHub consortium covers the quadruple helix of Croatian and Cyprus ecosystems: 2 research organizations, 4 public authorities, 5 business actors, and 3 NGOs. Strong willingness to actively participate has also been expressed by 49 institutions who have provided Letter of Support.