The first half of 2020 has not exactly been a walk in the park. The rapidly evolving situation with COVID-19 has meant that good news have been few and far between. Most of us have needed to adjust to new ways of working and generally living in uncertainty. Because of this, we in ECOPRODIGI are very excited to share some great news concerning our project and the future with you!
Firstly, we are happy to report that our funding programme Interreg Baltic Sea Region has granted us a prolongation of 3 months for project implementation. This means that, instead of finishing off in the end of September, we will be able to continue with our work until the end of 2020. As explained in an earlier update, in ECOPRODIGI the situation with COVID-19 has caused some delays in our pilotings which, in turn, has resulted in delays in other work that is dependent on the results of the pilotings. In addition, we have had to postpone some of our events and most of the collaborative work within the consortium has taken place only online. However, we are as determined as ever to complete the project and deliver what we have intended to deliver all along. The prolongation will grant us a bit more time to do this and we are very grateful for the opportunity.
The second good news is that our application for ECOPRODIGI’s extension project, EXOPRODIGI, has been approved for funding by the Interreg BSR secretariat! EXOPRODIGI will essentially build on the findings of and lessons learned from ECOPRODIGI. The intention is to further improve the efficient use of resources with the help of digital tools and solution which support decision making, create transparency, reduce working hours and decrease waste, emissions and energy consumption. Similarly to ECOPRODIGI, the aim in EXOPRODIGI is to enhance the institutional capacity of maritime industry end-users at various stages of vessel life-cycle; i.e. during voyages, stowage operations and at the assembly processes at shipyards. Project Manager Milla Harju summarises our excitement:
“We are extremely happy to have granted this chance to continue our work in developing an eco-efficient maritime industry. The results we have seen thus far have created incredible ripple effects and shed light on many more barriers which we hope to tackle in EXOPRODIGI. With the crew we have gathered, I have no doubt that this will be a success story!”
Before kicking off EXOPRODIGI, we still have approximately 6 months of ECOPRODIGI implementation left. These will be enticingly busy months for us as we will complete the pilotings of digital tools with our maritime industry end users, prepare a second synthesis report on findings, finalise digitalisation roadmaps for increasing eco-efficiency, develop training programmes for shipyards, shipping companies and ports, and draft policy briefings and recommendations to increase eco-efficiency and digitalisation in the Baltic Sea region. We will also organise two public events showcasing the projects results, one in Brussels in late autumn and a final seminar in Turku on the 2nd of December. So stay on board for updates on our activities!
