Frequently Asked Questions
About ADT4Blue
ADT4Blue aims to accelerate the use of advanced digital solutions to tackle key challenges in the Blue Economy across the Atlantic region while enhancing digital skills among higher education students and early-stage entrepreneurs in the Blue Economy sectors. The project will identify critical challenges in the Blue Economy and launch 3 open calls to select innovative ideas and teams. These teams will develop pilot solutions using advanced digital technologies to address the challenges in various sectors. The selected participants will benefit from tailored training, mentorship and support to equip them with the necessary skills to succeed.
ADT4Blue Open Call 1 will launch on October 18th 2024 and close on December 18th 2024 at 5 pm (Brussels time). This call will include 10 innovation challenges, 2 from each of the following Blue Economy domains: Aquaculture and Fisheries, Maritime Transportation, Ocean Monitoring, Conservation and Marine Ecosystem Protection, Port Activities, and Communication. Hence, teams will have the opportunity to apply with an Open Challenge within the 5 domains listed. Teams applying for an Open Challenge must include a Letter of Support from a Blue Economy stakeholder. Proposals must be submitted through the F6S Platform.
As a result, 20 teams will be selected and invited to participate in the ADT4Blue OC1 Programme, in which they will benefit from tailored training, mentorship, and support in developing their innovative solutions further.
Teams of higher education students, alumni, researchers, Blue Economy experts, technologists, early-stage entrepreneurs will be invited to apply with an innovative idea in response to either one of the 10 challenges listed in the Open Call or to one open challenge within one of the 5 domains at run in the Open Call. 20 teams in total will be selected and invited to take part in the ADT4Blue OC1 Programme. The Programme will kick off with a 7-week Workshop on Entrepreneurship led by the University of Galway, followed by two weeks of online training. Simultaneously, teams will be matched with a mentor and receive active mentoring and support throughout the entire ADT4Blue Programme on training, how to access investors or partners, as well as networking events and preparation of a long-term plan to support entrepreneurship. The Mentoring Programme will continue for an additional 8 weeks. During this time, teams will further develop their ideas and seek to convert them into solutions. Overall, the Mentoring Programme will run for 3 months, out of which 2 will be dedicated to the development of the teams’ ideas. Finally, after completing the ADT4Blue OC1 Programme, teams will be asked to submit a Final Report documenting their work and the stage of their solution. The final report will be assessed by the mentors and the ADT4Blue consortium, and the teams who succeed in reaching a solution at TRL 4 or 5 will be selected to participate in the Open Call online final event and pitch their solutions to stakeholders.
The official language of the ADT4Blue Programme is English. All communications and submissions done within the ADT4Blue Open Calls must be done solely and entirely in English. Any documents submitted in any other language will not be considered.
ADT4Blue is looking for innovative solutions leveraged by Advanced Digital Technologies, such as Blockchain, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Machine Learning, among others, to tackle key challenges in the Blue Economy across the Atlantic region. At its core, the ADT4Blue project aims to contribute to the digitisation of the Blue Economy, while contributing to the enhancement of digital skills among higher education students and early-stage entrepreneurs in the Blue Economy sectors. In each open call, ADT4Blue will launch several challenges within different Blue Economy domains previously identified by Blue Economy stakeholders, and look for the best and most innovative solutions to those challenges. Hence, participants will have the chance to apply with an open challenge, this is to say teams are free to apply with a challenge previously identified by a Blue Economy stakeholder within the domains at run for each open call. If applying with an open challenge, applicants must present the challenge along with a proposed solution.
Preparing your application
To be eligible to apply to the ADT4Blue Programme, applicants must:
- Be based in one or more of the regions covered by the Atlantic Area 2021-2027
- Be part of a team of 2 to 4 members from the following groups: higher-education students, researchers, alumni, early-stage entrepreneurs or SMEs/startups, technologists or Blue Economy domain experts.
- Be registered in the F6S platform
- Commit to participate in the ADT4Blue OC1 Programme
- Check the ADT4Blue Open Call 1 challenges and select one;
- Team up with a group of eligible team members;
- Register in the F6S platform and access the ADT4Blue Open Call 1 F6S page;
- Prepare your application: when filling in the application form, make sure to answer all the fields, be clear and concise;
- Finally, make sure to submit your application before the Open Call closes, remember to check the deadline.
Multiple submissions will not be considered and team members can only participate in one team. Thus, each participant and each team can only apply to one challenge per Open Call. In case you resubmit your proposal to correct a mistake, the latest version will be considered as per the application record system.
Yes, you can resubmit your application in the F6S platform provided the call deadline has not expired. Only the last version of your proposal before the call deadline will be considered for evaluation. For this purpose, you are required to send an email to support@f6s.com requesting to reopen your application. Nonetheless, we highly recommend you carefully revise your proposal before submitting it.
No. Members of the same team can be based in different regions within the Atlantic area. In fact, as one of the project goals is to promote interregional cooperation, teams are encouraged to be interregional.
Yes, you must register to receive the link for the event. More info on the Events page, or write to raquela@f6s.com
No. The main goal of this event is to help eager participants network and team up with other potential participants so that forming a team to apply to the Open Call is somewhat easier.
You and your team can start working on the development of your proposed solution right away!
After applying
The Open Call results will be communicated to participants by email.
The ADT4Blue Open Call 1 results will be published approximately 1 month after the Open Call closes.
The Open Call results will be communicated to participants by email.