Creating a leadership for maritime industries - New opportunities in Europe
The CLIPPER project stems from the conviction that the support to maritime industries has to be developed in order to tackle Blue Growth challenges as well as energy transition imperatives. Global economic recession did not spare the maritime sector, which also suffers from the ever-growing concurrence from emerging countries. The Regions have a crucial part to play to maintain SMEs’ competitiveness in their traditional activities (shipyards in particular) while becoming leaders on blooming markets such as Marine Renewable Energies (MRE). 

Maritime industries should be understood here according to the definition given by the LeaderShip 2020 report “The Sea, New Opportunities for the Future”, which recommendations are echoing in the CLIPPER project.
Its overall objective is indeed to improve public policies in support to maritime industries’ SMEs, notably by encouraging business strategies focused on diversification and differentiation. 

Exchanges between partner regions, based on an extensive benchmark, will allow the exploration and implementation of new modes of action towards SMEs in order to give them support and incentives for their dynamics of quality upgrading, manufacturing performance and leadership in new markets such as MREs. The partners to the CLIPPER project will build relevant action plans for each of their territories and shape concrete political recommendations to impulse them locally, in line with the analysis of relevant national and European contexts. Continuous exchanges with stakeholders throughout the project will allow a better identification of challenges faced by SMEs and to ensure coherence between their needs and the tools elaborated. The links developed with SMEs during preparatory work will guarantee their direct benefit from the project. CLIPPER's results and their long term exploitation will be a significant support for public authorities and European institutions to improve their business strategies for maritime industries.