The Blue District was conceived as a catalyst for companies, institutions and research organizations at the national and international level, an open place that intends to welcome and support public and private entities that bring innovation and development to the Blue Economy sector.

The initiative is consistent with the European drive. All 27 EU member states have pledged to transform the EU into the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To get there, they have pledged to reduce emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

A very large part of the structural funds and at least 37 percent of the Next Generation EU has been committed to addressing the climate crisis, reorienting research, and reconverting the economy in this urgent direction. There is a need, through zero pollution, savings, reuse and the use of secondary materials, to decouple growth from the use of non-regenerative resources to arrive at a climate-neutral economy, "green, digital, resilience and cohesion" are largely represented, for Genoa, by the capacity for innovation in the Blue Economy. The Agenda 2030 framework is the same one that inspires the project and more generally the activities of the Genova Blue District and characterizes the guiding principles of The Ocean Race 2023. At this time, in which, on these challenges, there appears to be a need for a "new construction," the dissemination of knowledge and the research and capacitation of "models," "solutions," and "products," capable of producing results and perspectives, this is the road that our project wants to take.

"Genoa Blue District - Toward The Ocean Race.

The Ocean Race-whose local staff operate within the Genoa Blue District-is a vehicle on a global scale for these issues. Each stage, all the more so The Grand Finale in Genoa, in June 2023, will be an opportunity to measure - on the different territories -awareness, problems and solutions, also thanks to the Genova Process, which with the contribution of scientists, jurists and other experts, will add - at each landing - a piece to a decalogue for the protection of the oceans, which will be presented to the UN in 2023.

To use this planetary event as a lever of innovation and knowledge is the challenge we want to achieve: a lever to generate ideas, innovation, products, services, new business activities, capable of measuring itself with the sustainable use of the sea while promoting its livability, accessibility and usability for all.

All of this will flow into the Innovation Village, which will be realized during Genoa The Grand Finale. The Innovation Village will be a space enlivened by workshops, sustainability experiences, meetings, and in which to stage demonstration activities of the selected innovative solutions.

In the process described, the specific purpose of this notice is to identify and support technological solutions or business models responsive to the strategic and sustainability impact challenges, capable of presenting themselves as effective and highly innovative and demonstrable, i.e., capable, during the Innovation Village, of supporting and making tangible, as an experience, both on the business side and on the visitor and citizen side, the concrete spillovers of the proposed product or process innovation.

Leveraging the awareness and inclination for sustainability, as well as the inclusive and equal opportunity values that sports in general, and nautical and water sports, whether practiced competitively or amateur, as well as recreational activities in contact with the sea, are capable of generating, innovative solutions are sought under

Of particular interest are the following areas: well-being, accessibility, usability with identification of systems that promote the widespread and balanced use as well as the enhancement of coastal and sea resources: opportunities for access to facilities, means, courses, facilitation for fragile people, equal opportunities; applications capable of structuring marine spaces or coastal environments by actually integrating into a new enabling framework elements of usability, safety, interactivity, measurement of sports and amateur performance, and care of the context. Devices, processes or services serving Citizen Science, that is, proposing solutions for the collection and analysis of data related to the natural world by the local community.