<< Background >>Imagine our world coming out of the COVID-19 emergency and focusing on recovery and resilience. We can meet again – in reality. We can work somewhat differently to before. We can travel outside of our community and outside of our countries. We have experienced so much over the past 14 months – death, fear, loss, sadness, sickness, worry, anxiety, disconnection, isolation, loneliness, missed opportunities, to name but a few. But we have also learned so much from the past 14 months – value, time, family, safety, hygiene, togetherness, care, kindness, pausing and breathing, mother nature healing, remote and virtual opportunities to connect and work – just some examples of the gains.Listen to the sound of the ocean! Acknowledge it’s power but notice it’s fragility too. It’s a natural resource we must respect and protect.The blue economy is a pivotal component of global economies. There is international consensus that the blue economy boosts employment and innovation, and offers significant opportunities for economic development and investment, including to local coastal communities [Digital Tourism Network-EC]. The EU’s Blue Economy is indispensable to our future welfare and prosperity. As a source of food, energy, transport, or leisure, and as a driver for new jobs and innovation. The current output of the global blue economy is expected to double by 2030 with the most significant expansion observed in Ireland and Malta (with a cumulative increase of over 50%) [The Blue Economy Report].Multiple studies identified a number of market and regulatory failures which are inhibiting access to nautical tourism, affecting the sector’s economic performance, and having a negative impact on the environment. Problems that could benefit from EU action relating to combined nautical and coastal products and the upcoming larger service proding chains in coastal areas versus micro entrepreneurs trying to keep their heads above water and facing troubles accessing resources they need to strengthen their positions on the local market.Structural issues in the nautical tourism sector, including sector fragmentation, a lack of investment and imperfect information, affect its capacity for innovation and investment. This contributes to a lag between changes in consumer preferences and the emergence of new or improved products and services which satisfy these demands. This weakens sector competitiveness, diminishing growth prospects [EC, 2019]. Through the BLUE-C project we can support micro entrepreneurs in this sector by giving them an helping hand regarding collaborations and strengthen their positions on the local market by the development of new products/services applying co-creation and co-design.As all partners are located in coastal areas, they face the same typical coastal issues such as high urbanization rate, significant tourist sector, and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change all being key issues. All resulting in poorly planned tourism activities, leading to unsustainable businesses working independently, with poor access to new sources and information. As the world has just had a major reset; Now is the time to change and social innovate!Moreover, the BLUE-C consortium has indicated that they see structural problems in their own region regarding sustainability, self-reliance, access to information and digitalisation potential for micro entrepreneurs. This project can help those entrepreneurs in need to return to the local market, cooperate with other entrepreneurs, join forces and come out stronger. Obviously, taking care of the beauty of nature and the necessary measures to respect the environment.BLUE C aims to enhance sustainability and competitiveness of the blue economy by promoting collaborating and connected coastal communities, growing digital competences and sharing of best practice on coastal and maritime tourism.<< Objectives >>BLUE-C will gather a strong and committed partner collaboration to focus on micro enterprises embedded across our coastal communities. In most cases these are small local businesses sometimes too busy or distanced from opportunities of collaboration and knowledge exchange. In tandem to this many lack the digital skills needed to connect, target, and grow their small businesses and customer bases. Such skills are needed to: innovate – share - learn - grow. BLUE C will animate and facilitate co-working, co-design and co-creation opportunities (3cs) for micro enterprises involved in the blue economy and water-related tourism sector. The emphasis will be on diversifying, sharing, networking, and adapting for example to boost tourism potential in both low and high season or develop premium products – increasing quality mark while quotas reduce. There is an ecological imperative - which is paramount - but also consumers are changing how they choose to travel, eat, socialise, work and play. There is a proven need for diversification from harmful and traditional ways of working in and around the blue economy to more proactive sustainable work practices and methods while identifying new opportunities to keep our blue resource ‘green’.DIRECT TARGET GROUPMicro entrepreneurs in coastal and maritime tourism – who have the passion and the expertise in their specific area of work but need capacity building to be digitally ready as well as facilitation in connecting, networking, sharing, establishing working partnerships and informing policy and practice changes as these are identified.MAIN GOALThe activities undertaken in this project lead to one goal: to enhance sustainability and competitiveness of the blue economy by promoting collaborating and connected coastal communities, growing digital competences and sharing of best practice on coastal and maritime tourism.In short, BLUE-C's objectives are:- Amplifying the importance of sustainability and social responsibility within the blue economy - Reduce environmental impact of coastal and maritime tourism- Highlight the value of digital readiness and online visibility to help grow the blue economy- Grow and develop digital competences as the as we move towards recovery and resilience - Strengthen competitiveness among micro entrepreneurs using the 3Cs - Establish and build strong collaborating coastal community clusters<< Implementation >>BLUE-C APPROACHWe are partners from across 6 countries building bridges of collaboration with BLUE C using Co-design, Co-work, and Co-creation. Our emphasis is on boosting the innovation capacity within coastal communities and building capacity of coastal tourism entrepreneurs to enhance and grow new business opportunities and new markets.BLUE-C will deliver 3 main results and obviously are the main activities during the project lifetime;PR1: BLUE-C Skill Framework & Best Practices - the foundation of the projectPR2: BLUE-C Learning Programme & Platform - based on the 3C's, focusing on both business sustainability and environmental changePR3: Establishing a Regional BLUE-C Network - Setting up a regional network resulting in a strong alliance to apply co-creation, co-work and co-design. Main activity would be the actual set up of a network in all of the partners' regions and bundle our experiences in a guide for others to learn the set up of a regional BLUE-C network in their own region.Other activities that will lead to the successful execution of the project management and implementation of results are the following; - Desk research on most important skills and trends for micro enterpreneurs in water-related tourism and best practices- Organization of focus groups to collect opinions and input of our target group that REALLY matters, it will function as the foundation of our learning programme, platform & BLUE-C regional network- Testing (both internal and external) of the developed results and related activities (analyzing, improving, making amendments, etc)- Promotion and dissemination of the project results to create highest impact- Ensure quality & impact by completing quality and evaluation questionnaires, provision of feedback on all documents and all related activities- Organization of multiplier events to ensure sustainability of the project deliverables/results- Internal and external communication activities- Scheduling, planning new activities and act according to the set workplan- (online) Meetings to gain new insights and maintain quality by investments in current work relations and collaboration- Financial reporting and other related activities- Monitoring activities to ensure good quality and on time delivery of the project results- Maintain strong ties with National Agency to keep them up to date and included in the project management - project results.- Traveling and hosting TPMs- Maintain and work on internal partner relationships to achieve real impact and social innovation!<< Results >>With this we will see the following project results1. Strong international partnership across 6 countries – advocating for coastal communities and micro entrepreneurs. Through working in partnership we will develop the potential for ongoing shared learning through at a local, regional and international level of the micro-enterprises we engage with at various points in the project2. A competency framework developed following in depth research and analysis of existing and complimentary matrices of skills and competencies. This will potentially transfer or inform how to address the needs of micro entrepreneurs about digital readiness and online visibility - enhancing their competitive position in the market that includes large water-related service/product chains. This framework will be fully informed by international best practices about sustainable implementation of green products/services and the 3C’s in water related tourism organisations. The result will be digital readiness of coastal communities for a sustainable future3. Learning programme and online platform based on the 3Cs and amplifying both sustainability and related entrepreneurial competences relevant in the water-related sector for micro enterprises. This will focus on competitiveness, entrepreneurship, digital ready skillsets, increased use of IT, the benefits of co-creation, co-design and co-work – using innovative ways of animating the messages and presenting the learning materials - videos, blogs, team-tasks, interviews, podcasts, etc).4. Setting up a regional network resulting in a strong alliance to apply co-creation, co-work and co-design and in turn increase the competitive position on the local market. Putting the learning programme into practice, with the overall aim to master sustainability and collaboration in current daily operations. Elements like masterclasses in each of the regions by inviting experts, design thinking to encourage the possibilities and show the opportunities it creates and speed-date sessions to enlarge local networks and opportunities of co-created product development, will be crucial to encourage micro entrepreneurs to enhance their position on the local market. Therefore, special attention will be given to promotional materials and attract those micro entrepreneurs who need skill development and an increased position on the local market. We expect that the outputs of the project will lead to the following outcomes:•New ideas for micro-enterprise development within each region and inter-regionally.•Identification of synergy where micro-enterprises can come together to build a new product of service offering in their region and/or inter-regionally•New approaches to working with other micro-enterprises which could lead to the development of •New products and services.•The potential for ongoing and further sustainable development of a coastal tourism micro-enterprise cluster for each region•Employment prospects for youth in once traditional but newly invigorated industries.