The officers of the Aerospace Sector and the Energy and Environment Sector of CTA, Silvia de los Santos and Germán López, respectively, have participated in a coordination meeting of the European project finMED held in Larnaca (Cyprus).

In particular, the meeting focused on the study phase of the project, which will be completed this year. The objective of this stage is to increase the understanding and knowledge of the mechanisms and solutions to fund innovation in green sectors by public and private actors. It will gather, elaborate and deliver knowledge for the main finMED target groups.

On one hand this knowledge provides the essential element of the support service to be provided by clusters and business support organizations to their members for facilitating access to fund for innovation. On the other hand, it enables the policy learning process in the public authorities, by feeding a capacity building tool. After completing the studying phase, the project partners will proceed to the testing phase. 

In addition, the participation in the MED Green Growth Thematic Working Groups (TWGs) was discussed. These groups are created in order to facilitate systematic technical cooperation, synergies and joint work among all projects belonging to the MED Green Growth Community in view of capitalization and policy outputs.

The finMED project aims to develop and promote public policies, practices and services to boost the innovation funding in sectors linked to ‘green growth’, that is to say, sustainable or respectful with the environment, in the Mediterranean region.

It is 85% funded by the European Interreg-MED program and brings together 15 partners from 9 European countries (Italy, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, France, Malta and Spain). FinMED is going to last 48 months (February 2018 – January 2022) and has a total budget of 4.3 million euros.

A group of regions, clusters, business support organisations, knowledge providers and development agencies join forces to boost the innovation funding in green growth sectors through better implementation of policies and strategies and the introduction of innovative services.

The term ‘green growth’ is a strategic objective for the EU and the OECD and refers to an environmentally and socially sustainable economic growth, which requires significant efforts in innovation to transform many of the current processes.