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With Portugal having one of Europe’s largest Exclusive Economic Zones and abundant marine resources, maritime economy is among the key sectors for the development of Porto and Northern Portugal region.
The region has great potential for exploring traditional activities such as fishing, aquaculture, and maritime transport, as well as emerging activities such as seabed exploitation, biotechnology, and ocean energy.
The Porto region offers excellent conditions for maritime transport, which include:
Source: YILPORT Leixões (2020)
The Porto region hosts Fórum Oceano – Association for the Sea Economy, which manages the Portuguese Maritime Cluster, and aims to strengthen the Sea Cluster by promoting collaboration among scientific institutions, enterprises and associations. It has over 100 members representing different sectors of Blue Economy, including leading research organizations such as:
Source: Fórum Oceano (2020), CIIMAR (2020), INEGI (2020), INESC-TEC (2020), LSTS (2020)
The Sea Center of the Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto (UPTEC MAR) is an incubator for business projects related to science and sea technologies. Its associated companies operate in several areas of the maritime economy such as marine robotics, software, blue biotechnology, environment, new products and equipment for water sports. Examples include:
Source: UPTEC (2020)
R&D+I projects can benefit from Portugal 2020 financial incentives and are also eligible for tax incentives.