Mission Ocean aims to foster synergies between EU Member States to effectively and impactfully utilise funds under shared management by EU states to achieve Mission objectives. This ambitious endeavour requires actors at all levels to be informed and collaborate on creating and exploiting regional, inter- and transregional opportunities, utilising regionally managed and other EU funds to support local priorities while contributing to Mission Ocean’s overall objectives. One of the key instruments regions have to orient their action towards reaching Mission Ocean’s objectives are Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3 or RIS3) for research and innovation (R&I). S3 are enterprise innovation strategies that aim to prioritise public research and innovation investments for the economic transformation of regions. They can be regarded as key drivers for strategic regional development.

To support Mission actors in maximizing interregional funding opportunities, PREP4BLUE has prepared an in-depth analysis of the Smart Specialisation Strategy priorities of key European regions and their alignment with EU Mission Ocean’s objectives. Further, it has analysed what the most promising areas for further action in support of Mission Ocean are and how these can be pursued. Presented in report form, the analysis serves as an operational guide which outlines:

 
• EU-level initiatives and funding opportunities for interregional collaboration, supporting regions interested in innovating their blue policies in understanding how to make use of existing opportunities and ground them in their regional policymaking.
• A comparison and benchmarking of the funding mechanisms of selected regions in relation to blue growth/sustainable blue economy and innovation to identify innovative inner- and interregional funding and methods to accelerate reaching the objectives of Mission Ocean by 2030.
• List of promising EU funding and support mechanisms for regions and provides examples of how to use the new ERDF Interregional Innovation Instrument (I3) to support regions in accelerating market uptake of pilots and demonstrations in support of Mission Ocean’s objectives.
• Case studies to illustrate successful interregional collaboration opportunities and inspire further collaboration between regional stakeholders.

The assessment and recommendations in this report were based on an analysis of 34 regions from across all Mission Lighthouses. Data was collected via questionnaires, interviews with regional authorities, and desk research. This report will be of interest to national, regional and local authorities who would like to use inter-regional development and collaboration funds to advance their actions on Mission Ocean priorities.