The growing innovation divide across the European Union appears particularly detrimental to small and emerging regional research and innovation systems like the Outermost Regions. With limited resources, these regions struggle to reach the critical mass needed to build comparative advantages and become knowledge societies. Though the European Research Area and the Framework programmes could compensate this marginalization through greater knowledge circulation, resources sharing and talents mobilities, the Outermost Regions present a limited participation in FP7 and Horizon 2020. This underutilization notably stems from the competing relations between structural funds (ESIF) and the framework programs or “substitution effect”: many organizations and individuals prioritize easily accessible ESIF, decide not to apply to the FP and end up in “substitution trap” which isolates them from promising collaborations. To move Outermost Regions’ R&I organizations and systems from substitution to synergies, REMORA ambitions to transform 3 Ocean and Marine ESIF-funded institutions in La Réunion, Madeira and the Azores into Horizon Europe champions : CITEB, OKEANOS and OOM. To that end, REMORA will enhance their competitiveness (notably human resources, knowledge transfer and innovation capacities), strategic positioning and connections with major EU networks through a joint internationalization strategy. REMORA will then use the successful transformation of these 3 role models to lead other ESIF-oriented R&I organizations and policy-makers in Outermost and Widening Regions on the path to synergies.

Radon is an unique atmospheric tracer, and high-quality measurements of direct atmospheric radon concentration complemented by indirect (by progeny) measurements at a key unique location in the Atlantic will open up multiple possibilities for climate science, as well as in terms of radio protection and nuclear surveillance. The radon observations will provide an accurate time-varying baseline reference level for European GHG enabling clearer distinction between emissions and slowly changing background levels. In addition to GHG baseline estimates, the quantification - based on atmospheric radon concentration - of the degree of terrestrial influence on air masses will significantly assist multiple atmospheric and multidisciplinary environmental studies. These will be addressed in the project, including the quantification of pollution events, the investigation of the feedback of natural planktonic communities occurring at the surface North Atlantic to GHG emissions, and atmospheric studies of marine boundary layer clouds and aerosols. The project will also increase understanding on wet deposition and meteorological processes influencing ambient gamma dose rate that need to be taken into account in setting threshold alarm levels of nuclear surveillance networks for radiological protection purposes.

The EXPER project aims at supporting the institutional transformation of University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Azores University through capacity building activities and through international cooperation with the leading Universities of Rostock University (DE) and Calabria (IT). EXPER will enhance the scientific excellence and innovation capacity of the partnering universities with a focus on research fields addressing challenges and opportunities offered by the blue economy and circular economy. The project specific objectives are: • To raise the excellence profile of ULPGC and UAC and increase their attractiveness towards local and international talents. • To design and plan the institutional transformation of the Widening universities. • To organize supporting and capacity building activities to learn from leading organizations on how to increase research excellence and unlock the innovation potential of Widening Universities with a focus on knowledge transfer. • To set the basis for a European University Alliance which realises an integrated cooperation between the research and innovation dimension with the education and training dimension. EXPER will deploy a community-based approach to outline a modernization strategy of the Widening Universities which involves representatives of the surrounding ecosystem. The EXPER strategy will aim at stepping up and stimulating scientific excellence and innovation capacity of the Widening universities and their role as drivers of economic and social transformation in their territories.

The OCEAN project approach is to contribute to the mitigation of navigational accidents by supporting the navigators to do an even better job than they do presently. Such support does not only relate to an ‘on-the-spot’ enhancement of navigational awareness – including the presence of marine mammals and floating containers – or an improved performance of evasive manoeuvring and other mitigating actions. The project will go both deeper and wider, to identify and suggest amendments or improvements in the most pertinent factors that may contribute to events becoming accidents: training, technical, human or organisational factors, operational constraints, processes and procedures, commercial pressures or structural issues like shortcomings in rules and regulations. From an implementation perspective, the OCEAN project will develop new design methods and operational processes, as well as integrating existing technologies to provide novel and improved functionalities. A key convergence point is the overall navigation situation assessment made by the operator, and the project aims at providing an integrated and designed-for-the-purpose presentation of near-field threats and navigational hinderances. The project outputs will include an Evasive Manoeuvring Agent, intended to work in tandem with existing ship systems, continuously assessing navigational safety with respect to grounding or collision with other ships, fixed structures or other threats, and the visualization of advanced manoeuvring prediction. OCEAN will suggest the creation of a European Navigational Hazard infrastructure to collect, process and distribute data relating to the presence of marine mammals and floating containers. Further innovations comprise input to upcoming and revised international standards for maritime communications and practical methods to design maritime instruments and devices, all of which will be demonstrated in consolidated scenarios.

The IN SITU project combines research and experimental actions to advance the innovation-related practices, capacities, and potential of CCIs based in non-urban areas of the EU, a constituency of the CCI sector that has grown in visibility and significance over the last decade in Europe and internationally but which is still vulnerable due to the lagging attention of research and policy to its needs, characteristics, and potentials. The project aims to advance understanding of the forms, processes, and governance of innovation involving cultural and creative industries (CCIs) located in non-urban areas of Europe and to advance the ability of non-urban CCIs to act as drivers of innovation, competitiveness, and sustainability for the locales in which they are located. IN SITU brings together leading approaches to investigating economic evolution and diversification, a challenge-oriented approach to processes of innovation, non-urban place-based planning and development, and creative industries entrepreneurship to investigate the situation of CCIs in non-urban areas. The project couples this with a pragmatic capacity-building programme to enable CCIs to address some of the key issues of their communities/region and of our time. The core defining aspect of IN SITU is the interlinking of research and practice through place-based IN SITU Labs, hubs for projects in 6 non-urban regions across Europe, located in Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Latvia, and Croatia. Involving both Europe-wide research and place-based experimentation, IN SITU will provide an in-depth knowledge of the direct and indirect effects, cross-sectoral connections and spillovers, innovative strategies and systems, and needs of CCI practitioners in non-urban areas. Complementary to this, the project will assess and advance the multi-level innovation and culture policy and planning frameworks that contextualize and can enable this work.