Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) and Fórum Oceano have announced their new collaborative partnership to promote sustainable investment and growth of the blue economy in regional and international networks.

This agreement, signed Monday at the Canadian Embassy in Lisbon, will formalize the partners’ collaboration, particularly in the areas of data and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Enhanced international cooperation is needed to unlock the potential of data and AI solutions to address global ocean challenges. In their pan-Atlantic partnership, the OSC and Fórum Oceano will work together to exchange competence and experience within operation, development, and governance of the ocean clusters to advance work in these spaces.

The partnership between OSC and Fórum Oceano will include the following:

• Knowledge exchange and transfer on the use of AI in ocean economy
• The facilitation of pan-Atlantic collaboration in R&D in ocean data and AI
• Increase collaboration of Atlantic coastal cities in climate resilience planning and climate change adaptation
• Shared and cross-promotion and public awareness on the advancement of the blue economy
• Access to the services offered by the innovation centers included in the Blue Hub Portugal
• Canadian innovation, research, and development spaces
• Collaboration between partners in each cluster to undertake projects, events, and partnership opportunities

“Sharing knowledge, experience, and data is key to a successful blue economy,” said Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster. “We are excited about the potential of this partnership with the Fórum Oceano, where we will work together with our memberships to cross-collaborate and advance solutions in the global blue economy.”

Canada has recognized the need to support the commercialization of AI-driven ocean solutions by funding the launch of the OSC’s new AI Ocean Program as part of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy (PCAIS). This program stream represents, for one of the first times in Canada, the launch a program dedicated to funding ocean innovation using AI platforms.

“Cooperation is strategic for making a sustainable blue economy happen. The challenges are systemic, as also the opportunities. We are very excited with this MoU with Super Ocean Cluster from Canada,” said Ruben Eiras, Secretary General of Forum Oceano. “It opens new horizons for synergies with our recent innovation ecosystem projects financed by the European Commission: Blue Hub Portugal, a network of 7 blue innovation centers for Blue economy in ports; Portugal Blue Digital Hub, an European Digital Innovation Hub for Blue Economy, where we will have 1 million euros a year for financing blue Digital startups and SMEs.”