Representatives of Schleswig-Holstein SMEs and institutions working in the maritime industry joined the discussion on funding policies in the federal state.
On the 23 November 2017, the University of Applied Sciences Kiel welcomed 25 participants to the workshop “Funding of Maritime SMEs”. Presentations and speeches by the teams of CLIPPER and Smart Blue Regions as well as Managing Director of the maritime company Weihe GmbH Axel Weihe provided interesting information for the participants.
At first, Professor Peter Franke and Alina Rennekamp from CLIPPER presented their regional diagnosis, showed some of the partners´ practices, and demonstrated the statistics on EFRE funds allocation to the maritime industry in Schleswig-Holstein in 2014-2020. Then, Dr. Barbara Weig from the project Smart Blue Regions described her research on Schleswig-Holstein´s innovation policy for maritime companies. Finally, Axel Weihe spoke about funding and support for maritime SMEs from the companies´ perspective.
The presentations were followed by a vivid debate with the audience. Suggestions and comments on possible improvements of maritime SMEs´ funding in Schleswig-Holstein were discussed, and the participants were enabled to leave anonymous written statements. Some SMEs stated that events like this were highly useful for them and should be organised more often in future.
“We are impressed how many companies got involved in our workshop. We have managed to bring funding bodies and potential beneficiaries together and encouraged the dialogue. The input we have gained from the workshop will help us in our future work in the project, particularly in our action plan elaboration”, said Professor Franke.
CLIPPER thanks all participants for the enthusiastic and worthwhile discussion.
