Marine South East wins funding for SMART project
Marine South East has been successful in winning funding for its Sustainable Marine Transformation (SMART) project. The project is being funded by the Regional Development Agency, SEEDA, and by the European Union through its European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The project partners are Marine South East (Lead Partner), Manufacturing Advisory Service South East (MAS SE), Olive Consultancy and Business Link, through its Designing Demand programme.
Through its work with selected marine companies, the project will enhance the South East's economy by encouraging the adoption of sustainable design, production and resource utilisation practices.
The fundamental aim of the SMART project is to pilot, validate and disseminate an approach whereby marine sector businesses can achieve a combination of economic and environmental performance improvement, with resulting social benefits. This will be achieved through identifying options for product design and process innovation, particularly those offering both bottom-line benefit and environmental footprint reduction, and replicating these benefits within the wider population of marine sector businesses (numbering around 4,000 across the SE region).
The aims will be achieved through targeting waste reduction, resource efficient manufacturing and higher value-add employment through improved product design and production. Benefits will be maximised by stimulating measurable business improvement and promoting best practice and high-value, secure employment.
The 3-year project will:
- raise levels of knowledge and innovation across the marine sector in order to support more resource efficient business practices, boosting profitability and log term competitiveness;
- stimulate innovation and job creation in ecologically-driven marine sub-sectors;
- reduce the rate of growth of the region's ecological footprint whilst stimulating economic growth.
For more information, contact Stephen Sharp at Marine South East by emailing stephen@marinesoutheast.co.uk
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