The overall objective of the Seed Money project is develop a sufficient and comprehensive full project application for the upcoming Interreg South Baltic Call to strongly contribute to the transition of SMSPs in the SBSR into smarter ports. As previous projects – Connect2SmallPorts & SECMAR – have clearly revealed, SMSPs of the SBSR highly demand assistance and support in both tools for management decision-making as well as innovation pilot application.
In a bigger project, DigiTechPort will focus on increasing competitiveness of SMSPs in the SBSR, while reducing environmental footprint and social burden of port operations by defining, testing, harmonising and applying innovative (digital) solutions based on their add-value for SMSPs. The seed money project output of a Smart Port Strategy which is validated in a workshop with port representatives will build up the backbone of the regular project.
Subsequently, the regular project is also testing the Smart Port Strategy and will continuously update the Strategy in project lifetime delivering a management tool for SMSPs which can be easily adapted and used in any SMSP of the SBSR. This process includes three main content pillars covering port ecosystem capacity building, innovation application pilots and knowledge transfer.
At the very end of regular project implementation, DigiTechPort will be able to offer SMSPs of the SBSR a tool for strategic positioning and innovation decision-making to set the pathway towards being a smart port. As the tool is tested and validated in close cooperation with SMSPs in the regular project, the actual needs and requirements of the regional SMSPs are considered and reflected in the output development, which will serve as a Blueprint for all small and medium-sized ports of the SBSR.
