The role of technology and digital innovation in sustainability and decarbonization of the Blue Economy

The development of a sustainable technology for the Blue Economy (a new Blue Technology) sets out three core research objectives, reflecting key challenges to be tackled by the sea industries and scientific and technological communities: The fast development of doable decarbonization processes through development and demonstrati on of deployable, competitive, and sustainable technological solutions for energy transition (climate neutral blue economy), a sustainable exploitation and exploration of oceans, seas and coastal areas to provide new resources, from raw materials to products, including food (sustainable use and management of marine resources), and the development and exploitation of digital-based knowledge while accumulating data from new observation networks (persistent monitoring and digitalization of seas and oceans). To meet these operational objectives, different topics and related technologies need to be further developed. A possible list of disciplinary objecti ves is the following.