by Associate Professor Alexandros Charalambides

For the past two years, the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), Cyprus Energy Agency (CEA) and Chrysalis LEAP, in cooperation with the Cypriot shipping industry, as well as with a group of port authorities and other bodies from Valencia (Spain), Piraeus (Greece) and Turku (Finland), have been working towards the adoption of an ambitious roadmap, which will contribute towards the strategy adopted by the International Maritime Organization, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% (based on 2008 levels). The effort was funded by EIT Climate-KIC, the EU's leading climate innovation initiative, through the Net-Zero Emissions Resilient Maritime Hubs project.

This activity gave the opportunity to the team of the Sustainable Energy Laboratory of CUT, together with the other partners (Cyprus Energy Agency, Chrysalis LEAP, Fundacion Valenciaport, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Digital Hub Logistics Research Hamburg, ATHENA Research Centre and UNIFUND), to successfully submit a proposal to the European Institute of Innovation and Technology on the financing and implementation of a global maritime accelerator.

The accelerator will receive annual funding of more than €1 million per year from European and National resources and from private companies for the period 2021-2023. The ultimate goal is to create a world-class maritime accelerator, which will support and develop 30-40 start-ups per year, which will provide solutions to the challenges of reducing carbon emissions, not only locally, but also internationally.

Through this accelerator, participating start-ups will receive free training and guidance and funding ranging from € 5,000 to € 500,000 (depending on maturity level and specific conditions) from EIT Climate-KIC and other partners and will be given the opportunity to present their ideas in front of investors from Cyprus, Israel and the United States, and also in front of the largest shipping companies in the world, which support this initiative.

"The operation of a maritime accelerator in Cyprus is another steppingstone towards our vision to establish Cyprus as a Cleantech Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship," said Associate Professor Alexandros Charalambides, Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at CUT and project co-ordinator.

For more information, you can visit the website www.energylab.ac.cy or contact the Associate Professor Alexandros Charalambides, at (+357) 25 002306 or at a.charalambides@cut.ac.cy.