The State of Mississippi and Ostend Science Park will bring together business representatives, academics, researchers, and economic development experts to discuss opportunities for partnerships, expansions, and collaboration in the blue economy.
Mississippi and Belgium share several priority business sectors and research interests. In addition, they are both home to diverse blue economies, including traditional maritime businesses and blue tech startups, as well as, cutting edge research and development in the areas of uncrewed maritime systems, aquaculture, coastal data analysis, renewable energy, and solutions to ocean plastic pollution. Through this event we will connect these similarly placed organizations and individuals and aim to identify opportunities for joint ventures, research partnerships and expansions across these two strong and growing markets.
09.00 Morning: Blue Sessions
Convergent sector opportunities between (West-) Flanders and Mississippi illustrated by success stories of collaboration between university and industry.
- Welcome by Carl Devos, CEO, Ostend Science Park (5 min)
- Mississippi: Big ideas out of the blue: opportunities in Mississippi (30 min)
- Opening session: Tech Transfer – collaboration between universities and industry in the triple helix model by Dr. ir. Margriet Drouillon, MBA, a senior business developer at Ghent University and Chief Business Officer for the BLUEGent consortium (30 min)
- Sustainable Solutions for Marine Plastic Pollution by Professor Jana Asselman, case study Proviron, and reply by Monica Tisack – Executive Director of the Mississippi Polymer Institute (MPI) and the USM Innovation and Commercialization (IC) Park (30 min)
- Sustainable Seafood – Marine Aquaculture by Dr. ir. Margriet Drouillon, case study Marifish project and reply by Kelly Lucas – Vice President for Research, Coastal Operations USM (30 min)
- Renewable Energy by Efrain Carpintero – researcher UGent; reply by Clair Behar – Chief Commerical Officer Hy Stor; and Kelly Lucas – Vice President for Research, Coastal Operations USM (30 min)
- Presentation of Blue Accelerator, Tom Baur, POM West-Flanders (15 min)
- Strategies for recruiting Blue Technology Companies by Kristof Lowyck, Flanders Investment & Trade (30 min)
12.30 – 13.30 Netwerk Lunch
(please register if you would like to join for lunch)
In the afternoon the delegation will visit Flanders Marine Institute in Ostend.