The Lighthouse, the unit responsible for marine development in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality’s Websites Company, is issuing a call these days for companies and ventures in the blue economy to submit their applications and compete for the possibility of integrating their developments into the urban coastal strip.
As part of the call, ventures dealing with a blue economy and developments related to the utilization of marine resources, research and technologies for the conservation of natural resources, will be able to compete for the possibility of implementing their developments in the sea, test them in the field and advance in the product development process, and present their developments in practice. Among the variety of criteria that the competing ventures must meet, the level of technological innovation of the venture, the contribution of the venture in a public and environmental aspect, the uniqueness of the venture and more will be examined.
The lighthouse will allocate to the selected projects a marine area for the implementation of the project. This is the second time that the lighthouse has issued a call for entrepreneurs to take part in the future development of the coastal strip. About three years ago, the lighthouse established a BETA SITE for urban maritime innovation projects in the port of Jaffa, the oldest active port in the world. And with the new calling voice, the lighthouse intends to expand the BETA SITE to the entire 14 km stretch of coast.
As part of the projects that are already operating today in the port of Jaffa, you can find ECO WAVE, which developed an innovative way to utilize and channel energy produced from sea waves, and as of today, the company operates in several locations in Europe and the USA, was issued on the Stockholm Stock Exchange as well as on the Nasdaq in New York. ECOncrete is an Israeli start-up company who developed an “ecological concrete” that does not harm the sea but helps to restore the marine environment and allows ports to operate in harmony with the underwater life system and preserve the rich ecological diversity alongside intensive marine activity and other projects.
Director General of Etarim, Yaron Klein: “Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality promotes research and development processes through the Etarim company and the lighthouse, and sees the sea, the urban ports and the urban coastal strip as a resource with potential for innovative activity. We see great importance in encouraging and supporting ventures dealing with the blue economy and marine research and development Urban and hope that the technologies they offer will be future solutions that will lead to breakthroughs in the fields of aquaculture, energy from the sea, biotechnology, marine tourism and more.”
Etarim Company is the municipal corporation that manages the coastal strip of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. The company leads the field of urban Blue Tech in Israel and manages the blue economy innovation space in the port of Jaffa. Etarim promotes and encourages innovative solutions for wide-scale implementation in Israel and around the world for optimal utilization of the sea while preserving the environment and its future.
Deadline for submitting applications is December 12. The lighthouse website and details of the call: https://www.atarim.gov.il/hamigdalor/