The federal policy document North Sea 2025 of Minister Verlinden forms the policy framework for the Belgian North Sea area in the current legislature. During the discussion in the Belgian parliament, the Minister emphasized the need for an integrated approach to safety, economy and ecology.

Nature restoration in the Belgian North Sea is high on the agenda. But where are we today, and how do we make nature restoration at sea a large-scale reality? These questions were central during the event “Scaling up nature restoration in the Belgian part of the North Sea”.

Would you like to know more about innovations linked to the sea? Come to Ostend at Anchor and visit the blue innovation village. Various companies and organisations from the blue economy gladly present a wide range of innovative projects, services and products.

From 8 to 10 April, the WindEurope Annual Event took place in Copenhagen. More than 16,000 participants and 550 exhibitors descended on the Danish capital to discover or present the latest developments in wind energy. Blue Cluster was also present.

In March, a number of Belgian and other international companies participated in a group business trip to Poland in the framework of the ELBE Eurocluster project. During this mission, Blue Cluster gathered a lot of useful insights on the possibilities of offshore wind in Poland.

On 6 March 2025, the first workshop of the SWiM project took place in Brussels. This project investigates how offshore solar panels can be integrated into existing and new wind farms in the Belgian part of the North Sea. The focus of this workshop was on policy integration.

Last week, the Belgian parliamentary committee discussed the North Sea policy paper by the new North Sea Minister Annelies Verlinden. The North Sea remains a crucial link in the Belgian economy, energy supply and biodiversity in the plans of the minister.

Do you have ambitious plans in the field of digitisation, innovation, internationalisation or sustainable and circular entrepreneurship? Could you use some financial support for those plans? Sign up for the new SME growth subsidy call from VLAIO.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership recently launched its first Transnational Access Call to Research Infrastructures. Through this call, your company or public organisation can make use of European research infrastructure for your project.

In the CHyPS project, Ghent University and the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics developed various simulation tools for ship propulsion using the green fuels hydrogen and methanol. Dive into the results of this fascinating project.