HEI Blue: Building entrepreneurial mindset and social innovation capacities supporting the Blue Economy in the South-West Indian Ocean higher education institutions

HEI Blue aims to promote entrepreneurial education and strengthen University-Business cooperation for the sustainable development of the South-West Indian Ocean Region through blue entrepreneurship. The wider objective has been broken down into two Specific Objectives (SO):

• To promote blue entrepreneurship in selected South-West Indian Ocean countries by transferring best practice approaches and facilitating innovative learning methodologies in entrepreneurship education.
• To strengthen local innovation ecosystems by creating physical and virtual environments oriented to boost collaboration among Higher Education Institutions, public administration, civil society and business actors working across the Blue Economy.

HEI Blue has been developed on the basis of 4 fundamental pillars to support European knowledge transfer and capacity building to the South West Indian Ocean:

• It has been conceived using State-of-the-art methodologies and techniques
• Addressing key regional priorities for the South West Indian Ocean ensures a significant impact on the partner institutions during the lifetime of the project and at a wider regional scale beyond the project duration
• Ensures a significant impact on the institutions of the South West Indian Ocean
• A high potential to impact the society and/or the economic sector

HEI Blue is strongly oriented to building capacity in and fostering the dialogue about the relevance of delivering a resilient and sustainable Blue Economy in the South West Indian Ocean with the support of innovation and entrepreneurship from the younger generations.

Apart from the academia, represented by the SWIO and EU universities, the consortium brings together the other 3 main components of the quadrupole helix: industry, decision-makers and civil society actors.

The consortium has been carefully set-up including representatives of all relevant actors in the topic both for entrepreneurship and blue-economy, in order to exploit their expertise and maximise the project’s impact. It is composed of 3 EU HEIs, including 1 affiliated entity supporting the coordinator; 7 regional HEIs; 1 Union of Chambers of Commerce, covering all countries; and 1 regional decision maker. 

1. University of Alicante, Spain (Coordinator)
2. Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
3. University of Oldenburg, Germany
4. University of Seychelles, Seychelles
5. Seychelles Maritime Academy, Seychelles
6. University of Mauritius, Mauritius
7. University of Technology Mauritius, Mauritius
8. Université des Comores, Comores
9. University of Toliara, Madagascar
10. Université de Mahajanga, Madagascar
11. Cap Business Océan Indien, Mauritius (Business Partner)
12. Commission de l’Océan Indien, Mauritius (Business Partner)

HEI-Blue, project number 101129026 , is co-financed by the European Commission under the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) through the Program Erasmus + Capacity Building - Higher Education.

01.02.2025 – 31.08.2027

• Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Jorge Marx Gómez
• Insa Cremering

https://www.hei-blue.eu/