Endorsement Letter: BCThubs (Blue Culture Technology Hubs)
This letter of Endorsement is in relation to the BCThubs Excellence hub in Bulgaria.
This Horizon 2020 (2021-2027) project aims to establish hubs in Malta, Greece, and Bulgaria as well as other future participating countries to provide cutting-edge scientific and innovative solutions and products in areas of sustainable Blue Economy and Culture. The BCThubs EU funded project has a duration of 4 years and is led by a consortium involving 15 partners which have joined forces to provide and support new solutions and products for the sustainable protection, restoration, valorisation, management, and promotion of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UWCH). Partners in the Bulgarian Hub include the CUA, IICT-BAS, BHF, Aqua Prom.
These regionally developed ecosystems will continue to bring together actors related to Blue Culture and Underwater Cultural Heritage (UWCH) including those in research/academia, business, the public sector as well as societal actors using a 4-helix approach.
The objectives and values of this project enable the development and provision of innovative Blue Culture Technology solutions to:

  • Raise Innovation excellence in the Blue Economy sector of Widening countries and participating regions
  • Support Work on Underwater Research and Underwater Health and Safety
  • Safeguard Underwater Cultural Heritage

The established Hubs will:

  • Increase promotion and public accessibility of UWCH through VR and AR (remote sensing technologies)
  • Contribute towards safeguarding and protecting UWCH assets
  • Increase health and safety of divers through physiological monitoring
  • Provide cost-effective and time-efficient solutions for UWCH research services, monitoring, preservation, and data collection
  • Create innovative and advanced technological solutions for underwater documentation and remote sensing capabilities

By signing this letter, we firmly endorse the goal of the BCThubs project to establish the proposed Excellence Hubs which will be connected across the EU, mutually reinforcing their capacities and effectiveness. We also recognised the importance of the 4-helix approach and would like to contribute as research/academia partners, business partners, public sector partners, societal partners. (Choose relevant to your work and organisation profile). In recognizing the benefits of the establishment of the Hubs, our organization will fully support the BCT Hubs project by endorsing:

  • Its interest in participating in the dissemination of Blue Culture Technology practices in Bulgaria and beyond
  • Its interest to be part of future synergies with peers in research/academia, public, private, and societal working in the Blue Culture Technologies domain
  • Its intent to take into consideration and acknowledging the results of the BCThubs project for policy development, strategic planning, and recommendations relevant to Underwater Cultural Heritage and Blue Technology
  • Its support of relevant policy change that could sustain the Hubs beyond the completion of the project and facilitate business investment opportunities in the Blue Economy sector and Blue Culture Technology.

BCT Hubs_Endorsement Letter_Bulgaria