Ongoing projects
WINBLUE
The Atlantic Cities association is a partner of the European project WINBLUE, alongside its members, Gijón City Council (Spain) and the La Rochelle agglomeration (France), which are in turn partners associated with this project co-financed by the European Union through the EMFAF programme.
The full name of the project is “Empowering Women and Mainstreaming Gender Equality in the Blue Economy”. WINBLUE aims to accelerate women’s empowerment in the blue economy by facilitating their participation in five sectors: the circular economy of the blue bioeconomy and biotechnology, aquaculture and fisheries, renewable offshore energy, sustainable coastal tourism, and cutting-edge technologies to protect and restore marine ecosystems.
The project will launch five WINBLUE labs to involve stakeholders in the co-design and implementation of gender equality plan templates, to design and validate training and coaching programmes for women, to set up a data collection and monitoring strategy in order to assess and monitor the evolution of gender inclusion in the blue economy, and to identify and evaluate replicable best practices.
The Atlantic Cities’ role in the project is to contribute to the identification of good practices using the expertise of its members and its network of associates, and also to capitalise and publicise the results of the project. Atlantic Cities also supports its members Gijón and La Rochelle in the co-creation of WINBLUE laboratories and the implementation of training activities.
Gender equality is a priority for the Atlantic Cities association, which has implemented an internal She4Sea project to promote professional female careers in the blue economy.
This project will be implemented from May 2023 to May 2025 with a total budget of 1,249,891.19 euros.
We will publish regular updates in connection with this project, and you have further information available on the official web page or the project’s social networks: Linkedin, Twitter or Instagram.
POST – Polycentric tourism
Atlantic Cities is a partner on the European project POST (Polycentric Sustainable Tourism), co-funded by the European Union through the Interreg Atlantic Area cooperation programme.
This project will be implemented between 2023 and 2026 with a total budget of 1,160,973.33 euros.
The POST project seeks to identify and implement a strategy for a sustainable tourism sector in the Atlantic Area, with a dual objective: to promote tourism in the hinterland of the Atlantic area and to help alleviate the pressure of tourism in the most affected areas.
As part of the construction of a common methodology of POST, international learning activities are organised. Four study visits take place to allow partners to know and experience each tourism reality; see, in situ, the best practices and challenges of the area. These field trips take place in each pilot area: Northern Portugal, Ourense in Spain, Ouest Charente et Cognac in France and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown in Ireland.
The project is also carried out at the local level, where a Local Support Group made up of key stakeholders meets regularly to assess the progress of the project.
In February 2025, Atlantic Cities organised a webinaire to showcase good practices on sustainable and polycentric tourism (agenda and good practices).
ACA will also assist the PETR Cognac Ouest – Charente with the organisation of a hackathon on tourism, that will take place on 9 October 2025 in Cognac.
Find all the information about the project here: https://www.petrouestcharentecognac.fr/polycentrique
ESPON Targeted Analysis
Orientations for the development
of an Atlantic Macro-Region
The study will contribute to building a common development vision for the Atlantic Area, which should strengthen the territorial cooperation among regions. It shall contribute to reducing obstacles to a common sustainable territorial development and to strengthening actions aiming at coping with common territorial challenges and thereby supporting actions to further defining the contours of an Atlantic Macro-Region.
Description: analysis of challenges and opportunities within the Atlantic area to provide policy recommendations. To generate new evidence on: (i) An Innovative and Sustainable Atlantic Economy, (ii) An inter-connected Atlantic Area, (iii) An Atlantic Area resilient to climate change and (iv) Social and Cultural Cohesion of the Atlantic Area.
Duration: 2024 – 2025
EU programme: European Territorial Observatory Network (ESPON)
Consortium: CPMR – Arc Atlantic Commission, Government of the Basque Country, CES Extremadura, RTA-ATN, Atlantic Cities
