Completed projects

Orientations for the development of an Atlantic Macro-Region (2024-2025)

The study contributed 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.

EU programme: European Territorial Observatory Network (ESPON)

Consortium: CPMR – Arc Atlantic Commission, Government of the Basque Country, CES Extremadura, RTA-ATN, Atlantic Cities

Results: https://www.espon.eu/publications/atlantic-mrs-territorial-analysis

Promoting Gender Equality in the Blue Economy (2023-2025)

Atlantic Cities was a partner of WINBLUE, alongside its members, Gijón City Council (Spain) and the La Rochelle agglomeration (France), which are also associated in this co-financed project by the EU through the EMFAF programme.

Its full name 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 launched 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.

ACA’s role in the project was to contribute to the identification of good practices using the expertise of its members and its network, and also to capitalise and publicise the results of the project. Atlantic Cities also supported Gijón and La Rochelle in the co-creation of WINBLUE laboratories and the implementation of training activities in their cities.

Gender equality is a priority for Atlantic Cities, which previously carried out the She4Sea project to promote professional female careers in the blue economy.

This project took place from May 2023 to July 2025 with a total budget of 1,249,891.19 euros.

More information: https://winblue-project.eu/

Atlantic Youth Creative Hubs Project (AYCH) 2017-2021

The general objective of AYCH is to invest in the creative and digital skills of young entrepreneurs. AYCH targeted young people seeking a professional career or self-employment in the creative sector, whether they had left compulsory education early or were young people with higher education qualifications. The project has helped them develop their creative ideas and made a contribution to their personal growth. It has boosted entrepreneurial spirit and creativity, and also employment, by connecting employers and talent through a network of international centres.

• Total project budget: 4,227,620.00 €
• ERDF co-financing: 3,170,715.00 € 
• For further information on the project: https://www.aych.eu/ 

The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) on the Interreg Atlantic Area programme.