Abstract
In the Adriatic-Ionian (ADRION) area, cultural borders and political rifts caused a lack of cooperation and development as well as a weak application of EU policies. This, combined with small dimensions & infrastructural limits of the ADRION ports, made them lose their historical mission as places of exchanges, and suffer from low modernization rate, inadequate smartness level and unsolved issues related to sustainability and urban regeneration needs. On the other hand, ADRION ports are still complex ecosystems, offering the perfect substrate for becoming again actors of the development in this area. In this framework, the project PoWER: “Ports as Driving Wheels of Entrepreneurial Realm”, funded under the INTERREG V B ADRION Programme 1st call, aims to support the evolution of ports into Innovation Hubs, able to act as new “transmission belts” between ports and regions, and to exploit their untapped entrepreneurial potential. To do so, an action-based foresight methodology is proposed, used to smoothen the transition of a total of six (6) ADRION ports into such ‘Innovation Hubs’. This methodology encompasses five (5) interconnected steps, starting at a highest-level planning and ending in the strategic design of a common transition framework. The tools used to support the ports’ transition into innovation hubs do not differ from the common tools used in any other foresight activity, but are highly adjusted to the maritime sector. To this extent, an investigation to set the benchmark was conducted, whose results will be used to nurture a foresight process especially focused on the creation of reference scenarios for orienting the PoWER transition approach. Such framework does thus not only set the ground for a smoother transition of the ADRION ports, but will also support them to predict, pursue, and prepare for the potential opportunities, as well as threats, that the future holds.
