Cooperation and Development Institute in partnership with Durres Municipality – both partners of PoWER project – hosted the Second Transnational Meeting of the project “Ports as Driving Wheels of Entrepreneurial Realm” (PoWER) on June 20 -21. The meeting took place at the Municipality of Durres and was opened with the welcoming speeches of Mr. Florian Tahiri – Deputy Mayor of Durres, Mrs. Sonila Toska – Vice Executive Director of the Durres Port Authority and Mr. Marco Padula – Representative of the Lead Partner of PoWER, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) of Italy.

Since PoWER aims to support the evolution of ports into Innovation Hubs, which are able to act as new transmission belts between regions, and to exploit their entrepreneurial potential, the first day the partners discussed the state of art of the project operations and their advancement. During the second day, the partners presented the results of the data gathering process on energy consumption and energy efficiency on the Pilot Ports, where Durres Port is one of them. Then the participants advanced with the methodology preparation of the Entrepreneurial Gaming of PoWER which will aim to foster collaboration among the key-actors of the Innovation Supply Chain (ISC) like schools, universities, research bodies, targeted young groups or organizations, enterprises and public administrations.

Because PoWER focuses on ports as drivers for boosting integration, innovation and growth of the local hidden potential, CDI is invested in mapping the energy efficiency needs of Durres Port and reach the youth, students, research organizations etc., to get involved in further exploring the port coexistence models with the citizens and by also encouraging them to offer creative solutions proposals to those needs.

The project is leaded by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and its partnered by C.N.A. National Confederation of Handcrafts and of SMEs – Association of Province of Ravenna, Rijeka Development agency Porin Ltd., Centre for Economic, Technological and Environmental Development Sarajevo, European Affairs Fund – AP Vojvodina, Cooperation and Development Institute (CDI), Municipality of Durrës, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Chamber of Thesprotia. The project is supported by ADRION Programme.

January 14, 2019

PoWER Project enters into a new phase of interaction with Enterprises, SMEs, professionals and researchers across the Adriatic-Ionian area. PoWER stands for ‘Ports as driving Wheels of Entrepreneurial Realm’ and is an EU – funded project aiming at supporting the evolution of ports into Innovation Hubs in 6 piloting ports. The Port of Durres has been selected as the pilot port for this project in Albania. The main objective of PoWER project is to supports the selected ports to serve in connecting the regions and explore their untapped entrepreneurial potential. During the first phase of activities, experts have collected data, produced analysis on the energy efficiency and established a list of Needs for the pilot ports. A specific one has been developed for the Port of Durres as well.

The call for solutions is launched today at project level in all the countries covered by the project and aims at detecting new solutions and patents (products, services, business models and technologies) addressing the energy-oriented needs mapped previously in the Port of Durres.

Deadline for applications is March 4, 2019. For further information on the Call for Solutions, please consult the Project’s page.

28 February 2019

After the mapping of energy-oriented needs of Durres Port, innovative proposals were presented today by researchers and businesses individuating  solutions addressing those needs.
Selected winners from Albania and Power- Ports as driving Wheels of Entrepreneurial Realm project countries will participate to matchmaking events where they can network and find visibility at EU level and concrete business opportunities.

11 March 2019

In cooperation with Junior Achievement of Albania, CDI organized today a gaming session within Power – Ports as driving Wheels of Entrepreneurial Realm project with 22 high school students.

They will work to ideate and prepare community development ideas applicable to the Port of Durres, aiming to turn it into a dynamic and vibrant community hub.

The gaming approach consists in a simulation, where students, under the experts guidance, assume the role of entrepreneurs.

2 May 2019

Tirana Business University welcomed last week Power – Ports as driving Wheels of Entrepreneurial Realm project team from CDI for organizing a Gaming Session with their students.

During this session, the CDI’s expert moderated an open discussion on developing energy efficiency ideas and business plans for addressing the already mapped energy efficiency needs for Durres Port .

TBU students will gather together with representatives from High Schools in Albania, and with the students from the University of Tirana – Faculty of Economy to further cooperate with each other in sharing and improving their ideas.

13 May 2019

A day full of curiosity in the Port of Durres with students of professional masters in Tirana!

As part of the Power-Ports as Driving Wheels of Entrepreneurial Realm project, the CDI team organized a study visit to the Port of Durres, where, together with the staff of the Port Authority of Durres, students were introduced to the operating structure, departments and spatial organization of one of the highlights active maritime transport in Albania.

Student work will continue in working groups and they will be trained in developing business plans and promoting innovative ideas on energy efficiency and the development of the Port of Durres.

20 May 2019

In the framework of Power- Ports as driving Wheels of Entrepreneurial Realm project, CDI organized Saturday the last gaming session with selected students. They presented their ideas, for which they developed business plans. Students were mentored during this exercise by the project team.

On July 11 – 12, 2019, the Cooperation and Development Institute’s staff, experts and winners of the Call for Solution participated in the Transnational Event in Rijeka. This event gathered PoWER Project’s partners, port authorities, investors, representatives from academia and from the governments.

The first day was dedicated to the selection of the winning ideas from the Gaming Session campaign. Three Albanian entries were qualified as winning ideas and will be promoted to the PoWER database which will be available online in October 2019. Later on this day, a matchmaking event took place aiming to promote the selected proposals for the solution of Ports needs. Investors and port authorities representatives expressed the need to implement these initiatives as they value them as really necessary in order to turn ports into innovative hubs.

The second day of the Rijeka Event, was dedicated to the partners meeting, where each partner presented the state of advance of pilot activities, and after that focus was on open discussion, foresight activities and specific topics to be addressed, as well as issues related to project management.