On Tuesday, 16 June 2026, the BCThubs project was represented at the International Conference “Changing Cities VII”, held in Spetses, Greece, through the presentation “Underwater Cultural Heritage to drive Smart Specialisation Strategies: Lessons learnt from Bulgaria, Greece & Malta”.
The presentation was delivered by Nektaria Marava and Stella Kyvelou, on behalf of the Hellenic Institute of Marine Archaeology (HIMA), partner of the BCThubs project. It was part of the special session “Policies for European Islands”, organised and chaired by Prof. Stella Kyvelou & Prof. Emeritus Nikitas Chiotinis. The work was co-authored by N.Marava, S.Kyvelou, M.Michalis, D-J. Camilleri, F. Figurella, I. Georgiev, M. Raykovska, N. Prahov, C. Kamma and Z. Grekova.
The presentation explored how Underwater Cultural Heritage can be understood also as a potential driver for regional innovation, blue economy development and smart specialisation strategies.
Drawing on lessons from Bulgaria, Greece and Malta, the speakers highlighted that Underwater Cultural Heritage already creates value across tourism, digital technologies, marine research and the blue economy. However, it is still often not explicitly recognised within RIS3/S4 frameworks as an innovation pathway.
Through this contribution, BCThubs underlined the importance of making Underwater Cultural Heritage more visible in policy, funding and implementation frameworks, supporting its transition to a cross-sectoral innovation opportunity for coastal and island regions.
Find the Programme here
