Blue Deal project partners in Cyprus, GeoImaging and Cyprus Energy Agency, together with the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute, organised an open event in the framework of European Maritime Day 2022.

The “European Maritime Day in Cyprus”, an event launched this year in Larnaka between the 9^th and 13^th of June 2022, celebrates the Sea and is supported by the European Commission. The goal of the “European Maritime Day” is to reconnect youth and people of all ages with the oceans through several interactive, entertaining educational, environmental and artistic activities. The aim is to organise a series of activities related to the sea and raise awareness on the importance of protecting the sea and the marine environment, as well as promoting ocean literacy. Full programme is available here.

Within the “European Maritime Day in Cyprus 2022”, the Blue Deal project joint event titled “A virtual reality (VR) Journey into Blue Energy Technology & Professions” was hosted at the Larnaka Marina area on Friday 10^th at 18:00 and hosted 3 main activities at the booth: a poster and cards on the different Blue Energy technologies for raising awareness; a large foam board with a map of pilot sites in Cyprus suitable for Blue Energy installations; and the VR tool for visualisation of Blue Energy technologies.

During the event, representatives of both partners, promoted results of the project to the citizens of Larnaka focusing on results from the Transferring Lab and discussed with them benefits and concerns regarding the installation of blue energy technologies in their area. Finally, the audience had the opportunity to visualise in VR an offshore floating wind farm installed in the pilot site identified as part of the Lab, using the VR tools developed within the project and especially the Cardboard setup version.

The evening event was attended by representatives of the Cyprus Marine Environment Protection Association, the Youth makerspace Larnaka, the Municipality of Larnaka, the Youth Board of Cyprus, the Larnaka Tourism Board, the Maritime Institute of Eastern Mediterranean and the Pedagogical Institute of Cyprus, as well as the general public strolling down the Larnaka marina.