The European project I3FLOAT was officially launched with a kick-off meeting held in Brussels on 8–9 October 2025. The project unites 24 partners from eight countries to strengthen the European floating offshore wind value chain through cross-regional innovation and investment. Over the next three years, I3FLOAT will support the scale-up of advanced technologies and promote cooperation between regional innovation ecosystems. A key objective is to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Less Developed Regions, supporting a more inclusive industrial transition in line with EU climate and energy goals.
Four pilot projects will be implemented and monitored across participating regions to validate new floating foundation concepts. The pilots, based in the Basque Country and Andalusia in Spain, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in France, and Flanders in Belgium, will serve as the backbone of I3FLOAT’s Innovation Hubs. The participating developers are Saitec Offshore Technologies, Enerocean, Eolink, and Multi.Engineering.
To further extend innovation, four Connecting Nodes will be established in the Canary Islands, Campania, Western Pomerania, and Varna. These will act as platforms for replication and technology adoption, supporting value chain development across Europe.
The project will also operate a cascade funding mechanism through two open calls, providing financial support of up to €60,000 to as many as 50 SMEs, alongside tailored advisory services. In addition, I3FLOAT will develop a Floating Wind Innovation Roadmap, create business support tools, and encourage knowledge transfer between regions to maximise the impact of investment.
The consortium is coordinated by the Basque Energy Cluster and includes seven other associations and clusters – Blue Italian Growth, Canary Islands Maritime Cluster, Claner, De Blauwe Cluster, Marine Cluster Bulgaria, Pole Mer Méditerranée, and Wind Energy Hub. Four floating foundation developers – Enerocean, Eolink, Multi.Engineering, and Saitec Offshore Technologies – are joined by 11 suppliers: 24Sea, Aventa, Core Marine Solutions, Eonsea, France Energies Marines, Geodis, Ghenova Marine Renewables, Haedes Engineering, Ingenieria Zero, Oceanide, and Tetrace. Project support is provided by Zabala.
The I3FLOAT project is funded under the Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) – Strand 1 programme and co-financed by the European Union through EISMEA.
