The Research and Innovation Strategies (RIS3) of the Region of Crete focuses on support and investment in:

• Tourism-Culture
• Agri-food
• Environment-Energy and
• Know-how.

The indicative priorities in the field of Tourism are the following:

• Use ICT to enhance customer focused services, improvement of interactivity, lower cost of services;
• Support start-ups in the field of tourism and cultural - creative activities;
• Develop mobile telephone applications and internet for navigation and interactive communication;
• Boost innovation to develop open data applications to provide added value services in tourist destinations;
• Enhance digital services and cultural heritage promotion applications, navigation systems, itinerary management in tourist destinations;
• Make demonstration plans for the promotion of new, innovative business initiatives that boost alternative forms of tourism.

In the field of Agri-food the indicative priorities are:

• development of food technology
• smart greenhouses
• Food safety - quality control & safety
• active & intelligent packaging
• supply chain smart systems etc.

In Environment-Energy, entrepreneurship is enhanced in the following ways:

• Production of new or improved building materials and construction systems for buildings, urban regeneration and infrastructure works;
• Adaptation to climate change, energy saving technologies and renewable energy technologies in existing and new buildings;
• Improvement of performance (energy reduction in heating, cooling, lightning, water supply, irrigation, wastewater and solid waste treatment etc.);
• New improved materials for renewable energy systems;
• Development and application of renewable energy/ energy saving technologies, adjusted to the needs of productive sectors in Crete;
• Business initiatives for the development of new technologies for smarter water management;
• Development of urban or/and industrial wastewater treatment innovative systems and pilot applications for membrane or filter filtration;
• Recycling and reuse of wastes (phosphorus – nitrogen – other by-products).

For more information you can visit the site of the Smart Specialisation Strategy of the Region of Crete.