A new EU-funded Erasmus+ cooperation partnership—ATALANTA (Support Equality and Advancing Inclusion in Marine and Maritime sector)—has officially started, aiming to empower women across the blue economy through inclusive training, immersive VR/AR simulations, and structured mentorship. The project runs 36 months (1 September 2025 – 31 August 2028) with a €400,000 lump-sum budget under Erasmus+ Programme.
Coordinated by the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), ATALANTA brings together four partners from three countries—CMMI (CY), SEABILITY INNOVATIONS P.C. (EL), INNOPIXEL APS (DK) and VENLYS & SIA EE (EL) and one affiliated entity, WISTA (CY)—to co-create an accessible curriculum, develop three real-world VR/AR training scenarios, and roll out the “Woman Rise Package” for mentorship and networking.
ATALANTA addresses persistent barriers that women face in maritime education and careers—from training and employment to retention and leadership—by combining experiential, technology-enhanced learning with targeted capacity building. The project’s five work packages span management, inclusive curriculum & tool development, capacity building, “Woman Rise” implementation, and dissemination/sustainability, ensuring a clear pathway from design to real-world use and impact.
Practical pilots will pre-test and validate the curriculum and tools, integrate mentorship, and stage a collaborative learning workshop that mirrors real maritime operations—evaluated through qualitative and quantitative indicators to drive continuous improvement and scale-up.
In the ATALANTA proposal, SEABILITY INNOVATIONS P.C. primarily leads the project’s dissemination, communication, and sustainability work (WP5)—setting up and managing the project’s visibility (branding, website and social media presence), producing dissemination materials and templates, building and maintaining a stakeholder database for targeted outreach, supporting broader awareness-raising and engagement (including with coastal communities and stakeholders), and organizing the final dissemination event to showcase results (including the VR/AR outputs) while also driving the sustainability plan so outcomes remain in use beyond the project. In addition, SEABILITY contributes to capacity-building actions (WP3) and is named as the leading organisation for a hybrid “Women in Maritime Roundtable” in Greece.
The consortium marked the start of this collaboration at the project kick-off meeting held on 29–30 September 2025 in Larnaka, Cyprus, kindly hosted by CMMI.
On behalf of SEAB INNO, her project manager & WP5 leader, Ms. Elena Krikigianni, delivered an introductory presentation, covering the activities for the first six months.
Read the full press release here.
