ROUND TABLE: Permitting Challenges & Opportunities for Academia and Collaborative Projects, Jan 30, 2026

• January 12, 2026

This round table brings together key stakeholders including local authorities, marine spatial planners, regulators, academic institutions and project teams to discuss R&I permit barriers and explore possible collaborative solutions. The session will be held in English and will also be accessible online via Zoom.

Event & Framework: Permitting Challenges & Opportunities for Academia and Collaborative Projects Webinar Series – PHAROS Project, Session #1 [Hybrid (In-person/Online)]
Date & Time: Friday 30 | 12:00 – 13:00 (60 minutes) UTC+0, Gran Canaria Time
Venue: Plataforma Oceánica de Canarias (PLOCAN)
Event Host: Elba Bueno Cabrera – CLÚSTER MARÍTIMO DE CANARIAS, PHAROS Project

Moderator: María Maeso Domínguez del Río – CLÚSTER MARÍTIMO DE CANARIAS, PHAROS Project

Projects & Project Managers:

• Óscar Aller – UnderWater Gardens, PHAROS
• Javier Roo – ACIISI-AquaWind
• Rafael Herrera-Canaragua – NATALIE
• Noelia Cruz -Canaragua – NATALIE
• Alexandre Rodrigues-Necton – REALM
• Mariana Carneiro-Necton – REALM
• Joao Navalho-Necton – REALM

Context

Permitting and administrative delays are a critical barrier for the implementation of EU-funded projects, particularly those involving pilots, infrastructure, testing facilities, and innovation deployment. Across multiple programmes, projects fail not due to technical limitations, but because of regulatory complexity, unclear procedures, fragmented competences, and long decision-making timelines.

This webinar is part of the PHAROS Project and its webinar series on Permitting Challenges & Opportunities for Academia and Collaborative Projects. The series seeks to strengthen the interaction between projects and public administrations while generating evidence-based policy recommendations. As the first session in the series, this webinar lays the groundwork for a forthcoming policy brief by providing an initial diagnosis based on real project experiences.

Objectives & Goals

The session aims to:

• Build an empirical evidence base on administrative and permitting bottlenecks affecting EU projects
• Identify recurring failure patterns across different project types and sectors
• Analyse high-risk phases in the project lifecycle (pre-award, start-up, execution)
• Capture concrete impacts of delays on project viability, funding, and outcomes
• Distinguish between regulatory, procedural, and organisational barriers
• Translate real cases into clearly defined problem statements for the PHAROS policy brief
• Ensure direct and structured input from project managers, technical leads, and stakeholders

Methodology & Session Format

The session follows a structured, evidence-oriented methodology focused on collecting and validating real project experiences to feed directly into the policy brief:

• Short, structured presentations of real project cases, each outlining the permit involved, responsible authority, delay duration, and project impact
• Analytical framing of common administrative failure patterns and high-risk phases in EU-funded projects
• Moderated discussion to identify recurring issues and distinguish between regulatory, procedural, and organisational barriers
• Collective validation of key bottlenecks and translation of findings into clear problem statements for the policy brief

Speaker Lineup (Updates coming soon)