Strategis – Maritime Center of Excellence is a Private non-for-profit organization incorporated under the laws of Greece, on Feb 1, 2016. The Strategis-Maritime Center of Excellence established the Strategis – Maritime ICT Cluster in December 2016 and serves as its Support Organization.

With the Vision to become a world-class maritime cluster & technology flagship of the Greek Shipping industry in the Shipping 4.0 era, Strategis offers 21st century maritime services and synergies for growth enabling Smart Sea – sustainable business opportunities. The Mission of Strategis is to create effective business ecosystems in Digital Shipping and the Blue Economy; expand the competitive advantage of Greek Shipping; and contribute to the sustainable development of the Marine & Maritime sector in South-eastern Europe (SEE) and the Mediterranean. Strategis also supports mechanisms facilitating cooperation between local research, SMEs, the public sector, and social organizations to stimulate innovation & entrepreneurship, leading the way to 4-helix clustering.

Strategis Maritime ICT Cluster, located in Piraeus with a worldwide perspective, comprises a network of 35 organizations and companies from the Greek Shipping Industry that focuses on Digital Shipping, Smart Port, and the wider Blue-Growth technologies.

A strategic goal of the cluster is to raise the creative human capital of the region, contributing to the creation of a knowledge hub for the blue economy. In this context Strategis delivers a program for the training of “Marina Manager of integrated services for nautical and coastal tourism” and participates in skill development organizations. Strategis participated in the European Defence Skills Partnership EDSP project on "Defence-related skills: Building evidence on skills shortages, gaps and mismatches and defining the sector's strategy on skills", led by RAND Europe [Sep. 2018 – Jun. 2019]. Strategis has also signed an MoU with the BEP – Piraeus Chamber of Small & Medium Sized Industries to support its Innovation Centre and collaborate in the up-skilling and the digital transformation of the regional industries. Among its 16,000 members, BEP includes most of the members of the Piraeus shipbuilding & repair zone, more than 350 companies.

STRATEGIS conducts R&D in Blue Growth technologies in collaboration with the cluster members as well as a global network of research partners affiliated with academic institutions, research centres and corporate R&D Labs. Research interests lie in the broader area of emerging technologies in support of the 4th Industrial Revolution, Shipping 4.0, and the Blue Economy. An area of special interest is that of “Autonomous Systems, Robotics & Drones (UxVs)” and their applications in Marine & Maritime industry, e.g., Maritime Surveillance, Search & Rescue operations, Shore-to-Ship Deliveries, Infrastructure monitoring, underwater exploration, etc. Strategis participates in the EU co-funded projects: ERASMUS+, MaQuaM “International Qualification on Marine and Tourism for the Mediterranean Harbours” and MarMED “MARitime cluster Management Education Development”; the Joint Cluster Initiatives Euroclusters, MedBAN “Mediterranean Blue Accelerator Network” and IKAT Tourism; and the EMFAF-PJG CALLMEBLUE “Cluster ALLiance MEd BLUE.”

As part of its internationalization strategy, Strategis participates in transnational business networks, currently being a member of the advisory board of: PROTeus [Cluster network in Maritime Surveillance], PELAGOS [Med Cluster in Blue Energy], and Blue RoSES project: Blue Robotics for Sustainable Eco-friendly Services for Innovative marinas and leisure boats”; an Associate Partner of the Erasmus Mundus MIR – EMJMP Program in  Maritime Intelligent Robotics; regular participant in B2B & Cluster-to-Cluster meetings organized by EEN / Enterprise Europe Network & the TCI Global Cluster Network;  collaborates with clusters in MENA, e.g., the Etisal Assiut Association for information technology, Egypt; and has signed MoU’s for collaboration with the BIONIAN Health Sciences cluster (Blue Biotechnology), Maritime Technology Cluster FVG, Blue Italian Growth National Technological Cluster ( CTN BIG Cluster), Cluster Maritime Tunisien (CMT), the MedBAN Cluster Alliance, the WestMed Cluster Alliance, a transnational cluster network including STRATEGIS which built upon the initial network of Blue Economy clusters of the WestMED Initiative, and the ENMC, European Network of Maritime Clusters.   

Strategis is registered on the ECCP platform and is listed in the “European Cluster Collaboration Platform: Cluster Panorama 2021" Dec. 2021.