OCEAN CLEANER TECNOLOGY SL

Their core work

Ocean Cleaner Technology is a Spanish SME that designs and commercializes specialized vessels for removing pollution and debris from marine and river environments. Their core product is an innovative cleaning vessel capable of operating in both open sea and inland waterways — a dual-environment capability that distinguishes them from most marine cleanup equipment providers. They followed the full EU SME Instrument path, starting with a feasibility study (Phase 1) and advancing to a full commercial development project (Phase 2), which suggests a structured, market-ready innovation rather than early-stage research. Based in El Puerto de Santa María, a coastal city in southern Spain, they are directly embedded in a maritime environment relevant to their technology.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

OC-TECH's H2020 trajectory is a textbook SME Instrument story: a 2016 Phase 1 project validated the concept of their cleanup vessel, and a 2018–2019 Phase 2 project funded full development and commercialization. There is no visible pivot in focus — the organization stayed tightly on one product concept across both projects. Given that their H2020 activity ended in 2019 and no keywords are available, it is not possible to determine whether they diversified or evolved their offering after the funded period.

OC-TECH appears to have used EU funding to take a single product from concept to market — their trajectory points toward a commercialization-focused company rather than a repeat R&D participant, making them more interesting as a technology supplier than a research consortium partner.

How they like to work

OC-TECH operated as coordinator on their Phase 1 project and as a participant in Phase 2, which is typical for SME Instrument projects where the company drives the innovation but may bring in external validators or subcontractors. With only one unique consortium partner across both projects, they work in very small, tight configurations rather than large multi-partner consortia. This suggests a company that runs its own innovation agenda and brings in partners selectively rather than building broad networks.

OC-TECH has collaborated with just one unique partner across both projects, all within a single country, indicating an extremely narrow network to date. Their collaboration footprint is essentially local or national — they have not yet built a European consortium profile.

What sets them apart

OC-TECH occupies a specific niche that very few H2020 SMEs addressed: purpose-built cleanup vessels that work in both marine and river environments, not just one. Their location in El Puerto de Santa María — a working port city on Spain's Atlantic coast — gives them direct access to maritime operators, port authorities, and river basin managers as potential clients. For a consortium looking for a hardware-owning technology provider in the water pollution response space, OC-TECH offers a commercially developed, EU-validated product rather than a prototype from a lab.

Highlights from their portfolio

• OC-TECH
  The Phase 2 SME Instrument project (2018–2019) awarded €819,192 — one of the larger SME-2 grants — confirming external evaluators judged this cleanup vessel concept as commercially viable and technically sound.
• OC-Tech
  The 2016 Phase 1 project, led by OC-TECH as coordinator, marks the starting point of a structured EU-funded innovation journey that successfully advanced to full-scale development funding.