The ports in the North Sea Area play a vital role in the economical situation. POYO is focussing on maintenance processes, i.e. preventing problems instead of solving them, in order to increase the efficiency in the production process of the ports in the North Sea Region and thereby to enlarge competitiveness and innovation opportunities. POYO is strengthening and empowering networks to create an international cluster in the North Sea Area, thereby laying the basis for knowledge transfer on innovative maintenance techniques and the development of an EU standard towards certification of all maintenance techniques. As a main result, 4 physical Centres of Excellence will bring together industry/SME and vocational education to bundle knowledge and experience on maintenance issues. Achievements: • 5 state of the art-inventories on maintenance techniques• 5 inventories on innovative maintenance techniques• 4 physical Centers of Excellence (Belgium-Bruges, UK-Newcastle, UK-Gateshead, The Netherlands-Rotterdam) + 1 virtual Center of Excellence (Germany-Hamburg)• Train the trainers activities on 10 different maintenance subjects• Road shows in all 4 POYO countries with participations of more than 500 companies of the maintenance sector• Handbook about EU certification on maintenance courses• 5 digital courses on maintenance