Fostering research excellence
in EU Outermost Regions
Fostering research excellence
Saint Martin is an 87-km² binational island located in the northern part of the West Indian arc, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
Since the Treaty of Concordia of 1648, the island is divided between the French part in the north (56 km²) and the Dutch part in the south (31 km²) by an open and symbolic border.
The chief town of the French part is Marigot, located on the west coast of the territory.
FORWARD project manager : Junisa Gumbs
+33 6 72 05 23 75
junisa.gumbs@com-saint-martin.fr
Located about 7000 km from the European continent, Saint-Martin is the nearest French region to the American continent, giving this a geostrategic advantage within its basin.
The island also belongs to a geographical area called “Leward islands” (the Leeward Islands) which includes Anguilla, the nearest neighbor island, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat and the Virgin Islands.
Saint-Martin has a tropical climate with temperatures ranging between 27 ° and 32 °. The dry season usually runs from February to April and the rainy season, which corresponds to the hurricane season, runs from June to November.
In September 2017, St. Martin was severely hit by Hurricane Irma, the most powerful cyclone recorded in the Caribbean.
The latest INSEE figures are from 2014 in which the population was of 35,107 inhabitants in the French side of the island.
The island is a real “melting pot” welcoming more than 101 nationalities in the territory marked by a strong multilingualism (English, French and Spanish mainly).
The tourism sector is the backbone of the local economy. It includes a variety of services related to the hotel, catering, cruise and recreational activities and other types of tourism activities. On the other hand, agriculture, livestock and fisheries make up a smaller share of the economic sector. The latter, however, are intended to be structured in order to draw their full potential. The entrepreneurial fabric is characterized by a predominance of TPE and SME.
The natural and geographical advantages of Saint-Martin, constitute an important lever in favor of the socio-economic development of the island, allowing also the emergence of new niches of activities such as RD&I.
The Forward project will help the public bodies and stockholders have a better understanding of H2020 programs.
