£1.06m awarded to a consortium led by Marine South East to create a an interface between ships, remote control centres, port operating systems and national energy infrastructure.
A consortium of nine organisations led by MSE International, has been awarded £1.06 as part of the Smart Maritime Land Operations Call.
The call was launched in November 2020 as part of a Maritime Research and Innovation UK (MarRI-UK) initiative supported by the Department for Transport (DfT), aiming to fund a single project or multiple linked projects that would enable the automation of operations in the land/water interface, supporting both infrastructure and operations.
The consortium of four SMEs, two large companies and three research technology organisations is looking at ship-shore integration from an energy and autonomy perspective, bringing together elements of infrastructure, with data, automation and supporting communications. By establishing an interface between ships, remote control centres, port operating systems and national energy infrastructure, the SPINE project can holistically address the entire maritime value chain, key themes of Maritime 2050, the Technology and Innovation in UK Maritime Routemap, Clean Maritime Plan and UK Ports of the Future.
John Howie MBE, Chair of MarRI-UK, said:
“This award is a great example of the importance of collaboration – a core tenet of MarRI-UK – exemplified here by government and industry working together to solve a common challenge, but also by the nine organisations that have worked together to develop this compelling proposal.
Clean autonomous transport will play a key role in the future of shipping, and the land/water interface will be core to its successful operation, so I will be following this programme closely and look forward to seeing it develop.”