British Ports Association 2023 – The View from MarRI-UK
Last week MarRI-UK attended the British Ports Association Conference 2023 in London over two days of the 18th and 19th of October. It was a great experience to speak to so many people from across the sector passionate about ports and the role they can provide in boosting innovation. Some of the highlights from the conference included the buzz around short sea shipping, the increasing importance placed on boosting Green Corridors and the announcement that the UK Government is going to produce a national policy for ports.
BPA 2023 was a great opportunity to speak to friends old and new from across British (and global) maritime, and to get the chance to share about the work MarRI-UK has undertaken to boost UK Innovation. We hope that the conversation around short sea shipping continues to build steam as through our Flagship projects and Research Roadmaps we have regularly called for innovation in this area as we believe that it could be an important way of moving haulage off Britain’s roads and onto green coastal shipping. Ultimately, it was great to see that British Ports are ready and willing to tackle innovation head on, and we look forward to attending BPA 2024 in Portsmouth next year!
MarRI-UK Programme Manger Wenjuan Wang on her conference experience – “It was a really great chance to meet so many of the people MarRI-UK has worked with over the last number of years. It’s clear from listening to the different panel discussions that there are many challenges faced by ports whether it be decarbonisation, sustainability, automation or data analysis. However despite these challenges, I feel excited because I believe that MarRI-UK, together with our members in industry and academia, will be able to support the British Ports sector to meet those challenges head on through innovation and collaboration.”