{"id":2072,"date":"2025-04-24T11:42:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T11:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2025-08-08T09:11:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T09:11:55","slug":"kick-off-of-the-marlen-project-strengthening-european-maritime-and-inland-waterway-research-for-a-zero-emission-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/24\/kick-off-of-the-marlen-project-strengthening-european-maritime-and-inland-waterway-research-for-a-zero-emission-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Kick-off of the MarLEN Project &#8211; Strengthening European Maritime and Inland Waterway Research for a Zero-Emission Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>31 March 2025<\/em> &#8211; <\/strong>The maritime and inland waterway sector is at a turning point in the transition towards zero-emission waterborne transport. To accelerate this transformation, the <strong>MarLEN (Maritime Low Emission Network)<\/strong> project has been officially launched under the Horizon Europe programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coordinated by <strong>Forschungszentrum J\u00fclich<\/strong>, this ambitious 54-month Horizon Coordination and Support Action (CSA) brings together <strong>14 ministries, research and funding organisations <\/strong>from <strong>10 European countries<\/strong>, collectively accounting for a significant share of global shipbuilding output and fleet tonnage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MarLEN\u2019s primary objective is to <strong>strengthen the European Research Area (ERA) in waterborne research<\/strong> by coordinating and developing synergies between national and regional maritime and inland waterway research programmes and policies, in line with the objectives of the <strong>Zero-Emission Waterborne Transport (ZEWT) partnership<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through enhanced transnational cooperation across Europe, the project will:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Launch and<\/strong> <strong>coordinate funding initiatives<\/strong>, maximising the impact of maritime and inland waterway research investments;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Facilitate knowledge and information exchange<\/strong> among national programme coordinators and managers, existing networks, and research stakeholders;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Address climate and environmental challenges <\/strong>in the waterborne sector, supporting the transition to zero-emission technologies;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Create a self-sustaining European network <\/strong>of maritime ministries and funding bodies,<strong> integrating new organisations and expanding its network beyond the official consortium<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<em>Working towards zero-emission waterborne transport and green shipping requires collective effort and strong coordination between European countries. MarLEN will be a driving force in aligning research efforts, unlocking funding opportunities, and creating a truly integrated European approach to sustainable maritime technologies,<\/em>\u201d said <strong>J\u00f6ran Ritzke<\/strong>, Project Coordinator at Forschungszentrum J\u00fclich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By consolidating and expanding existing collaboration frameworks, MarLEN will contribute to the <strong>ZEWT partnership\u2019s mission<\/strong> of developing and demonstrating zero-emission solutions for all main ship types and services before 2030. The initiative will also reinforce<strong> synergies between ZEWT actions under Horizon Europe and other EU programmes<\/strong>, such as the Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), Innovation Fund (IF), LIFE Programme, and other national programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the waterborne industry faces increasing pressure to decarbonise, <strong>MarLEN will play a crucial role in shaping a cleaner, innovation-driven, and competitive future for European waterborne transport.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For further information, please contact: <a href=\"mailto:ptj-marlen@fz-juelich.de?subject=CSA%20MarLEN\">ptj-marlen@fz-juelich.de<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"296\" height=\"66\" src=\"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2073\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>31 March 2025 &#8211; The maritime and inland waterway sector is at a turning point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074,"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/2074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marri-uk.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}