A consortium of British companies, academia and government formally established a new national center for maritime innovation and technology (MarRI-UK). The center, offering development opportunities for the UK’s $45B maritime sector, is based at the University of Strathclyde, with hubs to be announced across the UK. The center will provide a collaborative innovation vehicle to jointly tackle innovation and technology challenges.
The first area of collaborative focus is Clean Maritime.
MarRI-UK will focus on research and innovation within mid TRL (3 – 7) levels to address the opportunities between “discovery and research” and “commercialization” of maritime technologies and systems. It will develop a structured, coherent, and comprehensive approach leading to national and regional development and economic growth.
A maritime sector strengthened by MarRI-UK will help the co-ordination of research across the maritime sector by giving an understanding of commercial opportunities aligned to a shared roadmap. This will underpin government initiatives and investment and support the wider prosperity agenda linked to innovation.
Eight maritime companies (Babcock, BAE Systems, BMT Group, Cammell Laird, Lloyd’s Register, QinetiQ, Rolls-Royce and Shell),supported by the Society of Maritime Industries, and four universities (Newcastle, Southampton, Strathclyde and UCL) have been working to develop MarRI-UK since 2013. Led by Patrick Carnie of Babcock Marine and Technology and Professor Alex Duffy of the University of Strathclyde, the consortium have worked collaboratively with Maritime UK to attain support and secure funding from the UK Government through different streams.