The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) announced geospatial intelligence technology provider Geollect as the winner of the second ADMIRALTY Marine Innovation Program challenge.
Launched last year in collaboration with RE_SET, the program aims to help start-ups and innovators develop new solutions that support safe, secure and thriving oceans. The program’s second innovation challenge focused on ‘Transforming Maritime Risk & Insurance’, with entrants tasked with identifying, trialing and proving how marine geospatial data can be used to enhance maritime insurance products.
For this challenge, Geollect demonstrated how marine data sets such as bathymetry, maritime limits and AIS heatmaps, could enrich a number of dashboards that assist with sanction compliance, underwriting, loss prevention and investigation functions.
By unlocking access to this data, these solutions will help experts across maritime insurance to increase awareness of hazards, understand the context for vessel behavior and build a richer picture of the wider maritime environment.
As the challenge winner, Geollect will collaborate with the UKHO, utilizing marine geospatial data and expertise to develop an alpha product for the maritime insurance sector.
Geollect COO Richard Gwilliam said, "As pioneers of new automated data driven solutions, we are really proud to have been selected to participate in this program. We’ve successfully incorporated UKHO data for insurance clients and recognize its potential to add real value across the blue economy.
"As well as accessing impactful data, we are really looking forward to working alongside experienced specialists from the UKHO. Between us we can develop effective solutions to address challenges in a number of areas of maritime risk. Adding the powerful UKHO brand will turbocharge our product offering and we can really help bring their data to life."
Mark Casey, Head of Research, Design and Innovation at the UKHO, said, "We’re delighted to announce Geollect as the winner of our Maritime Insurance Challenge and are extremely excited to work with them over the coming months.
"Ultimately, insurance providers need access to the widest range of accurate data that can help them quantify the risks ships face. By integrating a wider range of geospatial information into their products, Geollect can help the sector develop a greater understanding of the maritime environment."
