Innovation boost for UK maritime sector

UK businesses developing innovative ways of reducing emissions in naval, leisure and merchant marine vessels and improving their overall efficiency will receive a £3m (~€3.6m) boost from the UK’s innovation agency.

Visiting the London Boat Show, Business and Energy Minister Michael Fallon announced the opening of a new collaborative R&D competition run by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) aimed at businesses in theUK maritime and marine sector.

Fallon said: “The marine industry is of vital importance to the UK economy, contributing around £19bn each year, and employing 367,000 people. We want to encourage the very best in creativity and innovation within the industry in order to ensure its long term success and global competitiveness.”

The new ‘Vessel Efficiency II: better systems at sea’ competition follows the first marine-specific collaborative R&D competition launched at last year’s London Boat Show, which attracted total funding requests of over three times the available £7m budget. Successful projects included pioneering propulsion technology, emissions reduction systems and innovative vessel routing systems.

TSB chief executive Iain Gray added: “There is huge appetite among UK companies in the maritime and marine sector to deliver innovation, particularly in achieving more low carbon and efficient systems. The number and quality of proposals submitted last year was excellent and we look forward to receiving a positive response to this new competition.”

The aim of the competition is to build collaboration across the marine and maritime sector, strengthen supply chains, and create opportunities for SMEs.