The future is bright in Norway

NSA, together with Oslo Maritime Network (OMN) have established the Global Maritime Knowledge Hub, a professional programme intended to further enhance Norway as a leading international maritime hub. The programme supports a number of professorships at academic institutions in Norway. Within the 30 months that it has been running, the Hub has established 20 professorships at leading universities, such as NTNU in Trondheim and the Ålesund University College.

Each professorship is sponsored by an organisation within the industry. The total net worth of the professorships is NOK150 million over a five year period.

NSA, along with Oslo Maritime Network, will support the professorships by making sure that there are active finance options available for PhD students. Out of the 20 professorships currently in existence, 8 have been received by NTNU.

Tore Forsmo, director of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association said: “The Global Maritime Knowledge Hub is a unique industry effort in showing dedication and willingness to invest in the future of the maritime industry and in a knowledge based Norwegian economy, particularly in a time of severe financial strain.”

Norway has regional maritime clusters as integral parts of its maritime activity. These clusters consist of shipowners, maritime consultants, yards, equipment manufacturers, research centres and specialised services – not to mention shipbrokers, marine insurance companies, ship finance and law.

Research that has been undertaken into international industrial cluster development, points out the importance of specialised research and quality education in cluster development. Examples include the development of the IT cluster in Silicon Valley, California and the life science cluster in Boston, Massachusetts. In the maritime industry, we can observe how Singapore, Japan, Korea and China now invest heavily in maritime research and education, and in Northern Europe we find similar upgrading of maritime education and research in Hamburg, Gothenburg and Copenhagen.

The Global Maritime Knowledge Hub is intended to create something of a ‘super cluster’, combining the skills and expertise found in all of the maritime clusters within Norway. The Maritime Knowledge Hub is claimed to be a unique programme; the only one of its kind to have been driven by the private sector. This programme has managed to perform well, even during the financial crisis, with many new professorships coming on board. To be able to encourage the support of the teaching chairs from the industry sponsors during these difficult times is extraordinary. A remarkable amount of money has been invested into research and education for the maritime and oil and gas industry.

When the programme was introduced, the NSA and OMN had an ambition of creating 20 professorships across the country, and in the time that the programme has been running this ambition has been realised.

Another interesting point to note about the programme is that the relationship between the donors and the professors is strong. Both the NSA and OMN will monitor this going forward to make sure that it is maintained. As well as private funding, the programme has received public funding and funding from authorities, which will only serve to encourage the growth of the teaching programme.

“The state of play now is not to focus on consolidation and to establish different elements such as PhDs, research programmes, synergies between professors and in joint-development projects. Dialogue between professors and donors is already there. There is active communication between everyone involved in all sections of the programme,” said Forsmo.

Some of the donors to the programme include NODE, a network of 50 member companies from the offshore drilling industry in Southern Norway (Kristiansand region); Marintek, a research company of the Sintef Group; DNV, and Leif Höegh and Co, among many other major maritime companies.

As well as the Hub initiative, NSA established the Maritime Trainee programme in 2005. This programme was created for young university graduates in order to give lawyers, economists, engineers and other professions an introduction to the maritime industry. The trainee is hired by a company and rotated within the organisation during the two year duration of the trainee period. In addition, the trainees meet in six workshops during these two years, four of which in Norway and two abroad, with the aim to provide a broader understanding of all aspects and sectors of the maritime industry. Networking and personal development are also key objectives of the trainee period and the programme has been a great success so far.

The sixth batch of trainees is currently in the process of being recruited with start-up in August 2011. There are 20 trainee places available and around 750 applicants. In 2010 there were 15 trainee places and more than 900 applicants.

At the early stages of the programme there was a trend for engineers and technical specialists joining the programme, but in later years a more even spread and better balance between lawyers, economists and engineers is the case. Like the professorship and the Global Maritime Knowledge Hub programme, the Maritime Trainee programme highlights the level of support that the industry is willing to provide in order to sustain future development and keep the industry alive. At a time when large scale lay-offs in different sectors of the maritime industry are not unheard of, these programmes represent a significant change in the industry’s thinking.

“We need to position our industry in the long term picture even when the short term picture look bleak and a global financial crisis is the order of the day. This means that the Norwegian maritime industry needs to have a continuous focus on recruiting and talent development even in economic recessions. I am extremely pleased that we are able to do just that through these two programmes,” concludes Forsmo.