Alternative fuel research collaborative

FME Maritime Energy Transition (MarTrans) has been awarded 120 to 180 million NOK of funding from the received funding from the Research Council of Norway annually over a period of eight years.

”This will be an important arena for networking, cross-border collaboration and an arena to add relevance to the research work,” said Håvard Vollset Lien, vice president research and innovation at Vard.

Expediting change

Accelerating the green transition of the maritime sector, reducing energy consumption and replacing fossil fuels with renewable fuels is no easy task. FME MarTrans is looking to accelerate development.

Vard’s role in FME MarTrans is to contribute with financial support and resources in various projects, including making green fuels readily available and driving their cost down.

The research centre will also serve as a “birth unit” for new collaborative projects between the partners.

With total funding from the Research Council of Norway and the industrial partners of more than NOK 300 million over eight years, this will be the world’s largest maritime research programme of its kind. 

Norway has the world’s fifth largest fleet of ships and therefore has a good opportunity to make a difference in global emissions from the sector.

The initiative for FME MarTrans comes from SINTEF Ocean and is based on the previous SFI Smart Maritime project that Vard participated in 2015 to 2023.

As many as 18 shipping companies with a total of around 450 ships in operation are participating in the centre. Industry partners include Brunvoll, Corvus, DNV, Kongsberg, Trondheim Havn, Ulstein, Yara Marine and Østensjø Rederi.

The work will start in autumn 2024 and finish in 2032.