New UK centre for maritime innovation

The centre, ‘MarRI-UK’, is based at the University of Strathclyde, with hubs to be announced across the UK.

Professor Alex Duffy from the University of Strathclyde, said, “If you want to remain at the forefront of advancements, benefit from the collaborative network synergy, gain streamlined access to research and innovation expertise across the UK and help set the agenda and influence government policy, then MarRI-UK is for you.”

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. The initiative is also supported by the Department for Transport which agreed in 2019 to help fund the establishment of MarRI-UK.

The first area of collaborative focus is Clean Maritime. MarRI-UK will focus on research and innovation to help make shipping greener and has launched a £1M competition for innovative ways to reduce maritime emissions on behalf of DfT.

Sarah Kenny, vice chair of Maritime UK and chief executive of BMT, said, “The Clean Maritime Plan is an important step towards achieving a zero-emission future for the UK. Getting to net zero will not be easy, but it will present significant opportunities as well as the obvious challenges for all parts of our £40bn maritime sector.”