This innovative maritime R&D dedicated event took place on February 4 and 5 in Brussels and gathered almost 300 representatives of the European waterborne sector to celebrate 20 years of EU maritime community actions fostering innovative R&D initiatives and to discuss the latest achievements and future challenges on a path of shipping decarbonization.
What was discussed?
The meeting agenda for the 1st day included keynote speeches by high-level EU Commission officials and industry representatives, panel discussions, and dedicated workshops.
Moderated panel discussions and project presentations filled the 2nd day. More technical aspects have been discussed to address the decarbonization challenges across all waterborne modes – inland, short sea, deep sea, cruise, ferries, and offshore – where there are different solutions for different ship types.
All six discussion panels were arranged to reveal the trends and opportunities necessary for WaterborneTP’s future strategy.
Summarizing the discussions
Europe remains committed to its climate goals and steps up its investment to become globally competitive in the waterborne sector. Focus on the stimulation and creation conditions for the positive role of SMEs is one of the targets for future actions.
What needs to be improved to stimulate innovation are effective solutions for cleaner, higher cost-beneficial results. Reasonable is optimism that IMO MEPC83 will create the global regulatory framework to enable rapid technology adoption. Meanwhile, the impact of FuelEU is being felt as a positive stimulus. Strong alignments that any fuel-save solutions, especially wind in the deep sea, should be adopted urgently and that new business models embracing digitalization are a huge opportunity.
PRS participation and voice in the discussions
PRS President, Grzegorz Pettke and R&D Division Director, Marek Narewski, participated in the Waterborne Days and had the opportunity to hear the stories on successful innovative R&D projects completed in the areas of prototype ship design or retrofitting projects green shipping, digitization, blue economy, and sustainable alternative fuels, among other topics addressing the European waterborne sector issues that were discussed in Brussels.
Marek Narewski also represented views of European class societies on the offshore and maritime industry sector in the last discussion finalizing the event. He said that decarbonization of maritime activities in the offshore industry meets other types of challenges. Any ideas or solutions must be tailored to be in line with safety assurance in the 3D offshore domain – underwater, at the surface, and in the air. He stressed that the actions fostering sustainability are strictly related to the safety and security of all EU activities in maritime R&D efforts and their final practical commercial implementation.
Below a few photos from the event – source PRS and Waterborne TP.
