SMI Weekly Newsletter 16/05/2024

Member and Partner News

Shipbuilding Tsar hails 'New Golden Age for British Shipbuilding' at the First Sea Lord?Sea Power Conference

This week, the Council for Geostrategy in collaboration with the Royal Navy hosted the First Sea Lord's Sea Power Conference in London.?

Speaking at the event, the Defence Secretary announced that up to six new state-of-the-art Multi-role Support Ships (MRSS) warships will be built in the UK to strengthen Royal Marines special operations. ?The announcement means that there are now up to 28 warships and submarines planned or in build to benefit the Royal Navy.

International Green Corridors Fund: UK – NL Feasibility Studies Competition

Details on the bilateral International Green Corridors Fund: UK – NL Feasibility Studies competition have now been published.

The competition briefing will take place online at 14:30 23 May, with the competition opening for applications on 3 June and closing 11:00 am on 17 July.

View competition details

Lloyd's Register to support retrofit of two Stena Line ferries to methanol

LR is working with Stena Line on a project to retrofit two Ro-Ro ferries with methanol propulsion. This builds on the success of the LR-classed Stena Germanica in 2015, the only retrofitted methanol vessel in service. The conversion will see the Stena Superfast VII and Stena Superfast VIII Ro-Ro ferries, which operate on the Scotland to Northern Ireland route between Cairnryan and Belfast, converted to methanol dual-fuel propulsion with the vessels transferring class to LR.?

Learn more

Maritime UK announces Maritime UK Awards 2024 Finalists

The finalists for the Maritime UK Awards 2024, to be held in Belfast on the 5th June 2024 have now been announced.?

The awards celebrate industry excellence across 14 categories, with several new categories introduced for 2024 including WISTA's Woman of the Year.?

Learn more

Connected Places Maritime Accelerator Programme now open for applications

The 5-month programme is seeking a cohort of up to 8 SMEs operating at TRL 5-8. Through modules and 1-on-1 support, encompassing market targeting, value proposition refinement, strategic pricing, financial forecasting, and compelling communication strategies, we are committed to empowering SMEs to elevate their investment readiness, fine-tune business models, and master the art of customer profiling and enterprise selling.

Successful applicants will be able to access between ￡10K-￡20K of programme funding to deliver a trial of their solution with one of the programme partners.

Find out more

MATS 2024: Submission for Abstracts now open

The Marine Autonomy & Technology Showcase is returning on 5-7th November 2024.?Submissions for abstracts is now open. If you'd like to take part please make sure you've submitted by Friday 5th July. Further details on themes can be found via the link below.?

Find out more

Valeport's SWiFT CTD finds world's deepest under-ocean sinkhole

Using a SWiFT CTD profiler from?Valeport, single profiles were taken at each campaign with simultaneous measurements of water pressure, temperature and conductivity throughout the water column. Previously believed to be the second-deepest of its kind, the Taam Ja’ Blue Hole (TJBH) is now recognized as the deepest known blue hole, with its bottom still uncharted.?

Read more

SMI News

International Day for Women in Maritime?

Ahead of this International Day for Women in Maritime, we are proud to celebrate women’s contribution to the maritime industry, particularly those paving the way for safer workplaces for all – both on land and at sea. It is hugely important that women are involved in shaping the future of maritime safety, to help ensure that we as an industry are aware of all the potential ways that members of the maritime community can be at risk. Only then can we begin to properly mitigate that risk.?

By having women empowered to contribute to conversations and create actions around safety, we ensure that the definition of safety and what constitutes a safe working environment is considered from multiple points of view and is inclusive.?

To our colleagues at SMI and the wider maritime industry, thank you for your inedible contributions, leadership and impact today and every. We are proud to stand with you and celebrate International Day for Women in Maritime.

Posidonia 2024: Join us at the UK Pavilion Showcase Stage

At this year's Posidonia exhibition, the UK Pavilion will be hosting a series of daily on-stand presentations to showcase pioneering UK engineering, advanced technologies and solutions driving maritime change. Participants will hear of next-generation and innovative developments that will help vessel builders, owners and governments to face the challenges of technology transformation and a more sustainable maritime future.?

Presentations will take place on the UK Pavilion Showcase stage at Stand 1.221/2 in Hall 1.?

View speaker programme

Posidonia 2024: UK Pavilion Welcome Reception?

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT), in partnership with SMI, will be joined by UK businesses, international partners and other guests to celebrate the return of the UK Pavilion at Posidonia 2024 and the opportunities to showcase UK maritime excellence.

The UK Pavilion Networking Reception will take place on Wednesday 5th June 2024, from 14:30-16:30 at Stand 1.221 in Hall 1.?

All Posidonia 2024 attendees are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served.?

Seawork 2024: SMI Workboat Working Group Networking Reception

Join the SMI Workboat Working Group (WWG) members for networking and drinks within the SMI Hub at Seawork 2024.

The networking reception will take place on Tuesday 12th June from 14:30-16:30 at Stand SM7.

All Seawork attendees are welcome.?