IMarEST Ship Propulsion Systems Conference speaker explains the government's new initiative in advance of upcoming meeting.
The UK Government’s Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is shortly to announce the launch of a competition into vessel efficiency, with up to £8 million of funding available, opening for expressions of interest in January 2013. In view of the theme of the 3rd IMarEST Ship Propulsion Systems Conference (London, 20-21 November 2012), Andrew Tate, Capability Advisor – Maritime Resilience, DSTL Naval Systems has joined the speakers’ panel to explain the initiarive.
“Central funding of marine research and development is limited in the current market, so we are eager to ensure that as many companies and SMEs as possible are aware and prepared to respond to the formal opening of the call in January,” explains Andrew Tate, who will speak on Day One of the conference. “We see the forthcoming Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) conference on ship propulsion systems as a key forum to achieve this. The competition is aimed at accelerating innovation and technologies for the UK marine industry in the subject of vessel efficiency, which is one of the key outputs of a national road map.
“The competition is pitched at UK marine industry as a whole (leisure industry through to major shipbuilder and military suppliers, and including offshore renewables) and will be open for proposals from mid-January until mid-March 2013. The competition is funded by the TSB with financial support from other UK government organisations including DSTL. Organisation is being provided by the Transport Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN).
“Behind the call is the vision that by 2020 the UK marine industries will be renowned for the quality and value for money of their high technology products, systems and services globally, and for their overall and substantial contribution to the UK’s economic, environmental and social well-being,” he adds.
“We are delighted to provide Andrew Tate, a member of IMarEST, with a platform to promote this good news,” says David Loosley, IMarEST’s Chief Executive. “We have been lucky enough to see the outline of the call, and can certainly see the relevance to those attending our conference next month, and to our wider membership. We will be doing all in our power to ‘spread the word’.”