Register Foundation News

The International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) released its #FutureSAR Report as part of the organization's ongoing campaign to raise awareness of the impacts and effects of climate change on global maritime search and rescue (SAR) operations.The report marks the completion of the first phase of the IMRF #FutureSAR initiative, which is funded and supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation. The initiative's purpose is to identify challenges related to climate change for the global maritime SAR industry and provide guidance and best practices for future rescue operations…

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has launched a set of industry principles for establishing effective measures to combat and eliminate harassment and bullying in the maritime sector.The principles have been published against the backdrop of a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) – alongside Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF) and Gallup – on experiences of violence and harassment at work. The first of its kind global survey and analysis benefitted from insights of 74,364 respondents in employment across a range of sectors in 121 countries and territories.

A new training project will prepare seafarers for zero or near-zero emission ships, helping the global shipping industry decarbonize and ensure a just transition for seafarers.Research commissioned by the Maritime Just Transition Task Force identified that 800,000 seafarers may require additional training by the mid-2030s to operate vessels run on zero or near zero emission fuels.The training framework, funded through the IMO and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, will equip seafarers with skills in decarbonization…

The International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) has launched its #SaferSAR initiative which will look to enable global search and rescue (SAR) organisations to better collect, analyse and share maritime SAR incident response data.The aim is to enhance future maritime SAR response operations.The initiative, which is being funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, will encompass a 12-month feasibility study for a globally accessible platform that SAR personnel and organisations can use to share lessons and best practices identified in SAR response…

Some of the world's largest ports may be unusable by 2050 as rising sea levels hit operations, and efforts to speed up decarbonization of the maritime sector and bring in new technology are vital, a study showed on Friday.Weather-related disruptions are already impacting ports across the globe. These include a drought which is hampering operations in the Panama Canal, a top waterway.The Global Maritime Trends 2050 report, commissioned by leading shipping services group Lloyd's Register and the independent charity arm Lloyd's Register Foundation…

The Silk Alliance continues to grow with the addition of Yara Clean Ammonia, the Methanol Institute, MPC Container Ships and the NUS Centre for Maritime Studies.The new partners join following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Lloyd’s Register (LR) Maritime Decarbonisation Hub for the Silk Alliance as they plan to support the proposed project aimed at the decarbonisation of a regional shipping corridor centred on the container trades.The Silk Alliance is focused on a regional fleet…

The seafarer home nations of the Philippines and Indonesia are working to equip their maritime workers with the skill sets needed to deliver a low and zero-carbon maritime sector.Speaking at the ‘Seizing opportunities for green shipping in Asia and the Pacific’ conference organized by the Philippines' Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), on May 15, Philippine Transmarine Carriers CEO Gerardo A. Borromeo said: “There is no doubt that the skill set for a career at sea is evolving.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has announced that the second of Japan's first two LNG-fueled ferries, the Sunflower Murasaki, has entered service.The vessel is owned by MOL and operated by its group company Ferry Sunflower. The vessel is a sister ship to the Sunflower Kurenai, which began operation in January, and will sail the Osaka-Beppu route between Sunflower Ferry Terminal (Osaka) and Beppu International Tourist Port (Oita) as a replacement for the existing vessel Sunflower Cobalt.The 17…

Lloyd’s Register Foundation announced the appointment of a new CEO to take the charity into its second decade.Dr. Ruth Boumphrey will take over from outgoing CEO Professor Richard Clegg following his retirement June 30, 2022. Professor Clegg was the charity’s first CEO and led the organization for 10 years.Dr. Boumphrey is currently Director of Research and Strategic Programs at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the owner of Lloyd’s Register Group, where she leads its work on some…

Interferry CEO Mike Corrigan looks beyond the latest COVID-19 complications to explain why the global trade association has reasons to believe the industry’s future is ultimately secure.If I had been writing this column just a few weeks earlier than late December, my opening remarks would have been decidedly upbeat. After two devastating years under the cloud of COVID-19, the pandemic seemed to be in ever-growing retreat and the passenger ferry sector was poised to turn the corner toward ‘business as normal’ in 2022.Now, however, that hope has been somewhat diluted by a single word: Omicron.

New manual provides vital recommendations for operational planning and response in health emergenciesThe International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF), supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, has launched comprehensive guidance for anyone working in search and rescue, on how to ensure that SAR operations can continue safely in the face of challenges posed not only by COVID-19, but also by any future health emergencies.The Pandemic Response Guidance will support SAR providers…

Engineering X – an international collaboration founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation – has awarded nearly £1 million ($1.2 million) in grants to six projects in the U.K. and overseas aimed at tackling the complex social, environmental and engineering challenges of decommissioning ships and offshore structures.From training to improve worker safety in ship recycling facilities in Bangladesh, to assessing the risks of structural failure of decommissioned offshore structures…

For twelve years the International Maritime Human Element Bulletin Alert! has been regularly published, its mission being to raise awareness of human element issues. Ship designers, builders, managers and operators have all been given plenty to think about around the way that people and ships require harmonious integration if the former is to get the most out of the latter. Forty issues after the first Alert!, the publication, sponsored by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation and published by the Nautical Institute, has reached its final issue and its natural conclusion. There is a splendid archive of useful knowledge which will remain available and will be maintained on the website, to hopefully influence everyone involved in the industry today and in the future.

Lloyd’s Register and Lloyd’s Register Foundation support the development of the world’s first 3D printed rescue boat.Lloyd’s Register (LR) is partnering with Singapore’s National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC), Autodesk, ST Engineering's Electronic sector and AML3D to launch a global design competition offering a first prize of S$30,000 (c£17,500) to the winner of the best innovative design idea for a 3D printed rescue boat hull. This will be the first ever…

The maritime classification society Lloyd's Register (LR) has presented SHI with approval in principle (AiP) for an LNG-fuelled Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) equipped with a 6,000 cubic metre LNG fuel storage tank, a two-stroke dual-fuel diesel engine and an LNG fuel supply system.This AiP was a result of joint development project with SHI named VLCC2020, said a press release from the technical and business services organisation, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation.LR assessed the technical feasibility of the LNG fuel supply system and energy saving technologies, including SAVER Air, a SHI patented air lubrication system…

Maritime Blockchain Labs has announced the real-world testing phase for technology solution that enhances traceability and trust in bunker fuel supply chain. Maritime Blockchain Labs (MBL), a partnership set up between Lloyd’s Register Foundation and BLOC to explore the use of blockchain for the assurance and safety of critical infrastructure and drive new business models for the global maritime industry, announced today that its first demonstrator project, a fuel provenance register for the maritime sector that aims to provide trusted information about fuel origin…

Blockchain Labs for Open Collaboration (BLOC), has won Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Solve’s Coastal Communities Challenge, for its work in developing shipping Emissions Monitoring Reporting (MRV) solutions.The Blockchain technology and governance specialist said in a press release that it was selected from 33 teams participating in the Solve Challenge Finals, which included a live pitch event at the UN General Assembly week in New York City.The Solver teams were selected by Solve’s Challenge Leadership Group judges as the most promising set of solutions tackling large-scale global challenges.BLOC’s Shipping Emissions Monitoring…

Commercial fishing is one of the world's most dangerous professions yet the internationally-binding instrument which specifically addresses fishing vessel safety, the Cape Town Agreement, is not yet in force – because it needs more countries to ratify it.That's why International Maritime Organization (IMO)  has teamed up with the Pew Charitable Trust, an NGO, to organise a series of seminars for government officials and industry representatives in key developing countries, to raise awareness of the Cape Town Agreement and the benefits of ratifying it.A note from the UN-agency said that these benefits include fewer accidents, fewer lives lost and a more effective infrastructure for monitoring and targeting illegal…

Japanese shipping company NYK, global mining company BHP, green biofuel company GoodFuels and the developer of blockchain applications for the maritime industry Blockchain Labs for Open Collaboration (BLOC) bunkered biofuel in the tanks a BHP vessel in Netherlands.The Netherlands based GoodFuels Marine, a supplier of sustainable low carbon marine fuels, has annouced the successful delivery of sustainable biofuels to the BHP-chartered, NYK-owned bulk carrier Frontier Sky, with CO2 savings verified with BLOC’s blockchain fuels assurance platform. The advanced biofuel, supplied by GoodFuels via logistics partner Varo Energy, is a ‘drop-in’ marine gasoil (MGO)-equivalent, and was blended with conventional fossil-based MGO in a mix of 30% biofuel to 70% conventional MGO.

Alastair Marsh, current CFO at the Lloyd’s Register Group Ltd. (LR), has been appointed as the successor to CEO Richard Sadler who has decided to step down at the end of 2015. Sadler will pass the CEO role to Marsh on October 1, 2015 and commence a formal handover period until the end of December 2015. Simon Nice, currently Group FP&A Director, will take up the role of Interim Group Financial Director during the transition. Following Sadler’s decision to step down as CEO, the LR board of directors conducted a six-month internal and external review of potential successors…

As robotics and autonomy gain inroads into various maritime and logisitics sectors, Lloyd’s Register Foundation and the University of York announced a $16m patnership to examine the safety of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS). RAS are likely to become pervasive, including driverless cars, the use of autonomous systems in hospitals and the maritime sector (for shipping and oil and gas platforms), and the use of robots in manufacturing and food supply chains. A 2016 report from…

Richard Sadler, CEO of Lloyd’s Register Group Ltd (LR), was honored with the Maritime Fellowship Award at the Maritime Foundation’s Maritime Media Awards. The Maritime Foundation is a charity promoting Britain’s interests across the entire maritime sector. Its purpose is to inform and raise public and parliamentary awareness of the importance of Britain’s maritime industries, commerce and defense through education, training and research, as well as through the Foundation’s annual Maritime Media Awards.

The Lloyd’s Register Foundation today launched its Foresight review of big data and announced a conditional grant offer of £10 million to support research by the Alan Turing Institute on engineering applications of big data. The Foundation’s Foresight review of big data: towards data-centric engineering, looks forward at how developments in the area of big data might impact the safety and performance of the engineering assets and infrastructure on which modern society relies, such as energy, transportation and shipping. The report draws on the findings of an international expert advisory panel led by Prof Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Southampton and Chairman of the Open Data Institute…