“The Maritime Industry 2030” was the kick-off conference for the Maritime Research Alliance (MRA), which was recently established in cooperation between seven Danish universities and two Danish maritime professional academies. This report summarizes the discussions at the conference and broader important maritime industry issues as well as presents the goals of MRA.
There have been several calls from private foundations, industry associations and governmental agencies to map out and to extensively coordinate cross-disciplinary maritime research in Denmark. MRA is an initiative that strengthens existing and creates new collaborative relationships across the universities and maritime academies, in part as a response to such calls. The most important aims of MRA are to:
1. Find solutions to those challenges to the maritime sector that require cross-disciplinary ventures
2. Create a critical mass of expertise in Denmark for maritime and related topics
3. Be a visible and viable one-point-of-contact to academic involvement and output for the industry
4. Attract attention nationally and internationally for Danish maritime research and education
5. Make Danish universities and maritime academies attractive partners for international cooperation on maritime and related projects
About the conference-report:
The “Maritime Industry 2030” conference was an international and joint researcher/practitioner event held at the Copenhagen Business School during 5-6 February 2018.
The first day of the conference was an open event organized with the aim of bringing industry and academia together to identify and discuss the most important issues facing the maritime industry in the near term towards 2030 and to lay a firm foundation for closer cross-disciplinary collaboration for addressing these issues.
The second day of the conference was a closed event for MRA members organized with the aim to reflect on the identified issues, determine the future focus and direction of MRA and initiate specific collaborative research projects.
The conference was kindly supported by the Danish Maritime Fund. In 2020 the fund supported the establishment of the Maritime Research Alliance based on, among other, future cross-disciplinary research themes and ideas that were identified at the conference.