Project

OBAMA-NEXT aims to develop a toolbox for generating accurate, precise and relevant information characterizing marine ecosystems and their biodiversity. This will be achieved by integrating new/emerging technologies, including remote sensing, eDNA, optical instruments and citizen science, with existing marine monitoring techniques for improving our capacity to describe ecosystem function and biodiversity with higher spatial and temporal resolution. The project will contribute to shaping next generation monitoring programs and defining Essential Ocean/Biodiversity Variables (EOVs/EBVs). Stakeholders will be involved from the onset of the project to identify products needed in an iterative co-creating and specification process. These specifications will guide the application of algorithms, including advanced statistical analyzes and artificial intelligence, which combine and translate different data sources into information products (ie, maps and indicators) to fulfill stakeholders' needs. Routines for visualization and methods for uncertainty assessment are also important components of the toolbox development. The toolbox will be evaluated and improved based on 12 selected Learning Sites (LS), representing diverse ecosystems and data sources within the four European regional seas. The applicability of the information products, compiled with the toolbox on LS data, will be evaluated as input to models for predicting biodiversity and as support for environmental and biodiversity policies. The project will also assess the usefulness of the products with respect to the EU objective of designating an ecologically coherent MPA network and the applicability of C-burial rates in angiosperm habitats for carbon offsetting and Nationally Determined Contributions. OBAMA-NEXT will strengthen Europe's capability in acquiring and utilizing biological ocean observations for better management of marine resources through strong public outreach and active stakeholder communication.

AquaINFRA will develop a virtual environment equipped with FAIR multi-disciplinary data and services to support marine and freshwater scientists and stakeholders restoring healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters. The AquaINFRA virtual environment will enable the target stakeholders to store, share, access, analyse and process research data and other research digital objects from their own discipline, across research infrastructures, disciplines and national borders leveraging on EOSC and the other existing operational dataspaces (e.g., EMODnet, Copernicus Marine Service, Digital Twins, etc.).

The EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’ (Mission Ocean) aims at protecting and restoring the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement, and blue investments by 2030. The creation of the European Digital Twin Ocean (EU DTO) supports this mission as well as the key initiative of the European Commission, Destination Earth (DestinE), aiming at developing a highly accurate digital model of the Earth on a global scale to be able to monitor, simulate, and predict the interaction between natural phenomena and human activities. Addressing the Horizon Europe call HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-8, SEADITO focuses on the need for a targeted set of analytical methods and tools to support the development of the EU DTO including integrating social-ecological models in order to establish a comprehensive decision support platform. SEADITO aims at increasing transdisciplinary abilities of social-ecological models by updating and integrating them for improved Ecosystem-based Management, and a set of case studies in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Mediterranean as well a Pan-European case study will provide the contexts for the multiactor processes identifying user needs, as well as co designing and testing components and services in the targeted user communities. The results will include sets of interoperable, spatial explicit, and DTO compliant social-ecological decision-support components based on FAIR principles (e.g. to be integrated with EDITO-Model Lab), as well as scalable and multi-level social-ecological models, integrated quantitative and qualitative social-ecological indicators, and workflows quantifying and integrating cultural and behavioural aspects. The components will be tested through an interactive spatial platform, the SEADITO Explorer equipped with visual demonstrators of socialecological models and a Scenario Toolkit (WIST). Learning materials will target young researchers, decision-makers, and the public.

Blue Mathematics at AAU is a new teaching and research initiative supported by Orient's Fond. The current funding is for a six-year period (2024-2029). The leadership of the project is ensured by Professor Morten Willatzen and Professor Horia Cornean. There are also two Orient's Fond Chair Associate Professors: Fynn Aschmoneit and Matteo Bonini.

At this stage, our main efforts are directed towards building the foundation for new activities. The topics will mainly deal with real life problems coming from Engineering Mathematics in a broad sense, involving areas such as Fluid Dynamics, Optimization, Spatial Statistics, Cryptography, Coding Theory and Secure Communication, all applied to the maritime sector. More details to follow.

The primary goal of the project is to develop and make available data from Dansk Søfartstidende. The project has a particular focus on ship dispatches published in Dansk Søfartstidende in the years 1893-1962, and involves scanning, automated analysis and interpretation of data regarding Danish ships on arrivals and departures as well as other incidents for which notes are available. In addition to making the resulting data available so that they can be integrated into standard tools for representing digitized data, the plan is to develop a dedicated application that supports searches aimed at special studies based on, for example, time, place and context.

The project's results in the form of a database and dedicated search application primarily provide new opportunities for research, among other things, by virtue of the fact that individual ships or a shipping company's entire fleet can be followed and analyzed in time and space. Furthermore, new uses of maps and data visualizations in the dissemination of Danish maritime history are enabled. Finally, the project will make the complete publications of the Danish Maritime Journal available to the general public in a clear and easily accessible form through the M/S Maritime Museum.

Automation plays a key role in reducing CO2 emissions in shipping, yet human sensory contributions are often overlooked and understudied. The project studies how human senses and sensor technologies interact in decision-making from an anthropological perspective.

Through five technological projects, SLGreen aims to develop digital tools to reduce fuel consumption in Danish shipping, improve ship performance, optimize hull maintenance, monitor engine condition and implement remote navigation.
The transversal anthropological project, Senses & Sensors, will add an analysis of human competencies and explore dynamics in the execution of the projects.
SLGreen is supported by the Innovation Fund Denmark, the Danish Maritime Foundation and the Lauritzen Foundation.

The goal of LSP Ship Factory together with Danish shipyards and companies is to automate ship production using robots and AI.

We introduce a novel cell-based concept for automated shipyard operations, in which processes are executed in a central multi-purpose/multi-robot workspace. This cell-based concept optimizes the commissioning and continued development and extension of sophisticated automation equipment “out of the box” and enables shipyards to lift their highly manual operations today to flexible, digital, and robotized operations, monitored and controlled product quality and attractive workplaces for existing staff and young professionals alike.

We utilize the unique equipment of the newly established SDU Center for Large Structure Production (LSP), while supporting the shipyards and designers in implementing relevant aspects of the overall concept in their own operations with their own staff.

LSP Ship Factory thus enables shipyards to counter the pressure of a fierce global competition and a lack of workforce with innovative and manageable technologies for robotized production operations around the lifecycle of ships.

Outcomes of our joint developments prepare and support the Danish maritime sector with tangible solutions to reactivate and reshore the necessary competencies and capacities to engage in civil and naval initiatives for building and maintaining vessels in DK.

Funded by Grand Solutions.

“Green Transitions in Port of Aalborg” is a collaboration between the Port of Aalborg and Aalborg University Business School. Both organizations share from different angles—practice and research—the interest in green transitions; that is, how business operations and strategies can be designed such that they ensure an ecologically sustainable economy. As business operations vary widely, this strategic initiative comprises three main foci, looking at business operations within the port, at how the port interacts with its external environment, and at the port as one player in the broader regional environment (i.e., Greater Aalborg), always through the lens of identifying and solving problems in relation to green transitions.

MISSION targets GHG emissions reductions in the maritime transportation chain, specifically optimizing the port call process. Within the project, integrated port call system solutions are build to increase transparency and communication about resource readiness and estimated arrival times to finally orchestrate the overall port call process. The project contains demonstration cases that will highlight the gains from the system solutions.