Finnish project focuses on a greener and smarter shipping

INTENS, a Finnish research collaborative consortium, led by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, has jointly committed over €13 million in the next three years, with funding support of €5.6 million from Business Finland, the public agency for research funding, to promote and digitalize the country’s marine industry.

Vice President of Digital Engineering, Johannes Hyrynen, from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., noted:

Thanks to the great support from Business Finland Arctic Seas program and the consortium partners, we are able to form this industry-wide ambitious and committed consortium to boost the digitalization and digital transformation of the Finnish marine sector and promote our top-level marine expertise globally.

Finland has been one of the leading countries in the digitalization and automation of the marine industries. On this context, the INTENS project aims to further deepen and uniquely integrate digital transformation into the whole chain of the marine cluster, from R&D to innovation, design, manufacturing and operation.

The generated novel solutions and innovations can largely improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions of ship energy systems, and potentially disrupt the ways how the marine industries operate currently and pave the way to the future shipping.

Chief Advisor, Matti Säynätjoki, from Business Finland, stressed:

By combining two well-known Finnish strong capabilities, maritime technology and digitalization, Finnish companies create new competitive edge for themselves in the international markets. Based on the knowledge and skills formed in INTENS, the companies will develop new components, systems, software products and knowledge based services with higher added value.

Finland has shown particular interest in recent years to advance a sustainable and smarter shipping sector. In late April, Finnish Shipowners’ Association (FSA) announced cooperation with One Sea ecosystem to create better conditions to promote a safer and more automated shipping.

In addition, in late March, the Government of Finland issued a resolution on the digitalisation of freight transport data, to boost the logistics sector and promote new business opportunities. The new resolution aims to make Finland a hub for international transport and supports emission reduction targets in the transport sector.

Director of Development, Pekka Pakkanen, from NAPA Shipping Solutions, also explained:

In the wake of the recent decision by the IMO to reduce CO2 emissions from shipping by 50% by 2050, we need to implement ways for the industry to decarbonise quickly. Optimising operations of existing vessels is the fastest way to do this in the short term.