The UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Department for Transport (DfT), along with the National Oceanography Centre’s (NOC) Marine Robotics Innovation Centre, successfully secured £1million in a bid to advance autonomous and smart shipping into the UK.
The funding will be used to come up with new ways of regulating the autonomous and smart shipping industries to help them deliver new technologies to the traditional maritime sector.
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In addition, a Maritime Autonomy Regulation Lab will be created, where regulators from the MCA and DfT can work on on-water testing and flagship projects.
Shipping Minister Nusrat Ghani commented about the funding:
Technology and innovation is a key part of Maritime 2050, which will set a vision for how our maritime sector will grow and ensure we are ready to maximise its potential.
For his part, Sir Alan Massey, CEO of the MCA believes that autonomous shipping will play an increasing role in the future of the maritime industry. This an be seen by the fact that there is an ‘extraordinary demand for this regulatory work’.
