Capt. John Mauger, commanding officer of the Marine Safety Center, spoke to the Passenger Vessel Association at the annual MARITRENDS convention about innovation in the maritime industry noting that there are many methods to support innovation within the existing framework while sustaining safety at the same time.
Capt. Mauger explained how USCG’s Marine Safety Center contributes to this and highlighted that USCG’s marine safety engineers are the key enablers.
Methods for innovation in the industry range from:
1) redesigning materials or systems to meet the existing standards;
(2) demonstrating equivalencies to the existing standards—either through alternative standards or risk assessments;
(3) developing documented alternative policies; or
(4) petitioning for new regulations or legislation.
The Marine Safety Center supports innovation through evaluating equivalencies to the existing regulations. The regulations allow the Coast Guard to accept alternative arrangements which provide an equivalent level of safety to the existing standards. The Marine Safety Center’s engineers have education and experience in more than a dozen different engineering disciplines which enable them to evaluate alternative submissions.
The preferred way for demonstrating equivalency is for the submitter to demonstrate that the proposal meets alternate industry-wide standards that are appropriate for the application. In cases where no such standards exist, the submitter may demonstrate equivalency through either a ‘first principles’ approach (in the case of engineered systems) or through a risk assessment. There is a variety of guidance available to assist the industry with preparing such submissions.
The Marine Safety Center is also able to hold concept review discussions with submitters to assist in further defining the equivalency approach.
‘’The Coast Guard’s ability to consider equivalencies to the existing standards is an important means of promoting innovation within the maritime industry. The Coast Guard’s marine safety engineers, who possess both the specialized education and broad experience needed to evaluate novel design features, are a key enabler for supporting innovation within the industry’’ Capt. Mauger stated.
Source: USCG
