Voyager Worldwide is partnering with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) to promote joint innovations that support voyage optimisation and just-in-time port arrivals.
Voyager Worldwide will drive the innovation required through its new Voyager Living Lab. This is an innovation and collaboration initiative dedicated to improving port to port voyage efficiency.
Mr Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State for Transport & Finance, who officiated the launch as the Guest of Honour said:
The Voyager Living Lab will be a useful platform to catalyse more win-win partnerships, to help maritime companies develop promising concepts into full-fledged businesses
Working with MPA and the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA), the Voyager Living Lab’s Collaborate Programme will also provide an incubator environment – bringing maritime start-ups together with major brands to solve wider maritime challenges, providing free access to living lab resources and funding.
To help develop the talent needed to drive maritime innovation, the Voyager Living Lab will work closely with maritime-related education institutions to provide internship opportunities, support post-graduate programmes and projects, and collaborate on maritime-related academic and research initiatives.
Port congestion has worsened since the pandemic, with supply chains struggling under the weight of shipping demand as a combination of logistical delays and extreme weather saw ports overwhelmed and ships forced to wait at anchor.
Stakeholders across the supply chain acknowledge the need to optimise ocean voyages to achieve just in time arrival, making significant cost-saving efficiencies and a contribution to building a sustainable shipping and ports industry including the IMO’s goal of reversing the shipping emissions trend and getting to net-zero emissions by 2100.
The maritime decarbonization challenge is a huge undertaking, spanning shipping, ports and inland supply chains and it’s clear that optimised voyage management solutions have a central role to play
stated Kent Lee, Chief Executive Officer, Voyager Worldwide. “Our investment in the Living Lab, our work with the MPA Singapore and other partners around the world is helping to prepare for that changing world.”
Finally, the Voyager Living Lab will be a free to use space fulfilling three key functions across maritime research, development and innovation.
- It will serve as a research space devoted to understanding problems experienced across the maritime community.
- It will serve as a creativity space for the purposes of generating ideas, designing, and validating new solutions, with the aim of solving problems experienced across the maritime sector.
- Through physical test beds in the Singapore Living Lab itself and extending to shipping stakeholder offices and vessels, it will provide an environment where concepts can be proven, prototypes tested and solutions trialled, as well as where innovations can be evaluated for their impact.
