Blog: Help us maintain the momentum around delivery of Maritime 2050

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The Mersey Maritime Exchange Conference, which took place on 23 June 2022 in Liverpool, once again cast a renewed spotlight on the Maritime 2050 strategy, its ongoing ambitions, delivery of key progress across the major themes that make it up and the work that remains to be done to turn all its principles into deliverable actions. Across all the key themes there are programme activities and initiatives that industry and wider stakeholders can engage with to help deliver the priorities that underpin the future vision for the sector.

Many people are looking for practical ways in which they can contribute to the work of Maritime 2050, utilising their own experience, expertise and passion to see progress across whichever area of focus they are most interested in. Maritime UK has compiled a list of the key opportunities YOU can make a difference in the following areas: Innovation, Competitiveness, Environment, Regional Growth and People.

First off, the most useful thing you can do is to sign-up to Maritime UK’s communications. You can do so here. Second, individual maritime businesses should join their relevant Maritime UK association to best engage with our work. Details of these can be found here. 

Innovation 

  • The Technology and Innovation Group is a forum for both industry and government to identify, discuss and action initiatives to support technological developments pertinent to the growth of the UK maritime sector. The group focuses on key opportunities like the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, hears from funding bodies like UKRI and Horizon Europe, and works with the Catapults. It is chaired by Tom Chant, Chief Executive of the Society of Maritime Industries. Contact your Maritime UK association to get involved. 
  • The Technology and Innovation Group has established an H2 Fuels Group. This group’s main focus is on the technical developments and utilisation of the fuels in the maritime sector. It showcases developments and engages closely with regulators. Contact your Maritime UK association to get involved. 
  • Maritime Research & Innovation UK (MarRI-UK) is a collaborative innovation vehicle for UK industry and academia to jointly tackle innovation and technology challenges. It is an open consortium, aims to address the lack of co-ordination and resource in maritime research and innovation. MarRI-UK focuses on research and innovation within mid TRL (3 – 7) levels, addressing the opportunities between "discovery and research" and "commercialisation" of Maritime Technologies and Systems. Contact MarRI-UK directly to get involved.  

Competitiveness 

  • Maritime UK and its members organise a comprehensive programme of international business development activity. These include inward and outward trade missions and well as the UK’s presence at key international trade shows. Join a trade mission.  
  • Learn more about the Department for International Trade’s new Maritime Campaign Capability Office. Set up with £12.5m funding, the MCCO will support the NSO to build on the government’s Export Strategy by pursing maritime export opportunities and capturing significant global market share in the Government's challenge of achieving £1 trillion worth of exports by the end of the decade. Join the webinar here. 

Environment 

  • Maritime UK's #NetZeroMaritime Showcase promotes projects that are having a positive impact on the decarbonisation of the maritime sector. The showcase highlighting specific projects in relation to delivery of the government's ten-point plan for a green industrial revolution. Individual companies can submit their case study here. 
  • Businesses can be amongst the first to hear when the government’s new unit focused on maritime decarbonisation is launched by registering for Maritime UK communications. Maritime UK and its members will be working closely with government to inform the scope of the competition and will deliver a series of workshops to brief the sector on the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition and support consortia building.  
  • Maritime UK has partnered with Carbon13 to unleash game-changing innovation through the Venture Builder for the Climate Crisis. The eight-month programme supports individuals to launch highly scalable and investable ventures – and the maritime industry is one of the target sectors. Each venture that is built and invested in must have the potential to reduce CO2e emissions by ten million tonnes. Find out more and apply. 

Regional Growth 

  • Maritime UK, together with its partners, is responsible for the development and roll-out of an ambitious ‘Regional Cluster Development Programme’, an initiative embedded in the priorities set out in ‘Maritime 2050: Navigating the Future. Colleagues are able to join individual clusters and can contact Simon Eardley for more information.  
  • The programme currently supports formal regional cluster organisations who are members of Maritime UK in the following regions: Belfast Maritime Consortium (Northern Ireland), Maritime UK Solent (Solent LEP area), Maritime UK South West (inc. Cornwall Marine Network – LEP areas of Cornwall & Isles of Scilly, Dorset and Heart of the SW), Mersey Maritime (Liverpool City Region/North West). In addition we work with the Scottish Maritime Cluster (Scotland) and Team Humber Marine Alliance (Humber region) as well as developing organisations in the North East, East Anglia and the South East. We are aware that cluster organisations don’t yet encompass all regions of the United Kingdom and are always open to discussion with potential partners who may wish to engage with this work to help us further this agenda. If you would like to offer support, please contact Simon Eardley. 

People 

  • Diversity in Maritime aims to promote a fair, equal, and inclusive UK maritime sector that embraces diversity and creates a supportive and open atmosphere for all to be able to achieve their potential. The programme includes four, safe-space networks. These networks bring together individuals and allies from across the sector to collaborate, discuss and break down barriers being faced. See the networks here.  
  • Colleagues can support the Diversity in Maritime Taskforce by joining one of its working groups: Recruitment; Retention and Progression; Pledges and Charter; Communicatons and Events, here.  
  • Companies can join Port of Aberdeen and Stena Line UK in sponsoring the programme or its networks.  
  • Individuals and companies can make use of programme initiatives (like the interview pool to ensure a diverse interview panel) here. 
  • Companies can sign up to the programme’s pledges or take a step further and commit to the charter, which requires the agreement of commitments and targets to help improve diversity across the sector.  
  • Maritime UK runs a national cross-sector ambassador programme, Inspiring the Future Maritime. The programme has been designed to support schools are colleges in meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks. Benchmark 5 sets out the expectation that all young people must have meaningful encounters with employers as part of their careers programme. The programme is open to anyone who works in the maritime sector, and Maritime UK provides comprehensive support to equip colleagues when working with schools and colleges.  
  • Businesses can support Maritime UK’s Careers & Outreach Programme by becoming a Careers Campaign Partner. Businesses can also support the programme through sponsorship. Contact Lorna Wagner for more.  
  • You can make use of Maritime UK’s maritime careers brand and resources in your own recruitment activity by downloading them here.  
  • If you are a careers professional, you can join Maritime UK’s Careers Professionals’ Network and receive bespoke resources and details of targeted CPD sessions.  
  • Maritime UK’s Maritime Masters programme is strengthening links between UK industry and academia. Companies and organisations from the maritime sector are invited to submit research themes and topics that students can choose to undertake or be inspired by. Efforts will be made to pair students up with relevant industry adopters to facilitate exchange in the research process. 

Raising the profile of the maritime sector 

  • Maritime UK has announced that its week-long national programme of events and activity to raise the profile of the sector and engage young people in the world of maritime will be held between 10 and 16 October 2022. This year Maritime UK week will focus on the theme of ‘Driving the UK’s Coastal Powerhouse’ and will see a national ‘open week’, where maritime businesses and museums will open their doors to show local communities about the fantastic world of maritime. In the coming weeks, full details of how you can get involved can be found here.  
  • If you have good news or are making a major announcement, we want to know! Maritime UK is keen to help promote news and developments across the sector. Whether to politicians or to industry, we can help. Be sure to add info@maritimeuk.org to your press release distribution.