Final Report Summary - PROMARC (Promoting marine research careers) Executive summary: Europe has a strong maritime economy with a high global position. The strength of the European maritime industry is based on its entrepreneurship and ability to innovate. The European maritime companies can only maintain their position to produce innovative products if they can attract highly qualified research and technological development (RTD) personnel. In order to remain at the cutting edge of knowledge and technology for green, competitive, safe and secure advanced maritime products and operations not only naval architects, offshore and marine engineers but also marine scientists, marine transport economists and financiers as well as other related science and engineering graduates have to be attracted to undertake research and development in the maritime sector. PROMARC, which was funded by the Seventh Framework programme (FP7) of the European Commission (EC), aimed to raise awareness of job opportunities in the marine transport technology sector in research and innovative product development through: 1. investigation and analysis of current national and European Union (EU) schemes to promote maritime transport sector 2. investigation and analysis of current and future sector skill shortage and demand 3. creation of promotional materials on the research and innovation career opportunities in the maritime transport sector to be published online and as brochures and pamphlets for distribution by all sector stakeholders 4. activities to promote the marine transport technology sector in schools, including site visits, schools visits and an interactive internet site 5. activities to attract graduates to a career in research, including academic competitions, thematic workshops and summer schools. It was recognised that there is a severe gender imbalance in the marine technology sector and special efforts were targeted at female students to encourage them to follow research and innovation careers in the sector. The call under FP7 SST.2007.6.3 'Raising awareness of potential jobs opportunities in the surface transport sectors' aimed at 'Raising awareness of opportunities offered by surface transport research in job creation and future prospects for young people'. Market leadership was based on competency, know-how, innovation capability and collaboration. It was strongly dependent on the ability to foresee future needs and to forestall problems. This was true across the whole waterborne sector and was essential to the development of a knowledge based society in the EU. People were the main asset and attracting young and new researchers and innovators to the marine technology sector was a key if the EU was to maintain and expand its capabilities in advanced maritime technologies research, development and innovation which would lay the foundations of future market leadership in the sector. % Advanced maritime knowledge in research, design, manufacturing and the operation of ships was a fundamental factor to fuel the EU economy. Therefore the maritime sector needed to be perceived as offering reliable, safe workplaces for highly qualified people and an attractive and challenging career in science research and innovation at all levels. This required appropriate communication and education strategies for young pupils, within and outside the waterborne sector. These requirements were recognised in the VISION 2020 document produced by the Waterborne technology platform and by the current call. In order to meet the primary objective of the call, raising awareness of opportunities in the sector a systematic approach was adopted examining existing schemes for promoting careers, skills shortage and demand as well as identifying key subject areas and developing new schemes and materials to promote the sector to school age children and to attract graduates to a career in research and development (R&D). Project context and objectives: The PROMARC project addressed the call under FP7 SST.2007.6.3 'Raising awareness of potential jobs opportunities in the surface transport sectors' aiming at 'Raising awareness of opportunities offered by surface transport research in job creation and future prospects for young people'. There were three main objectives that PROMARC project focussed on. The first was to encourage young people to seek for high skilled research and innovation related jobs in marine technology sector. In order to meet the primary objective of the call, raising awareness of opportunities in the sector a systematic approach was adopted examining existing schemes for promoting careers, skills shortage and demand as well as identifying key subject areas and developing new schemes and materials to promote the sector to school age children and to attract graduates to a career in research and innovative marine product development. For school age children the focus was on demonstrating how the marine technology sector was exiting and dynamic focussing on innovative developments and research as well as bringing them into contact with organisations involved in research and innovation. This included arranging visits and excursions to research institutes, classification societies, modern vessels and ports. It was thus anticipated that the impact resulting from the undertaken activities would result in attracting school age children in deciding to follow a degree programme in the maritime sector. To stimulate and attract university graduates to careers in research and innovation one of the objectives was to demonstrate to the target group that there were exciting challenging careers available in a sector where there were skills in long term demand focussing on key technology areas including green vessel design and operations, innovative vessels and floating structures, innovative marine equipment systems and enhanced marine safety and security. Thus, it was anticipated that university students and recent graduates would decide on a career path in the maritime sector following the skill shortage and sectoral demand opportunities that existed. The second objective was to evaluate and demonstrate the potential of research outputs, outcomes and impacts to create and maintain jobs. PROMARC demonstrated how recent and current ongoing research could create and maintain jobs in the marine technology sector. By evaluating research outputs in key technology areas on recently completed and ongoing projects at EU and national level key subject areas were identified and a study made of the output, outcomes and impact of these projects was made with the objective of identifying and quantifying how these would create and maintain jobs in the maritime industry. Furthermore, skills shortage and demand questionnaires investigated and analysed the shortages in current skill areas and identified new skills which would be required in the future. Thus, capturing both the existing and emerging skills needed to enable sustainable careers in the marine technology sector in research and innovation and identifying areas where demand would be particularly acute and which would provide interesting and challenging careers. The organisation of communication and stimulation campaigns to promote careers in research and innovation in the marine technology sector was the third objective. For school aged children, promotional material was prepared for schools, in the form of flyers, digital versatile discs (DVDs), power point presentations as well as school projects, such as the 'Beach litter' project. A series of promotional activities were carried out during the course of the project in order to target graduates including: 1. summer schools based on the latest research in the key subject areas for graduates and postgraduate level students 2. academic competitions aimed at undergraduate level students on selected topics 3. thematic workshops which would act as a platform for exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience on the latest research and development (R&D) with both undergraduates and researchers 4. exchange and placement scheme for students to help young students gain experience of working in research and innovative product development. Overall, the work carried out in the project was strategically designed in order: % 1. to maximise the outputs and impacts of the project activities 2. to ensure an effective management and communication of the project 3. to achieve efficient dissemination of project results. Project results: 1. Overall, the aims and objectives of work package zero (WP0) were set: 1. in the coordination of the project in accordance with the objectives of the project and in ensuring that all project activities and deadlines are conducted to the satisfaction of the project work plan, the project steering committee and the EC 2. in managing the individual work package activities ensuring adherence to the work plan and to ensure the achievement of all project deliverables and milestones 3. in coordinating and managing activities related to project dissemination and exploitation 4. in acting as a point of communication to best facilitate the discussions related to future policy making and 5. in coordinating meetings and planned events. The objectives for WP0 in this reporting period focussed in the overall coordination and management of the project as well as on coordinating the deployment and dissemination of the main strategy of the PROMARC project with particular focus in this reporting period on an interim review of the dissemination and exploitation strategy (task 0-1 and task 0-2). The key objectives for WP1 were to identify key projects to take forward to continue to raise awareness of the marine sector with a number of different audiences. From the beginning of the project and up to date WP1: 1. developed a database of existing initiatives aimed at encouraging participation in the marine sector (task 1-1-1 and D1.1) 2. analysed and reported the output of the dataset with special attention paid to the purpose of the activity, target audience and impact and relationship of key drivers (task 1-1-2 and task 1-1-3, D1.2) 3. developed a priority programme of activities consisting of successful existing and new initiatives together with time bound and resource bound requirements (task 1-1-4 and D1.3) 4. planned initiatives which were piloted in WP5 (task 1-1-5 and D1.4) 5. produced WP1 concluding report (Task 1-1-6 and D1.5). Based on the final evaluation of activities undertaken from WP1 it was concluded that further initiatives were necessary in order to promote the aims and objectives of the PROMARC project. Further to the deliverables planned in the description of works (DoW), WP1 continued contributing up to the completion of the project, despite the fact that it successfully completed the tasks and delivered the milestones as described in the annex on time. Overall, WP1 additionally developed a school project, titled 'Beach litter', gave a presentation in nine schools for 270 children, at the Devon County Council, wrote up an article to be published to the new version of Sea Vision United Kingdom's (UK) 'Maritime' magazine, disseminated information about the PROMARC project's aims and objectives at the Cornwall Marine Network and promoted the PROMARC project in the Shipping Ambassadors scheme. Thus, WP1 activities added further value to the project. In order to be able to promote maritime research careers we also identified skills shortages and skills staff demand in R&D organisations. WP2 set objectives aiming in capturing skill shortage and demand by identifying and quantifying current skill shortage in R&D maritime organisations, industry with innovative maritime products, research institutes and wider maritime professional community, as well as by identifying organisations needing skilled staff for R&D activities and recording relevant information. From the beginning of the project and up to date WP2 circulated, collected, analysed and reported data on skill shortage and demand, as well as skilled staff demand questionnaires (D 2.1 and D2.2) which could provide the foundations for planning, training and development activities, increasing efforts throughout summer schools, competitions and workshops. The key findings of the report were as follows and provided an important insight into the current marine research employment market: 1. current and future demand as captured by job openings was greater for people with bachelor's or master's degrees while PhD candidates and people with post doctoral qualifications followed. This result was in accordance with skills questionnaire's analysis while the drop in demand for all job openings called for further investigation. 2. the most essential expertise fields, as reported in the demand questionnaire, were hydrodynamics, fluid dynamics, environmental aspects and manoeuvring and propulsion control 3. as reported by participants, half of the institutions (56 %) had an established program for continuous professional development and education. Furthermore, one third (33 %) reported that, in their institution, there were re-skilling or skills enhancement requirements which were covered through their internal training activities and educational programmes. Finally, half of the participants, reporting lack of such programmes in their institution, would consider their introduction beneficial. 4. the highly ranked methods for such programs were attendance of postgraduate training courses provided by universities, ad-hoc training sessions by experts in certain fields and usage of e-learning facilities provided by universities and other institutions. At the same time it seemed that participants considered collaboration with industry and research institutions as the most beneficial way for affecting positively the reskilling and skills' enhancement requirements for their staff as well as a good way of attracting new staff members. 5. closing participants' remarks included the remark that skilled-staff demand and skills shortage were greatly affected by limited resources offered to RTD staff within many institutions. Some participants also expressed the opinion that an increase in personnel mobility at European or international level would help significantly in coverage of staff demand and skills shortage. The objective of WP3 was to identify and quantify recently completed and current projects at EU and national level in the subject areas of green vessel design and operations, innovative vessels and floating structures, innovative marine equipment and systems and enhanced marine safety and security with a view to promoting future job opportunities in the maritime R&D and innovative product industry by establishing a database of multi-disciplinary projects with a main theme in waterborne transport. Based on the methodology and tools developed in task 3.1 and the results of WP2, the database set up during task 3.1 was populated by searching the databases of EC FP4, FP5 and FP6 programmes and individual project home pages to identify relevant projects. The approach to be adopted for data collection would include home page search, questionnaires, interviews and phone calls. The objective for this reporting period was to continue this exercise. For WP4 the major objectives were to conceptually integrate WP1 to WP6 and provide a 'window' and a 'door' of the project to the public. During this reporting period, substantial work was undertaken on the public website (D4.1 and D4.2) available at 'http://promarc.org'. The website was updated with information about the forthcoming events and competitions being held as part of the PROMARC project. The hits achieved by the website demonstrated that the website was regularly viewed. The project infrastructure at: 'http://www.wegemt.org.uk/promarc/' continued to be utilised and populated by the project team as a platform for communication, providing updates to partners on deliverables and overall project reporting. L WP5 aims and objectives focussed on the development and adaptation of promotional materials and activities in order to attract young learners into a future maritime career and the transfer of this generic material to different locations. WP6 aims focussed on promoting maritime careers at university level students by organising academic contests, summer schools, placement and exchange in R&D and thematic workshops. Throughout the duration of the PROMARC project WP6 successfully organised two summer schools, two academic competitions, two thematic workshops and also organised visits and exchanges of students and graduates with the aim being to promote careers and research in the maritime sector. Potential impact: The final results of the PROMARC project funded by the FP7 EC programme, its aims and objectives had an overall lasting impact in raising awareness of job opportunities in the marine transport technology sector and in research and innovative product development. The investigation and analysis of current national and EU schemes as well as the investigation and analysis of current and future sector skill shortage and demand in the maritime transport sector was used as output in the promotional materials and activities developed by the PROMARC project with the objective to raise awareness about job opportunities in the maritime sector. It was anticipated that the extensive and broad communication and stimulation campaigns targeting young people and researchers of different ages would further impact on the creation and maintenance of jobs giving special consideration to opportunities for young people and gender balance. It is also worth mentioning that the above achieved as well as expected results of the project PROMARC would not have been feasible at all without the support of the EC. The information generated by this project was disseminated in different ways, such as: 1. through the website established for the project. The website was the central focus of communication amongst the participants. It had openly accessible areas as well as password protected areas for 'work in progress'. The website would be sustained after the end of the project initially from WP4 leader and would ultimately be handed to WEGEMT, who would be responsible for its maintenance and administration. The partners agreed to continue populating the database by providing information about seminars, workshops, summer schools, career opportunities and other events referring to maritime activities and opportunities. The website was planned to be advertised via the universities and through other EU projects. The PROMARC website would also be linked with other EU project websites, where possible. 2. following a series of annual workshops, reports on activities were edited and published. The reports included individual and collective articles. Specialised journals were approached with a view to publishing these reports as special editions within the open literature generated in the project. 3. through publications in maritime journals, particularly those of participating and related associations. These were used to present the 'cutting edge' achievements of the project. The following activities were carried out in order to meet the set objectives of the PROMARC project. Firstly it was aimed to encourage young people to seek for high skilled jobs in the marine sector with special focus on science, research and innovation, via 1. inventory of skill shortage and demand in R&D marine sector (WP2) 2. inventory and review of European national schemes to promote the marine industry sector (WP1) 3. identification of 'best-fit' programmes of promotional activities with proven results in the form of high quality and cost effective deliverables and outputs (WP1) 4. promotion of research opportunities in the marine industry sector (WP3) 5. development of promotional material for schools (WP5) 6. development of promotional activities for universities (WP6). It was also aimed to evaluate and demonstrate the potential of research outputs, outcomes and impacts to create and maintain jobs giving special consideration to opportunities for young people and gender balance, through: 1. inventory of innovative product development in the marine sector by search of results of European funded projects from FP4, FP5 and FP6 (WP3) 2. analysis and review of results with focus on the potential of research outputs for innovative product development and RTD job opportunities in the marine industry sector (WP3). Extensive and broad communication and stimulation of campaigns targeting young people of different ages, from early school to university, was also conducted through 1. dissemination of promotional material for schools (WP4) 2. organisation of contacts and visits of school children to university laboratories, marine research centres, advanced ships, ports and port traffic control centres (WP5) 3. dissemination of promotional material for universities (WP6) 4. organisation of two summer schools on various themes (WP6) 5. organisation of two academic competitions on various themes (WP6) 6. organisation of two European Association of Universities in Marine technology and Related Sciences (WEGEMT) workshops on various themes (WP6) 7. development of schemes and support of exchange and placement of students in R&D and marine innovative product industry (WP6). The foreground created by the PROMARC project could be exploited in the short and long term by the European marine industry in RTD and in technological innovation. The PROMARC platform that was created could be beneficial for many marine industry companies, and especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in attracting promising young engineers. European universities are carried by public funds, and as their impact on society's welfare is imperative any mechanism enhancing their impact should be supported. It was anticipated that the foreground created by the PROMARC project could also be exploited by European universities in increasing competitiveness, multidisciplinary approaches to research, providing high skilled and specialised graduates, enabling stronger links to industry through graduates and could only have a positive contribution in so far as universities possess the fundamental skills and transferability and flexibility that research associations and industry lack. Apart from the industry and universities, decision makers could be better informed about university capabilities and future RTD and research based education (RBE) strategies either through their actively interacting with the PROMARC platform or as recipients of PROMARC's dissemination activities. The outcomes of the PROMARC support action (SA) were likely to have important strategic benefit and might have scope for transfer to other academic and industry sectors. Finally, young people and university graduates could be informed about skill shortage and demand in the maritime sector and thus be aware of potential job opportunities in the marine industry sector. As the PROMARC project was an SA, the nature of the work to be conducted focussed mainly on collecting and assimilating data in the public domain and on their dissemination. However, it was anticipated that there would be opportunities for exploitation of the project's overall outputs, such as the development of a PROMARC branded curriculum suitable for teachers, while project activities and dissemination of the aims and objectives could inspire the publication of maritime books with the main purpose to influence and promote maritime careers. A further exploitable resource that was developed through the PROMARC activities was the communication of the project's report activities to other European public bodies such as the Regional Council of Britanny, in order to further enhance activities working towards promoting maritime careers. List of websites: 'http://www.promarc.org'. Related documents Final Report - PROMARC (Promoting marine research careers)
