Shipyards of the future (ZEWT Partnership)

European shipbuilding industry is facing increasing pressure from international players, and there is a need to improve its competitiveness through innovation and technological advancements. The MARI-4YARD project together with RESURGAM, FIBRE4YARDS, SMARTYards and PENELOPE developed several solutions on materials, processes, AI and skills. Additionally, the project SEUS in Horizon Europe is developing an integrated software platform with the ambition to save time in engineering, assembly and construction at European shipyards. However, there is still a need to increase the ambition and demonstrate these solutions in medium and small-size shipyards.

At the same time, shipyards are often located in sensitive natural areas, such as coastal regions and estuaries. This provides an opportunity for shipyards to evaluate and reduce their impact on the surrounding biodiversity.

The topic aims to improve efficiency and sustainability of European ship newbuilding and retrofitting processes, to improve the use of resources and circularity, to develop necessary skills and improve working conditions. This requires considering all relevant innovations such as robotics, automation, digitalization and AI in the context of shipbuilding to enhance EU/EEA -focused value chains. The purpose is to increase the competitiveness of the European shipbuilding sector with a view to further replicating and utilizing results, including in potential applications to the Innovation Fund.

Proposals are expected to address all the following aspects:

1. Deployment and integration of innovative technologies and systems in small and medium-size EU and EEA shipyards to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of newbuild, repair and retrofit processes and process chains.
2. Pilot applications should consider all aspects of the shipbuilding process (including technological, business-related and organizational aspects), equipment, and ship design, potentially including: a) automation and robotics in shipbuilding processes; b) advanced digitalization in design and production; c) innovations in retrofitting and predictive maintenance of shipbuilding assets; circular economy in all relevant processes (construction, repairs, retrofitting and dismantling).
3. Pilot applications should also consider systems interoperability and integration with existing shipyard infrastructure, tools and equipment.
4. Explore advanced ways of digital collaboration (co-simulation, sharing digital data) while considering cyber security, to improve synergies within value chains, including equipment manufacturers, shipyards, ship designers and shipowners.
5. Testing and physical demonstration of the developed technologies in real life shipyard ecosystem and as much as possible in relation with full scale ship building, including benchmarking of existing practices and consideration of environmental impacts and potential safety improvements for workers. Demonstrations should take place in at least three EU/EEA shipyards.
6. Develop biodiversity friendly strategies, integrating nature-based solutions on site, promoting circularity and sustainability of processes.
7. Additionally, a strategy for skills development should be presented, associating social partners and civil society where relevant.
8. Propose measures to solidify the current strengths of smaller and medium-sized shipyards across Europe, with a focus on increasing competitiveness and growth, reinforcing and growing European shipyards and improving environmental performance.
9. For exploitation purposes, proposals should: a) develop business plans and rollout strategies, including measures to reduce knowledge and technology leakage outside of Europe; b) identify clear target groups (vessel types, segments and processes) and their current state, deficiencies and improvement needs, and make a clear exploitation strategy on how to roll out the results to end-users.

Proposals are expected to explain the contribution of their objectives, results, IP management and exploitation strategy to the EU added value creation and strategic autonomy throughout the supply and value chain, including competitiveness of the EU waterborne industry, enhancement of the EU’s R&I capacity, technological know-how capabilities and human capital, and resilience of the EU industrial and manufacturing base. Proposals are encouraged to include synergies with shipyards, equipment manufacturers and providers, including start-ups and SMEs, located and/or manufacturing in the EU and EEA.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Zero Emission Waterborne Transport’ (ZEWT). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on results to the European Partnership ‘Zero Emission Waterborne Transport’ (ZEWT) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.