News

August - September 2024 News

Added: 19/09/2024

OPTIMISM Interim Report Approved
It is heartening to report that the OPTIMISM interim report to the Swedish National Agency was approved without any changes to it. This milestone marks acknowledgment that expected progress in achieving the project's objectives to enhance maritime operations and safety standards has been made.

June - July 2024 News

Added: 31/07/2024

OPTIMISM Project Submits Interim Report
The OPTIMISM project, a pivotal initiative in maritime safety and efficiency, has submitted its Interim Report to the Swedish national agency for approval. This milestone marks significant progress in the project's objectives to enhance maritime operations and safety standards.

April - May 2024 News

Added: 11/04/2024

IMO ISM Code Study Concluded
C4FF was commissioned by IMO to carry out a Study of the Effectiveness and effective implementation of the ISM Code. The background was the MSC 107 (June 2023), following a proposal by Norway (MSC 107/17/5) on a comprehensive review of the ISM Code and related guidelines, noted information provided orally by the Secretariat, in particular, that the conclusions and results of the Study could support any regulatory exercise in this context, with a view to responding to the need to ensure safe, secure, environmentally sound, efficient and sustainable shipping (MSC 107/20, paragraph 17.19).

February - March 2024 News

Added: 15/02/2024

New projects Several projects have been awarded to C4FF. Two new projects by the EU and one major project by the InnovateUK. More on these exciting developments in the next April-May 2024 news.

December 2023- January 2024 News

Added: 18/01/2024

Midland Engineering Dinner The dinner was held at the Burlington Hotel in the centre of Birmingham on Friday 17th November 2023. The photos show the speech by Professor Reza at the event and presentation of the C4FF-IMechE join Certificate for Climate Change Action for Air Quality School Competition to the Winner of the competition Goerge Campbell-Fergusen. The prize included the certificate, invitation to the Winner and a representative from the School to the Dinner, £250 to the Winner and £250 to the School, King’s School (Worcester). Congratulations to Goerge Campbell-Ferguson and King’s School.

October - November 2023 News

Added: 01/11/2023

New Developments

The UK government is considering and reviewing policies. Professor Reza was invited to a meeting and had brief discussion with deputy chair of conservative party.

A lecture on LNG was given by Captain Allen Campion sponsored by Midland IMarEST at WMG Warwick University. Professor Ziarati, Chair of Midland IMarEST branch thanking Capt. Campion for his excellent lecture. The lecture will be available on IMarEST TV shortly.

August - September 2023 News

Added: 01/10/2023

New projects

C4FF’s safety at sea project has been approved by the EU. This project will run from C4FF’s Sweden’s newly established Centre. The project is a continuation of the C4FF’s IMO ISM Code Study and was developed to provide an international standard for the safe at sea and for marine pollution prevention. Almost all ISM Code manual are required to take ISO 9000 Quality System and ISO 14000 Environmental Management Systems into account. The problem is that any form of procedural quality system such ISM does not necessarily improve safety for this reason a novel online course on ISM Code requirements and all relevant safety, environmental and quality standards is being proposed.

June - July 2023 News

Added: 31/07/2023

New projects

C4FF has been Awarded a major research and innovation project by UK Government.

CSAMGuard project C4FF Business Intelligence Team led by Dr Lakhvir Singh, has been awarded a major research project by UK Government to combat CSAM Links on the clear web. The CSAMGuard project introduces an innovative and advanced approach to address the critical issue of detecting and preventing the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) links. This groundbreaking method leverages machine learning (ML) to significantly enhance accuracy and minimize false positives, surpassing traditional methodologies such as blacklisting and heuristic techniques. The project's core focus revolves around the development of two integral components: the Central CSAM Intelligence System (CCIS) and the Local CSAM Scanning System (LCSS). These systems work in tandem to create a comprehensive defence against CSAM links at both global and local levels.

April - May 2023 News

Added: 24/05/2023

New projects

C4FF has been granted two major contracts by the UK Government and UN/IMO. More information about the progress of theses exciting projects in June-July MariFuture News.

C4FF also has started a new ITEA project and may take part in another project. Again more information about these two projects in the next News. The Virtual Reality project will come to an end soon. The final report is being compiled. This was a very interesting project and the outcome is expected to be used in new projects/proposals.

February 2023 - March 2023 News

Added: 24/02/2023

The UK Government embraces ITEA within the EUREKA programme

This is good news. ITEA programme are well assessed and are near market precisely what the UK needs. Some £6 million has been assigned to phase 1 which is expected to fund some 10 projects each of £600k value. C4FF has recently been involved with several successful ITEA projects and currently is part of a prestigious project called ENTA. The UPTIMUM project, C4FF first involvement with ITEA received outstanding award in all three Category. The Centre intends to support several consortia and play a major role in making ITEA a success in the UK.

December 2022 - January 2023 News

Added: 22/12/2022

The partners for New Project DESSEV project met in Warsaw, Poland on 14-16 November 2022. The meeting was successful and outline the plan for the project implementation and discussions on the role of each partner and the consortium as a team.

The partners for LifeSkills Virtual Reality project met virtually on 07 December 2022. The meeting was successful and led to successful discussions on piloting plan. The next face-to-face meeting has been planned to take place in March/April 2023 in Portugal.

December 2022 News

Added: 07/12/2022

The University of Nottingham is organising a conference on Technology challenges for addressing urban air quality on 7th of December 2022 at Energy Technologies Building, Room B27, Jubilee Campus, NG7 2TU.

Professor Reza Ziarati from C4FF is presentating his research on "Pollution from transport systems: A strategy for sustainable transport systems". Click on the pdf icon to view detailed agenda.

October/November 2022 News

Added: 10/01/2022

The partners for LifeSkills Virtual Reality project met in Athens on 21-24 September 2022. The meeting was successful and led to several scenarios to be prepared.

There was a meeting of STEM Ambassadors in London organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineering (IMechE). The meeting helped to work with the STEM toolkit developed and promoted by the IMechE. Kits are available free of charge to any organisation wishing to use it to promote STEM at schools. There are also STEM Ambassadors willing to help to run workshop at schools.

August/September 2022 News

Added: 11/08/2022

Our OPTIMUM project is selected for this year´s Exceptional ITEA Award of Excellence for outstanding results in all three categories’ viz., Innovation, Business impact and Standardisation.

Congratulations to Anja Fischer and all at Demagcranes researchers as well as to all partners. This is a cause for big celebrations.

June/July 2022 News

Added: 09/05/2022

As per previous announcements due to Covid-19 there will be bi-monthly news until further notice. Any news up-dates will be implemented as and when necessary, during June and July 2022.

Important announcement

The PoliUniBus Climate Action Air Quality Conference 2022 will take place on 23th June 2022. The latest programme for the Conference is as follows

April/May 2022 News

Added: 09/05/2022

The PoliUniBus Climate Action Air Quality Conference 2022 will take place on 23th June 2022. The programme for the Conference is being finalised. More information will be available soon.

February/March 2022 News

Added: 25/02/2022

As per previous announcements due to Covid-19 there will be bi-monthly news until further notice. Any news up-dates will be implemented as and when necessary, during February and March 2022.

The PROMETHEAS project partner meeting took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 3-4th December 2021. The next event is the Polish Multiplier event which is being organised by MUS on May 12-13 in Świnoujście.

PROMETHEAS multiplier UK event has been scheduled for 8th June 2022. Members of the UK SIG Mental Health and Wellbeing have agreed to support this event. More on this workshop in future issues of MariFuture.

December 2021/January 2022 News

Added: 04/01/2022

We wish all our partners a healthy and happy New Year and hope that COVID is no longer will us in the New Year. As per previous announcements due to Covid-19 there will be bi-monthly news until further notice. Any news up-dates will be implemented as and when necessary, during December 2021 and January 2022.

October/November 2021 News

Added: 28/10/2021

As per previous announcements due to Covid-19 there will be bi-monthly news until further notice. Any news up-dates will be implemented as and when necessary, during November and December 2021.

August/September 2021 News

Added: 30/08/2021

The new Cyber Space project will deliver an encrypted traffic analysis service platform for cyber security. The platform will support a number of basic building blocks necessary for any Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) based traffic analysis. C4FF is pleased to be involved in this interesting and innovative project and disseminate and exploit the project outcomes through its networks in UK and across Europe.

June/July 2021 News

Added: 30/06/2021

In countering cyber espionage and attacks, The Centre for Factories of the Future (C4FF) has developed a full degree programme and various modules have already been tested at associated universities including C4FF’s own university, namely, University Centre Garden City (UCGC). Furthermore, C4FF has started a new project named Cyber Space to help mainly very small businesses to cope with the complexity of computer systems and networks and become cyber security safe.

April/May 2021 News

Added: 28/04/2021

There have been several successes since last News in February/March 2021. A major Eureka project on Cyber Security has been approved and C4FF and MariFuture are expected to play in major role in this project. In addition, C4FF’s new Erasmus+ has been approved with a high score. The assessment of the project was complimentary about the partners particularly C4FF. C4FF has an unrivalled track record of success with all its past and present funded projects, many awarded as ‘Best in Europe’ and all with high score for the proposals and/or for project delivery. As reported in the previous news, due to Covid-19 there will be bi-monthly news until further notice. Any news up-dates will be implemented as and when necessary, during April and May 2021. The problems associated with Corona Virus continue to have an impact on C4FF work including its charitable networks and business units. Some of the EU and Eureka projects are progressing in general but some EU funded projects are being either re-scheduled or extended. This situation if continued may impact other projects and activities. We hope these surreal times will come to an end and that we can continue to work on all projects as planned soon. The manning for new projects has also been agreed.

Feburary 2021/March 2021 News

Added: 03/03/2021

C4FF’s University Centre (Garden City) supported the development of two new courses in Technological Innovations and Research Methods. The courses were submitted to the Institution of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST0. Both courses have now received recognition as IMarEST CPD courses. C4FF is also in the process of finalizing the development of an e-course in mentoring. With support from IMarEST the course is now being evaluated and is expected to be submitted as a recognized CPD course in the near future. In parallel, a course in improving mental health at sea and eradicating bullying is being developed with several partner organisations in the EU.

December 2020/January 2021 News

Added: 24/12/2020

As reported in the previous news, due to Covid-19 there will be bi-monthly news until further notice. Any news up-dates will be implemented as and when necessary during December 2020 and January 2021. It is pertinent to restate that the Corona Virus has created untold problems and challenges for many organisations and C4FF related businesses are no different and all have been adversely impacted. Some of the EU and Eureka projects are progressing in general but some EU funded projects are being either re-scheduled or extended. This situation if continued may impact other projects and activities. We hope these surreal times come to a satisfactory end and that we can continue to work on all projects as planned soon.

October/November 2020 News

Added: 05/11/2020

As reported in the previous news due to Covid-19 there will be bi-monthly news until further notice. Any news up-date will be implemented as and when necessary during October and November 2020. The Corona Virus has created untold problems and challenges for many organisations and C4FF related businesses are no different and all have been adversely impacted. Some of the EU and Eureka projects are progressing in general but some EU funded projects are being either re-scheduled or extended. This situation if continued may impact other projects and activities. We hope these surreal times come to a satisfactory end and that we can continue to work on all projects as planned soon.

August/September 2020 News

Added: 29/08/2020

The Corona Virus has created untold problems and challenges for many organisations and C4FF related businesses are no different and all have been adversely impacted. Some of the EU and Eureka projects are progressing in general but some EU funded projects are being either re-scheduled or extended. This situation if continued may impact other projects and activities. We hope these surreal times come to a satisfactory end and that we can continue to work on all projects as planned soon.

June/July 2020 News

Added: 24/06/2020

Due to Covid-19 there will be bi-monthly news until further notice. Any news up-date will be implemented as and when necessary during June and July 2020.

April/May 2020 News

Added: 22/05/2020

Corona Virus has created untold problems and challenges for many organisations and C4FF related businesses are no different and all have been adversely impacted. Some of the EU and Eureka projects are progressing in general but some EU funded projects are being either re-scheduled or extended. This situation if continued may impact other projects and activities. We hope these surreal times come to a satisfactory end and that we can continue to work on all projects as planned.

March 2020 News

Added: 31/03/2020

In a response to a letter by Professor Ziarati about the air quality and invitation to Professor’s Lecture at Warwick University on Zero Emissions, the Prime Minster thanks the efforts by C4FF and states that it is testament to Professor and his Air Quality Groups’ hard work that there so many people and organisation are involved in helping to reduce toxic pollutants across the UK.

Feburary 2020 News

Added: 18/03/2020

Centre for Factories of the Future (C4FF) have liaised with the Government with regards to their future plans and the likelihood impact of Brexit on the Centre’s new and current EU projects.

January 2020 News

Added: 10/01/2020

Centre for Factories of the Future (C4FF) have been liaising with the Government with regards to their future plans and the likelihood impact of Brexit on the Centre’s new EU funded energy efficiency projects.

In response to the C4FF’s efforts in helping to improve the air quality the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs have written explaining about the Government ‘Road to Zero’ strategy which is an approach to reduce emissions of road vehicles. It is reassuring to read, that this department has identified mechanisms, such as, a Multi-Day Air Quality Forecast Service and Daily Air Quality Index, to advise the public of strategies to support any potential health concerns potentially related to air quality. The Department for Exiting the European Union have also written to confirm that the Government envisages that international exchange and collaboration in education training is of value and have devised a framework for cooperation including education. Although, these details are not definitive until the new government is in place after the election, C4FF feel this is a positive start to the Government developments.

December 2019 News

Added: 31/12/2019

Centre for Factories of the Future have been liaising with the Government with regards to their future plans. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs have written explaining about the Government ‘Road to Zero’ strategy which is an approach to reduce emissions of road vehicles. It is reassuring to read, that this department has identified mechanisms, such as, a Multi-Day Air Quality Forecast Service and Daily Air Quality Index, to advise the public of strategies to support any potential health concerns potentially related to air quality.

November 2019 News

Added: 29/11/2019

This year Professor Ziarati chaired and organised the Midlands Engineering Dinner. C4FF has been hosting several meetings of the organising committee at its offices in Kenilworth.

October 2019 News

Added: 30/10/2019

Professor Ziarati, the MariFuture General Coordinator and C4FF Chair, attended the Air Quality Summit organised by the Leamington Town Councillor, Susan Rasmessun, and the Member of Parliament for Leamington and Warwick, Mr Matt Western MP. Professor Ziarati’s presentation and slides can be found in the MariFuture Article for October 2019.

August/September 2019 News

Added: 30/08/2019

Year of Efficient Ship
MariFuture is continuing with publishing a Development Paper each month throughout 2019 in support of the ‘Year of Efficient Ship’ due to the importance of the subject in order to make our members and partners aware of the impact of toxic pollutants from shipping; and the means available to us to reduce the level and amount of the emissions from ships to minimum. In parallel we will publish our recent results of air quality research in several cities and towns focusing mainly on the UK.

July 2019 News

Added: 30/07/2019

MariFuture is continuing with publishing a Development Paper each month throughout 2019 in support of the ‘Year of Efficient Ship’ due to the importance of the subject in order to make our members and partners aware of the impact of toxic pollutants from shipping; and the means available to us to reduce the level and amount of the emissions from ships to minimum. In parallel we will publish our recent results of air quality research in several cities and towns focusing mainly on the UK.

June 2019 News - Issue 2

Added: 19/06/2019

I am writing this letter on behalf of our director, Prof. Reza Ziarati of The Centre for Factories of the Future (C4FF) to request a press release to be submitted under the ‘Business service’. C4FF has been at the cutting-edge of innovation and technological advancement since its inception in 1984. C4FF Focussing centrally on the research and development for industry and academia has become a world-leader in several business and industrial sectors such as maritime education, hybrid vehicles, business intelligence and factory automation. In recent years, this research and development has been supported through a number of UK’s Technology Strategy Board and the EU’s Leonardo and Framework 7 funded projects. Many of these projects concerned with air quality and has been involved in several Clean Diesel projects. It designed the first hybrid car and bus in the UK.

June 2019 News - Issue 1

Added: 18/06/2019

The press release is prepared in support our Air quality Conference which will be held on 21 June 2019 at Coventry University. See over for details. The conference is an opportunity to provide a platform for the local resident associations, local universities, local councils, local MPs/MEPs, national and Government representatives, local environmental groups, air quality specialists; the key aim is to bring all the key stakeholders in the region, and from wider afield, to discuss how to manage the impact of poor air quality on local residents.

May 2019 News

Added: 30/05/2019

MariFuture, as announced previously, will continue the ‘Year of Efficient Ship’ throughout 2019 due to the importance of the subject in order to make our members and partners aware of the impact of toxic pollutants from shipping; and the means available to reduce the level and amount of the emissions from ships to minimum. To this end, we will be continuing our publication of a development paper on the subject of ship energy management every month this year. The presentation by Professor Ziarati (C4FF Chair and, MariFuture Founder and General Coordinator) and Captain Bhuiyan (Solent University) presentation at IMO’s HTW6 on 29th April 2019 gave the MariFuture and the project teams an opportunity to bring to the attention of the world the importance of this subject.

April 2019 News

Added: 29/04/2019

The Mentor project partner meeting took place in Kenilworth on 10-11th April 2019. The first workshop of the project was held on 10th April 2019 at Warwick University. C4FF coordinated the meetings during the two-day event and take a lead in the workshop.

March 2019 News

Added: 28/03/2019

C4FF’s intelligent forecaster was the first AI system to predict the outcome of the referendum viz., 52% leave and 48% remain, several months before the referendum. The predictions are recorded in several MariFuture articles – See Development Paper in MariFuture website (see the article published on 9/6/2016 - http://www.marifuture.org/Publications/Articles/Brexit_Report_III.pdf). MariFuture and their European partners would wish the EU R&D, Education and innovation initiatives to continue. We hope the UK make the right choice deciding to continue its productive collaborations in these areas for many years to come.

Feburary 2019 News

Added: 28/02/2019

MariFuture will continue the ‘Year of Efficient Ship’ throughout 2019 due to the importance of the subject to make our members and partners aware of the impact of toxic pollutants from shipping; and the means available to us to reduce the level and amount of the emissions from ship to minimum. To this end, we will be continuing our publication of a development paper on the subject of ship energy management in the coming months.

January 2019 News

Added: 23/01/2019

MariFuture has decided to continue the ‘Year of Efficient Ship’ in 2019 due to its significance and the importance of making our members and partners aware of the impact of toxic pollutants from shipping; and the means available to us to reduce the level and amount of the emissions from ship to minimum. To this end, we will be continuing our publication of a development paper on the subject of ship energy management in the coming months.

December 2018 News

Added: 18/12/2018

The EU Erasmus funded MariEMS and ACTS Plus papers were presented at the IMLA Conference in Manila, Philippines on 24-25 October 2018. It was noted that the IMLA Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on 24 October 2018 during the 25th IMLA Conference.

November 2018 News

Added: 01/11/2018

The EU Erasmus funded MariEMS and ACTS Plus papers were presented at the IMLA Conference in Manila, Philippines on 24-25 October 2018. It was noted that the IMLA Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on 24 October 2018 during the 25th IMLA Conference.

October 2018 News

Added: 01/10/2018

IMarEST has informed that they were impressed with the MariEMS Course developed as part of EU Erasmus+ funded MariEMS project and the course has been recognised as an approved CPD until 2025. This is an important achievement and MariFuture would to thank all partners in this is outstanding milestone and endorsement by this prestigious professional body with Royal Charter and recognised worldwide under Washington Treaty.

August/September 2018 News

Added: 28/08/2018

C4FF, the parent company of MariFuture, has now an official member of SIG (Special Interest Group) on Particulate Matter Filtration Flows in Automotive and Marine Applications which is run by UK Fluids Network. The next meeting of SIG is on September 20th, 2018 at Newcastle University. Professor Reza Ziarati, founder of MariFuture will be giving his speech on “Recent Developments in Ship Energy Efficiency - Design & Operations” in this event.

July 2018 News

Added: 17/07/2018

The University Centre Garden City was launched in June 2018. Congratulations to all those who supported the creation of the Bahcesehir University UK Campus. The University will operate under the University Centre Garden City underpinned by the all the group’s academic and industrial units. Special thanks to the management and staff members of the Bahcesehir University in Turkey as well as the staff members at the Centre for Factories of the Future (C4FF) and MarEdu Partnership (MarEdu). Seeking approval from the UK Government to be allowed to use the title of the ‘University’ and registering the University with Companies House together with obtaining the ‘ac.uk’ required a concentrated effort for the core project team by the founding bodies. The new University will be based in the UK. C4FF and MarEdu are both registered UK legal entities (one a limited company and the other a partnership) with many years of designing and running joint degrees including MPhil/PhDs. The respective websites can be found at www.c4ff.co.uk & www.maredu.co.uk. The University will operate through its academic partners and at its newly established business centre, Berkeley House, in Kenilworth, the heart of England, during its initial development phases. Its first Foundation Degree will be offered through the Warwickshire College Group and the Degree top-up through De Montfort University, starting in October 2019.

June 2018 News

Added: 15/06/2018

Professor Ziarati, the Founder and General Coordinator of MariFuture, attended an event hosted by the HRH Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward, who is the Chancellor of Bath University, at Windsor Castle accompanied by Mrs Zena Ziarati. As well as discussing the establishment of the University Centre in Warwickshire seeking Bath University’s support, Professor Ziarati had the opportunity to talked to the Earl about the importance of the established university, such as Bath, helping new universities to provide novel higher education programmes to complement the provisions by existing and high quality universities in the UK. The example of the new university in Hereford supported by Warwick and Bristol Universities were given as a way forward.

May 2018 News

Added: 09/05/2018

As reported in previous News announcements MariFuture has decided to continue the ‘Year of Efficient Ship’ in 2018 due to the importance making our members and partners aware of the impact of toxic pollutants from shipping and the vast array of means available to us to reduce the level and amount of the emissions from ships to a minimum. To this end, we will be continuing our publication of a development paper on the subject of ship energy management in the coming months. To support ‘The Year of efficient Ship’ there were several major events during March and April 2018, notably three keynote speeches given by the MariFuture Founder, Professor Dr Reza Ziarati at the International Propeller Club on 8th March 2018, Genoa, Italy; Johnson Matthey Technology Centre, 19th March 2018, Reading, UK and at the MariEMS final conference on 22nd March 2018. In April the fourth ACTS Plus partner meetings took place on 22-23 April in Mallorca, Spain. Several other meetings were held to consolidate the success of acquiring the parcel of land from the Warwick District Council for the C4FF/MarEdu supported new university and for the C4FF supported STEM centre in the UK. C4FF’s business centre (Berkeley House) has already allocated another larger parcel of the land to be used for the coordination of the STEM centre and the new University planned activities.

April 2018 News

Added: 20/04/2018

MariFuture is celebrating its success in the Eureka ITEA3 DayTime project proposal. This is excellent news as the project is primarily about digital twins and IoT. More details about the outcome of the new proposals will be reported in May 2018 News.

March 2018 News

Added: 21/03/2018

March is often the month the shipping comes to life in any new year. The MariFuture team has been very busy in February and this month formulating new project proposals and becoming involved with new initiatives and ventures. More details will be provided on the outcome of the new proposals in April 2018 News. As reported in previous News announcements MariFuture has decided to continue the ‘Year of Efficient Ship’ in 2018 due to the importance making our members and partners aware of the impact of toxic pollutants from shipping and vast array of means available to us to reduce the level and amount of the emissions from ship to minimum. To this end, we will be continuing our publication of a development paper on the subject ship energy management in the coming months.

February 2018 News

Added: 01/02/2018

February is often is a quiet months for the shipping industry when many take a rest before embracing themselves with flurry of activities starting in the Spring. The MariFuture team has been very busy this month formulating new projects and becoming involved with new initiatives and ventures. More on recent developments will be published in March 2018 News.

January 2018 News

Added: 01/01/2018

We hope you that you all had a wonderful Christmas and doing well in the New Year. MariFuture has decided to continue the ‘Year of Efficient Ship’ in 2018 due to its importance and the importance of making our members and partners aware of the impact of toxic pollution from shipping and means available to us to reduce the level and amount of the emissions from ship to minimum. To this end, we will be continuing our publication of a development paper on the subject ship energy management in the coming months.

December 2017 News

Added: 01/12/2017

With coming of the Christmas and new year, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all partners a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Best wishes for the 2018. In continuation of MariFuture’s Year of Efficient Ship we are continuing our publication of a development paper on the subject of Ports and Port Area-Emissions - see the Development Paper for this month, December2017. MariFuture has been informed that its proposal Erasmus + project UniBus has been approved by the EU. The first partner meeting took place on 27-28November 2017 in Istanbul.

November 2017 News

Added: 01/11/2017

To celebrate the ‘Year of Efficient Ship’ MariFuture will continue publishing a development paper each month for the whole of 2017 – see the Development Paper for November2017. MariFuture has been informed that its proposal project UniBus has been approved by the EU. The first partner meetingwill take place in November 2017. MariFuture once gain would wish to thank partners for their contributions and wish them well in implementing the project as proposed. MariFuture has been informed that another of its proposal is on top of the reserved list and may get funded. MariFuture has been working on two H2020 proposals with several partners Europe-wide. The two approved Eureka project will start shortly. C4FF supported the visit to the Eureka ITEA 3 event which took place in September 2017 in Berlin, Germany. Several proposals are being considered for further developments.

October 2017 News

Added: 01/10/2017

To celebrate the ‘Year of Efficient Ship’ MariFuture will continue publishing a development paper each month for the whole of 2017 – see the Development Paper for October 2017. The first meeting of the new project, UniBus, initiated by MariFuture will take place in November 2017. MariFuture once gain would wish to thank partners for their contributions and wish them well in implementing the project as proposed. Another of MariFuture proposal is on top of the reserved list and may get funded.

September 2017 News

Added: 01/09/2017

To celebrate the Year of Efficient Ship MariFuture will continue publishing a development paper each month for the whole of 2017 – see the Development Paper for September 2017. Great news! The UniBus project proposal initiated by MariFuture was approved by the EU. MariFuture would wish to thank all UniBus partners for their contributions and wish them well in implementing the project as proposed. Another of MariFuture proposal is on top of the reserved list and may get funded. MariFuture has been working two H2020 proposals with several partners Europe-wide. The two approved Eureka project will start shortly. Arrangements are also being made to attend next Eureka ITEA event in Berlin, Germany in October 2017.

August 2017 News

Added: 01/08/2017

To celebrate the Year of Efficient Ship MariFuture will continue publishing a development paper each month for the whole of 2017. MariFuture is working on a new H2020 proposal with several partners Europe-wide. Arrangements are also being made to attend next Eureka ITEA event in Berlin, Germany in October 2017.

July 2017 News

Added: 01/07/2017

MariFuture has now been informed that another of the proposals it has been supporting have gone through stage 1 of the evaluation. To this end, there are two H2020 proposals which will be prepared for stage 2 evaluation; more on this in August 2017 News.

June 2017 News

Added: 01/06/2017

To celebrate the Year of Efficient Ship MariFuture will continue publishing a development paper each month for the whole of 2017.

May 2017 News

Added: 01/05/2017

To celebrate the Year of Efficient Ship MariFuture will continue publishing a development paper each month for the whole of 2017. MariFuture Lecture and MariEMS Multiplier event supported by IMarEST which took place on 29th March was very successful. The Founder and current coordinator of MariFuture, Professor Dr Reza Ziarati’s IMarEST Lecture given on 29th March 2017 at Warwick University are available on line at https://imarest.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=72cfabef-6739-4ac5-8a50-7527ca0baa4d..

April 2017 News

Added: 01/04/2017

To celebrate the Year of Efficient Ship we will publish a series of compiled development papers each month for the whole year. MariFuture Lecture and MariEMS Multiplier event supported by IMarEST which took place on 29th March was very successful. The Founder and current coordinator of MariFuture, Professor Dr Reza Ziarati, gave the MariEMS Lecture supported by Capt. Zakirul Bhuiyan and Capt. Kunal Anand from Southampton Solent University (SSU). The event took place on 29th March 2017 at Warwick University, 18.30-21.30 hrs.

March 2017 News

Added: 01/03/2017

To celebrate the year of Efficient Ship we will publish a series of compiled development papers each month for the whole year. MariFuture is pleased to announce a lecture by its Founder and current coordinator Professor Ziarati to be given on 29th March 2017 at Warwick University at 18.00 hrs.

February 2017 News

Added: 01/02/2017

This Year is the year of Efficient Ship and MariFuture is pleased to announce a lecture by its Founder and current coordinator Professor Ziarati to be given on 29th March 2017 at Warwick University at 18.00 hrs.

January 2017 News

Added: 20/01/2017

MariFuture wishes all its partners a prosperous year ahead. “2016 was a good year at MariFuture. It was pleasing to note that the ACTS Plus project was approved and partners met in Istanbul in November 2016 to start the project. Another joint project with BAU has been approved by the TR NA and the project is expected to begin in January 2017; more on this exciting news in February 2017 News. Our EUREKA ITEA proposals were received well and the project IntelliMariPal received its approval to proceed to the second and final phase. Two of the MariFuture partners were also involved in another EUREKA ITEA project (OPTIMUM) which also received approval. The latter two projects are large projects and are expected to make a huge impact to the Shipping industry.

December 2016 News

Added: 14/12/2016

MariFuture wishes all its partners and members a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It has been a good year at MariFuture. It is pleasing to note that our EU funded ACTS Plus project was approved and partners met in Istanbul in November to start the project. Another joint project with BAU has been approved by the TR NA and the project is expected to begin in January 2017; more on this exciting news in New Year. Our EUREKA ITEA proposals were received well and the project IntelliMariPal received its approval to proceed to the second and final phase. Two of the MariFuture partners were also involved in another EUREKA ITEA project (OPTIMUM) which also received approval. The latter two projects are large projects and are expected to make a huge impact to the Shipping industry.

November 2016 News

Added: 14/11/2016

The first partner meeting for this newly approved project has been arranged for 17-19 November 2016 in Istanbul. The new ACTS project, ACTS Plus is based on the Pareto analysis carried out as a part of the recently concluded ACTs project. The Pareto analysis showed that some of the COLREGS rules are more complicated than others and that there are situations where a number of rules apply. The paper argues the importance of continuing the ACTs project both according to the plans for its post-funding period and also by preparing a new proposal for EU funding (ACTS Plus). It is worth pointing out that as a result of the new paper a proposal was prepared by some the partners and submitted to the UK national agency.

October 2016 News

Added: 13/10/2016

I am delighted to announce that our ACTS Plus proposal has been approved by the UK National Agency. The NA informed us of this success on 1 August 2016. It is also worth noting that the previous ACTS project which was concluded in February 2016 was evaluated by the EU and Croatian NA and awarded 9/10. The is an exception grade and an indication of the good work the partners did in achieving all the Intellectual Outputs in full and implementing the project with outstanding effectiveness and efficiency. Well done to all the partners. It is also worth mentioning that the IPR for the first ACTS project prepared by C4FF was ratified and finalised. The new ACTS Plus will build on the principle of the IPR agreement hence making it easier to commence the planned exploitation of the ACTS project outputs and build on these through the Intellectual Outputs of the second ACTS project as they are developed and ready for application.

September 2016 News

Added: 20/09/2016

MariFuture has been notified that their new project proposal to the European Commission has been successful. The proposal is a key element of the MariFuture’s future map in making seas safer and in saving lives at sea. More on this exciting news in October 2016 issue. The new project will be led by Southampton Solent University and coordinated by Centre for Factories of the Future.

August 2016 News

Added: 05/08/2016

The next meeting of the MariEMS (Maritime Energy Management Training Strategic Partnership) is planned for 7-9 September, 2016 in Rauma, Finland. The partners will discuss the latest developments and review the job specification and the specification for the training of ship energy officers developed so far.

July 2016 News

Added: 19/07/2016

The partners have been informed that the Croatian National Agency and the EU assessors have concluded their evaluation of the ACTs (www.ecolregs.com) final report submitted at the end of February 2016 and the project has been given a grade of 9 out of 10. This is excellent news. The partners are delighted with this outstanding recognition of their hard work in the last two and half years.

June 2016 News

Added: 01/06/2016

MariePRO is a project to review maritime education and training programmes, searching for good practices and developing an ECVET compliant Maritime Environment Awareness course incorporating the existing IMO Model Course and the and any new developments introduced by the IMO since the inspection of the their Model course 1.38. More details about the project can be found in the Project page of MariFuture. The partners held their final meeting and conference in Turku at the same time as the European Maritime Day (EMD), 16-20th May 2016. The final conference was very successful and over 50 delegates attended the event on 17th May 2016. Professor Ziarati, the Chairman and current Director of C4FF was invited to chair the panel at the MariePRO conference, titled ‘Sustainable Shipping’. The keynote speeches by the President of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and Dr Sadan Kaptanoglu, Kaptanoglu Shipping and member of Board of BIMCO outlined the challenges the regulatory bodies and shipping companies are encountering respectively. The most important consideration for the shipping companies was noted to be the survival and solvency against severe and adverse market conditions. The summary of the speech by Dr Kaptanoglu can be found in the MariFuture June 2016 Article.

May 2016 News - Issue 2

Added: 01/05/2016

C4FF has been supporting the European Maritime Day (EMD) for several years as the Stakeholder and often arranges several meetings and or workshops during the EMD events. The following are the photos taken in previous EMDs.

May 2016 News

Added: 01/05/2016

The MariEMS (Maritime Energy Management Training Strategic Partnership) second partner meeting took place on the 21st and 22nd April 2016 at Southampton Solent University (SSU) Conference Centre in Southampton. The following photographs show the partner meeting led by SSU, the meetings were chaired by Captain Zakirul Bhuiyan. The meetings at SSU led to the first draft of the Energy Manager Job Specification and the outline of the training programmes for future Energy Managers. Some discussions took place regarding the training programme content.

April 2016 News

Added: 01/04/2016

A major review of MariFuture strategy has led to a decision to focus on 4 key areas in the next two years. The four areas are as follows: (1) Maritime Education and Training: with an emphasis on safety and quality. (2) Ship Efficiency: focusing on energy efficiency. (3) Zero Collisions: concentrating on Collision Regulations. (4) Industry-Academia Collaborations: Seeking novel platforms to bring the two world of education and work closer together.

March 2016 News

Added: 01/03/2016

The SeaTALK project (www.seatalk.pro) final report was submitted to the European Commission and the partners are awaiting to hear the outcome of the evaluation. SeaTALK project was an important undertaking as it gathered all the accessible learning and teaching materials in connection with the English language aspects of relevance to seafaring and developed content for Maritime English in line with the IMO’s new Model Course as well as ensuring compliance with the CEFR. The assessment system is based on the successful EU funded MarTEL and MarTEL Plus projects. A great deal of work was devoted to ensure the assessment system is fair by making sure it is repeatable, valid and relevant to the profession of each type and rank of seafarer.

February 2016 News

Added: 22/01/2016

The SeaTALK project (www.seatalk.pro) final report was submitted to the European Commission and the partners are awaiting to hear the outcome of the evaluation. SeaTALK project was an important undertaking as it gathered all the accessible learning and teaching materials in connection with the English language aspects of relevance to seafaring and developed content for Maritime English in line with the IMO’s new Model Course as well as ensuring compliance with the CEFR. The assessment system is based on the successful EU funded MarTEL and MarTEL Plus projects. A great deal of work was devoted to ensure the assessment system is fair by making sure it is repeatable, valid and relevant to the profession of each type and rank of seafarer.

January 2016 News

Added: 04/01/2016

MariFuture welcomes you to the New Year. Lets us hope that this year is as successful as the last year.

This is the MariFuture year of Maritime English. Communication and linguistic mistakes have been reported to count for some 33% of all reported accidents hence the importance of promoting ‘Maritime English’ as the language of the sea and ensuring all seafarers are given the opportunity to gain effective competence in this important language hence the reason for giving this subject a priority in the New Year.

December 2015 News

Added: 07/12/2015

The MariFuture Team wish all partners a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

This is last News in 2015 and we look forward to successful conclusion of our EU funded SeaTALK project and a strong start to our new EU funded MariEMS and MariLANG projects. The SeaTALK project, like all MariFuture projects, will continue and arrangements are in place to retain the project websites for the next two years. All aspects of IPR for the project, as was the case for its predecessor MarTEL and MarTEL Plus Projects, has been concluded.

November 2015 News

Added: 19/11/2015

ACTs Project

The project has been extended and is expected to be concluded at the end of December 2015. As a result of the meeting in Opatia in Croatia the areas for final improvements have been identified. These improvements have been transformed into specific tasks and are being implemented in the remaining part of this month and in December. The partners are also concluding the translation work. The translation of learning material means that ecolregs course will be available in severs European languages.

October 2015 News

Added: 20/10/2015

ACTs Presentation at the 2015 IAMU General Assembly

The final meeting of the ACTs project took place 8-10 October 2015 in Croatia. The project has been extended and will now be concluded at the end of December 2015. As a result of the meeting the areas for final improvements, identified as a result of the external group evaluations, have been identified. These improvements have been transformed into specific tasks and will be implemented in the remaining months of the project.

September 2015 News

Added: 21/09/2015

A New Marifuture Project - MariLANG

The MariLANG proposal has been approved and will be funded through the German National Agency. The project intends to develop a Maritime English training programme based on the EU funded SeaTALK learning materials and the EU funded MarTEL assessment system, both of which are compliant with the IMO Maritime English Model (3.17). It is worth mentioning that the partners of SeaTALK and MarTEL were involved in the revision of the IMO Maritime English Model Course through the International Maritime Lecturers Association (IMLA). The approval of MariLANG is very good news as it will complete the process started with MarTEL setting the assessment system for Maritime English and continued in SeaTALK with setting up learning frameworks and seeking learning materials from the Maritime English teaching community. MariLANG will now develop the final piece of the puzzle - the actual training programme for Maritime English. The MariLANG project started in September 2015 and the funding period is expected to be concluded in August 2018.

August 2015 News

Added: 29/07/2015

New Events and Activities

It is the MariFuture’s year of marine energy efficiency and pollution reduction. To this end, MariFuture is particularly delighted to learn that its MarieEMS proposal has been approved by the EU’s Erasmus + and will be funded through the UK National Agency. The project is expected to start in autumn this year and will be completed in 2017.

July 2015 News

Added: 13/07/2015

MariePRO Project

The third MarioPRO partner meetings took place in Malta during 7-9 July 2015. The meetings also included a workshop/seminar on 9th July 2015. The discussion at the meetings and the workshop/seminar were lively and led to a way forward in achieving the intended outputs of project. The partners discussed the next planned meeting in Hungary in 10-11th September 2015, project activities and the report on MET programme/syllabus differences, as well as reviewing the work on good practices, particularly regarding ECVET. The fourth and final MariePRO workshop is planned to take place in Italy in October 2015; more on this in future News.

June 2015 News - Issue 2

Added: 24/06/2015

SeaTALK Maritime English Partner Meeting, Assessor Training and Symposium

International maritime requirements state that there should be effective communication at all times on board ships. Communication failures constitute a major cause of accidents and incidents at sea, claiming significant loss of life and leading to substantial material loss. This symposium will provide a platform to discuss and present recent approaches to Maritime English and how the community as a whole can contribute to improving seafarers’ English language and communication skills.

June 2015 News

Added: 15/06/2015

New Events and Activities

The ACTs project is progressing well. The 3rd Newsletter was published in May 2015 on MariFuture and the project brochure was distributed to partners and will be placed on MariFuture in June 2015. The projects COLREGs scenarios and rules are 80% complete and the internal evaluation is being carried out. Several pilot evaluations of the ACTs COLREGs Course are in the process of being arranged. The UK pilot is expected to be run by the Southampton Solent University late in June 2015. Several papers have been written by partners for publications in conferences and journals.

May 2015 News

Added: 06/05/2015

New Events and Activities

It is heartening to note that partners involved with SeaTALK project are also supporting the development of IMO’s new Maritime English Model course 3.17. IMLA is doing a good job in supporting IMO in this revision work.

April 2015 News

Added: 14/04/2015

MariFuture Future Map

April is the month each year when the Marifuture map is reviewed for the next period, this year Marifuture have reviewed the map for 2015 – 2020. The new Centre in Kenilworth, UK will take responsibility for Marifuture. The second workshop of MariePRO took place at the new Centre and was very successful.

March 2015 News

Added: 25/02/2015

Maritime Education and Training – Looking into the Future

This workshop is sponsored by the European Union (EU) to support a new EU funded project MariePRO. The workshop is expected to bring professionals from across Europe into contact with seafaring professionals in the UK. The sponsoring organisation, C4FF, will also discuss the funding opportunities for new projects and how MariePRO could be supported in the future.

February 2015 News

Added: 13/02/2015

Increasing the attractiveness of maritime careers in Europe

MariFuture has warned the shipping community worldwide of ship officer shortages in several occasions. In a proposal to the EU, MariFuture, gave detail account the situation – see for instance ATTRACT-ME. Although ATTRACT-ME scored a high grade for funding and given assurances that it will be funded, the EU changed its stance and decided not to fund the project. The decision by the EU was regrettable!

January 2015 News

Added: 07/01/2015

Happy New Year to all; let us hope the 2015 will be as successful as 2014.

This month the attention of the Maritime English community is on the IMO. The Sub-committee for Human Element, Training and Watch-keeping (HTW) in its 2nd session (Agenda item 3) on the 31st October 2014 considered the validation of the IMO’s draft revised new Maritime English Model Course. The preliminary draft of this revised model course was forwarded to members of the validation panel for their comments. Due to time constraints, any comments received on the draft course from the validation panel is expected to be provided directly to the Sub-Committee.

December 2014 News

Added: 05/01/2015

The most important news this month is the new relationship between TUDEV, PRU, C4FF and MarEdu. C4FF will continue supporting the existing EU projects developed jointly with TUDEV/PRU and both parties have agreed to support the commercialisation of recently concluded EU funded projects MarTEL/MarTEL Plus, SURPASS and M’AIDER. C4FF, will provide PRU nonbinding advice and support for application, and also for commercialization and extension of the existing EU projects of EBDIG, ACTS and SeaTALK.

November 2014 News

Added: 01/11/2014

The first partner meeting for Project MariPro took place in Finland in October. The evaluation of MET courses in Lithuania was also conducted by two of MariFuture partners (Professor Janusz Urias from Akademia Morska w Szczecinie and Professor Ziarati from C4FF, UK) and Professor François Resch from France.

October 2014 News

Added: 01/10/2014

There are two items good news this month. First is the approval of the new Centre of Excellence in the UK, and the second is the approval of MariEPro Project by the EU. More on these exciting developments will be included the November 2014 News.

August/September 2014 News

Added: 02/09/2014

There are several important events taking place in the coming months including the EBDIG-WFSV Conference on 3 and 4th September 2014 at Coventry University, the ACTS project meeting in Bulgaria on 3 and 4th of October, and the IMLA Conference which will take place in China at Jimei University for 10-13th October 2014.

July 2014 News

Added: 10/07/2014

This month the IMLA-IMEC (The International Maritime Lecturers Association-International Maritime English Conference) will take place in Holland and MariFuture will be report on its work regarding the latest developments concerning the SeaTALK Project at the conference.

June 2014 News

Added: 18/06/2014

To implement our Roadmap of Marifuture 2020 we have formed some 10 new consortiums to address/implement the plans for the period 2014 to 2017 in the first instance. There are six key areas for development.

April/May 2014 News

Added: 09/05/2014

MariFuture News April/May 2014

April was a demanding months as it coincided with the deadline for Erasmus + project proposal deadline. For this reason the News for April was delayed and combined with the news for May.

March 2014 News

Added: 03/03/2014

MariFuture 2020

A review of major events and discussions that took place in 2013 help to shape and prepare MariFuture Roadmap 2020. The Roadmap was developed after a series of major conferences organised by MariFuture partners and after visits to key maritime national, European and International organisations. Several members of platform also actively participated in a number of international events and conferences. The activities led to a number of reports and some of these report were submitted to key maritime organisations and EU institutions for their consideration.

February 2014 News

Added: 04/02/2014

Increasing the attractiveness of maritime careers in Europe

MariFuture has warned the shipping community worldwide of ship officer shortages in several occasions. In a proposal to the EU, MariFuture, gave detail account the situation – see for instance ATTRACT-ME. Although ATTRACT-ME scored a high grade for funding and given assurances that it will be funded, the EU changed its stance and decided not to fund the project. The decision by the EU was regrettable!

January 2014 News

Added: 17/01/2014

MariFuture Is Developing a New Port System for Integration within EU’s TEN-T New Arrangements

New TEN-T Arrangements

The EU until recently supported the integration of transport networks in what is called the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) through specialized TEN-T funding awarded for specific national or cross-border projects, including Motorways of the Sea projects. The Marco Polo programme was the second leg of the EU’s co-funding mechanism with a relevance to maritime transport. It aimed at providing EU funds to companies whose projects shift cargo off the road and make transport more multimodal and thus more sustainable.

December 2013 News

Added: 24/12/2013

This month’s news reports the outcome of the 1st ACTs (Avoiding Collisions At Sea) partner meeting which was hosted by Piri Reis University, and held at Green Park Hotel in Pendik, Istanbul on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd November 2013. 11 project members, representing 6 partner organisations participated in the meeting, University of Rijeka (UoR), Centre for Factories of the Future (C4FF), Piri Reis University (PRU), SeaTeach, Nicola Vaptsarov Naval Academy (NVNA), Spinaker d.o.o. (SPIN).

November 2013 News

Added: 31/10/2013

This month’s news reports on the contribution of MarEdu partnership (www.maredu.co.uk) to BRIDGE project (www.projectbridge.eu) during the BRIDGE project lifetime. BRIDGE project (Bridges of Knowledge for EU-TR Chambers) was initiated on 4th of December 2012, with the purpose of creating stronger and more efficient links between the European and Turkish Chambers. MarEdu partnership will continue to support the project at the post funding stage.

October 2013 News

Added: 23/10/2013

September and October were very busy times to visit the EU institutions and various maritime organisations. The highlight of these were EU funded BRIDGE and TRECVET final conferences which took place in Turkey and Spain respectively. The EU funded Campus Party was also supported by our Framework 7 ExremeFactories partners. The event took place in London in September 2013 by over 30000 participants. We were pleased to have been party to the event and supporting it by sponsoring many young people to attend it.

September 2013 News

Added: 30/09/2013

First METPROM Progress Meeting Held in Malmö

During the week of 17 April, the first progress review meeting for the EU funded LEONARDO project METPROM - Modular Enhanced Training Programme for European Maritime Security Personnel - was held in Malmö and hosted by WMU. METPROM deals with the transfer of innovation into a modular and enhanced training programme for European maritime security personnel in ports. WMU is one of the core partners of the consortium led by Piri Reis University Istanbul.

August 2013 News

Added: 31/08/2013

ACTs – Avoiding Collisions AT Sea

With increasing concerns over human safety, environmental damage and commercial loss, 6 maritime education and training providers across Europe have been awarded around €0.4 million by the European Commission to participate an european research and development project into collisions at sea.

July 2013 News

Added: 31/07/2013

End to EU Stalemate on the Transfer of Yachting Qualifications

As the EU-funded TRECVET Project draws to a close, yachtsmen across Europe should soon be able to freely transfer their qualifications from country to country. Mallorca-based Sea Teach has been leading this ground-breaking exercise.

June 2013 News

Added: 30/06/2013

The Importance of Research and Development – Developing Staff and Supporting Industry and commerce

Research is in fact a way forward; looking at what is already being done well and should therefore be further developed or supported; and what is being done not well enough, or badly, and therefore needs to be changed, stopped, or replaced by something new. It is also to create new things.

Unfortunately in some countries there is so much emphasis on social, technical and scientific papers for publications in cited journals that universities, and their funders, often forget that a university is a universe with all sorts of small and large stars, some far, some near, some shinning and some with little shine or any vigour.

May 2013 News

Added: 31/05/2013

Working together - Policy makers and European Commission facing the grass-root

The EU Maritime Day, or should we now refer to it as Maritime Days as the event is held over two days, one day primarily led by EU/EC on topical issues and the second day primarily led by the stakeholder/grass-root organisations presenting their interest and concerns.

C4FF Workshop

C4FF organised a workshop as the stakeholder in the second day of the EU Maritime event.

April 2013 News

Added: 30/04/2013

TRECVET Project - End of Project Conference

Centre for Factories of the Future (C4FF) is pleased to announce TRECVET project (www.trecvet.eu) final conference. The Conference is being arranged and will take place on 20th September 2013 at Chamber of Commerce premise in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

MariFuture Workshop and presentations at the EU Maritime Day in Malta, 21-22 May 2013

The presentations are prepared to support the EU’s Capacity Building Workshop. The main aims of the workshop are:

1. Analysis of forms and scope of cooperation for development maritime and coastal tourism in the Baltic Sea Region and presentation of partnerships in education and development of maritime and coastal tourism – Gdynia Maritime University.
2. To identify the deficiencies of Maritime Education and Training and promote transfer and development of innovations – Centre for Factories of the Future (C4FF).

To join our workshop, please register at the following link: https://emd2013.sharpdev.be/default.aspx

February 2013 News

Added: 28/02/2013

Centre for Factories of the Future with support from Piri Reis University and on behalf of the MariFuture Platform submitted a proposal to European Commission to hold a workshop on 22 May 2013 in European Maritime Day 2013 in Valetta, Malta.

The workshop titled “MariFuture: Integrating Maritime Education, Research and Innovation” intends to encourage and initiate discussions as to how the maritime industry’s education needs can be identified and to find ways to respond to these needs through innovative and collaborative research and development.

January 2013 News

Added: 07/01/2013

MariFuture is happy to announce that two new prestigious research projects have been funded by European commission and are now part of MariFuture Platform.

BRIDGE

SeaTalk

December 2012 News

Added: 31/12/2012

Piri Reis University (PRU) will commence work on the two EU funded projects in late December 2012. More information about the projects is as follows:

1. Modular Enhanced Training Programme for European Maritime Security Personnel (METPROM)
2. Maritime network of education for the development of the maritime culture in the Black Sea basin (MARINE)

More information on all three projects will be provided in News and other sections (Partners and projects) of the website in future months.

November 2012 News

Added: 30/11/2012

C4FF and Piri Reis University (PRU) in collaboration will submit and present a paper titled, UniMET Programmes, in a seminar organised by RINA (The Royal Institution of Naval Architects). The seminar will take place at Southampton Solent University Conference Centre in the UK. The Seminar will build on the success of the International Conference on the Education and Professional Development of Engineers in the Maritime Industry, held in 2011, and provided an interactive, but less formal forum for representatives of both industry and academia to present and discuss how those engineers of the future will achieve the knowledge, understanding and professional skills which the industry will need. The Seminar this year will examine the differences in the requirements and mode of deliveries of education, training and professional development in different sectors of the industry and in different countries, seeking to both learn and benefit from such differences. The Seminar will also seek to identify the changes needed for developing the Engineers of the future.

October 2012 News

Added: 31/10/2012

SAIL AHEAD project consortium will organise four distinct national conference events in Turkey, UK, Greece and Finland to bring all target groups together in each country and in order to present the SAIL AHEAD project and its results to boost dissemination and exploitation of the project at a larger scale.

September 2012 News

Added: 30/09/2012

The Marifuture Platform is proud to support the “International Maritime Training Week”, with its series of conferences and events to improve the level of safety at sea worldwide, enhance the standards in Maritime Education and Training (MET) Institutions as well as increasing the mobility of seafarers across Europe and Worldwide.

The International Maritime Training Week will take place between 19th and 23rd November 2012 . This week will kick off with an evening reception and conference in Bled, Slovenia on 19th and 20th November 2012 respectively, before moving onto London, UK for further events and conferences on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd November 2012. The International Maritime Training Week is organised by Centre for Factories of the Future (C4FF), Spinaker and a number of MariFuture partners.

August 2012 News

Added: 31/08/2012

MariFuture is pleased to announce that first The International Maritime Training Conference will take place in Bled, Slovenia, on 20 November, 2012. The International Maritime Training Conference aims to promote and share good practice and transnational cooperation in the field of the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) learning and assessment products developed to support maritime training.

July 2012 News

Added: 31/07/2012

IMEC is a truly an international forum organised annually in various countries. The forum provides opportunity for maritime and English teachers and their seniors in maritime institutions worldwide to come together and present their research studies on teaching of English to cadets and seafarers and discussed linguistic and communication problems encountered at sea by seafarers. The conference also encourages workshop on particular aspects of maritime English teaching or experimenting with a response to an issue encountered or solution to a problem. More information about IMEC 24 for interested parties is available at (www.uniteammarine.com) website. IMEC24 flyers as well as first and second announcement brochures are downloadable from the same website.

June 2012 News

Added: 30/06/2012

FP7 call “The Ocean of Tomorrow 2013” is now open for submission by 10 July 2012. Deadline for the proposal submission is 07 February 2013 at 17.00.00, Brussels local time. Total budget available is 55 million Euros. More information on the call is available at the link here.

May 2012 News

Added: 31/05/2012

A new call for EU Funding in Research and Development in Maritime Transportation is being introduced for early 2013. There are a number of opportunities to seek research and development funding in maritime research and development through the EU’s FP7 funding opportunities.

Some areas of funding in maritime transportation under the European FP7 programme for 2013 are given below:

CHALLENGE 1: ECO-INNOVATION

• Activity 7. 2. 1. The greening of surface transport SST.2013.1-1.

• Activity 7.2.2. Encouraging modal shift and decongesting transport corridors

• Activity 7.2.5. Strengthening competitiveness

April 2012 News

Added: 30/04/2012

European Seminar on Maritime Education and Training

One Day Conference Thursday, 28th June 2012 (09:00-14:00) Facultad de Náutica de Barcelona Admission FREE

MariFuture platform is happy to announce its network that a European Seminar on Maritime Education and Training is being hosted by the UniMET partnership. The partnership is involved in a EU funded project called UniMET to help harmonise Marine Education and Training across Europe by raising awareness and transferring the good practices of member states MET systems with the ultimate aim of improving the level of safety at sea worldwide.

March 2012 News

Added: 31/03/2012

One Day Symposium and Workshop Wednesday, 27th June 2012 (09:00-17:00) TUDEV Institute of Maritime Studies Tuzla, ISTANBUL

A symposium and workshop will be held by the host of TUDEV (TUDEV Institutes of Maritime Studies) to discuss on number of issues related to Maritime Education and Training in June, in Turkey.

February 2012 News

Added: 29/02/2012

TUDEV and C4FF plans to visit IMarEST (The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology) (www.imarest.org) and Lloyd’s Register (http://www.lr.org) in 24 May 2012. This visit will be to disseminate and exploit IMPACT platform’s novel and innovative products (www.maritimetraining.pro). The meeting will involve seeking accreditation and support from IMarEST and developing a strategy for Human Factors with Lloyd’s. A report of the outcome of those visits will be available in June 2012 Progress reports in MariFuture website.

January 2012 News

Added: 30/01/2012

UniMET Project - UniMET project is progressing well. 1st year progress report has been submitted to EACEA. A comprehensive report on the UniMET conference is being produced and will be made available to public soon.

SAIL AHEAD project - SAIL AHEAD project is making good progress. 1st year progress report is ready to be submitted to EACEA with the contribution from the partners. A report on transferable skills for both Captains and Deck cadets produced and video recorded interviews with professionals were carried out.

SURPASS and MAIDER projects - SURPASS and MAIDER projects both ended successfully. However, all partners are still supporting these projects to sustain and exploit the end products and outcomes. Two separate articles will be published in Nautilus magazine in February 2012 issues.

IMPACT project - IMPACT project has commenced. A meeting took place with EACEA by the project promoter in January 2012. The first partner meeting is planned to be held in February 2012 in Slovenia. For more information about project progress, please contact martin.ziarati@c4ff.co.uk

New Projects - E-COLREGs E-learning system, SeaTalk, FOREVERSHIPPING, EBDIG

December 2011 News

Added: 30/12/2011

UniMET Project -1st UniMET Conference and 3rd Partner meeting took place in Davenport House, Greenwich, London on 15th and 16th of December 2011.

SURPASS Project - SURPASS Final Conference and 5th Partner Meeting took place on 13th and 14th of December 2011 at Chamber of Shipping (Partner Meeting) and Chamber of Industry (Final Conference), Istanbul, Turkey.

MAIDER Project - The MAIDER Final Partner Meeting and Conference took place on 9th December 2011 at Maritime Institute William Barentsz in the Netherland.

GETAFIX - GETAFIX project is progressing well. First partner meeting was held in Cala d’Or, on 27th and 28th October. All partners attended the meeting and tasks of the partners discussed and distributed among the partnership.

TRECVET - TRECVET project is progressing well. First partner meeting was held on 25th and 26th October 2011 in Cala D’or hotel in Mallorca, Spain.

EBDIG Project - EBDIG Project was concluded and the final report was submitted to the UK NA. The project has developed an open-learning platform and a new course for future boat designers.

MarTEL Plus and CAPTAINS - MarTEL Plus and CAPTAINS projects are progressing well. An article was published in Turkish Shipping magazine in Turkey to inform the interested parties regarding the progress of both projects.

November 2011 News

Added: 24/11/2011

EBDIG Project - EBDIG Project was concluded and the final report will be submitted to the UK NA shortly. The project has developed an open-learning platform and a new course for future boat designer.

MAIDER Project - The MAIDER Final Partner Meeting and Conference will take place on 9th December 2011 at Maritime Institute William Barentsz, the Netherland.

SURPASS Project - SURPASS Final Partner Meeting and Conference will take place on 13th and 14th of December 2011 at Chamber of Shipping (Partner Meeting) and Chamber Industry Conference), Istanbul, Turkey.

UniMET Project - The UniMET third Partner Meeting and first Conference will take place in Davenport House, Greenwich, London on 15th and 16th of December 2011.

New Projects - New Projects GETAFIX and TRECVET have commenced and new project IMPACT will commence in January 2012.

September 2011 News

Added: 07/09/2011

Professor Ziarati will be representing TUDEV and C4FF at the EU Maritime Transport Brokerage Event 2011 at UK Government Department of Business, Innovation & Skills Conference Centre on the 7th & 8th of September making a presentation briefly describing new Marifuture initiatives and how past, present and future European education and research programmes could be integrated within EU Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP).

July 2011 News

Added: 08/07/2011

IAMU Call for research proposals

IAMU has been supporting research for many years and has funded many projects in the past. IAMU has launched a new research programme and intends to fund a number of projects under three themes:

Theme 1 – Marine environment protection
Theme 2 – STCW 2010 – challenge for MET institutions, and
Theme 3 – Shipping challenges.

April 2011 News

Added: 11/05/2011

Season of maritime conferences has begun. As well as project group meetings which are reported in progress report for this month the deadline for abstracts for four most important events are approaching fast.

March 2011 News

Added: 01/04/2011

MARTEC opens a trans-national call up to 29th April 2011 for collaborative research projects in different areas of maritime technologies. This call is initiated by partner institutions from eight European countries from the ERA-NET MARTEC consortium. Each country has own national maritime programmes and the financial support will be awarded by the national funding institutions for project duration of up to 36 months. Priority funding is for projects which include at least two independent industrial participants from two partner countries.

February 2011 News

Added: 21/02/2011

The February Development Paper is in two parts; Part 1 concerns the recent discussions between Professor Ziarati and the Commissioner, Maria Damanaki and Part 2 contains the call details for the Waterborne Topics in FP7 Transport Workprogramme 2012. Professor Ziarati is keen for MariFuture project teams to take full advantage of the opportunities within the FP7 and to prepare themselves for EU new initiatives as outlined by the Commissioner, Maria Damanaki.

November 2010 News

Added: 30/11/2010

A consortium was formed and a proposal is being drafted for maintenance and further development of the MariFuture Platform – See Development Paper for November 2010. More about this proposal in the December 2010 issue.

MariFuture Platform

Added: 22/06/2010

MariFuture Platform was established on 22 June. The intention of MariFuture is to identify and response to the education and training needs of the maritime industry and maritime education organisations. The intention is find innovative solutions to respond to these needs through pin pointing to where a solution can be found or initiating a new research and development to address a given identified need. The partnership was formed in recent months and is in expanding in size. The MariFuture Platform intends to support the decision makers, so that they are informed about the needs of industry and maritime education. The platform partners have many years of experience in EU maritime affairs. The MariFuture partners are happy to consider new partners to join the platform.