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INTENS sets sail with EUR 13 million funding
A consortium of 14 Finnish maritime companies and five research organisations has pledged 13 million euros to further digitalise the Finnish maritime ecosystem towards a smart and green future.
Coordinated by VTT, the industry-research consortium is known as INTENS and will seek innovations and cutting-edge solutions by relying on two key Finnish competences – digital knowhow and maritime expertise. The purpose of INTENS is to equip the Finnish maritime value chain with digital solutions and build a competitive edge for the Finnish maritime cluster in energy-efficient and low-emission shipping. The project will run from 2018 to 2020 amidst an emerging digital and green boom in the industry.
The fundamental building block in the consortium is collaboration. “Collaboration and sharing is the future. INTENS is an open collaborative consortium and we welcome all the interested parties worldwide to work with us together for a smarter and greener shipping future,” statesZou Guangrong, project coordinator at VTT.
’s Arctic Seas programme supported the project with 5.6 million euros in funding, and its expectations are high: “Based on the knowledge and skills formed in INTENS the companies will develop new components, systems, software products and knowledge-based services with higher added value”, says Business Finland chief advisor Matti Säynätjoki.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) recently reached an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the industry by at least 50 per cent come 2050. Pekka Pakkanen, director of development at NAPA Shipping Solutions, sees great potential in the consortium regarding the IMO’s commitment, stating that “the collaboration and funding from INTENS project allow us to create market-leading voyage planning services, with the potential to reduce 30 per cent of yearly shipping CO2 emissions”.
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is published by Finnfacts, which is part of Business Finland.