Menu
The Connected Places Catapult works with public bodies, businesses, and infrastructure providers to catalyse step-change improvements in the way people live, work and travel. We connect businesses and public sector leaders to cutting-edge research to spark innovation and grow new markets. We run technology demonstrators and SME accelerators to scale new solutions that drive growth, spread prosperity, and eliminate carbon.
The maritime and ports sector is vital to the UK as an island nation, directly employing over 100,000 people and handling over 500 million tonnes of freight per year, which is 95% of import/exports by volume and over 75% by value. Recognising the importance of the sector to the UK and our regions, the Catapult established maritime and ports as strategic focus areas to drive forward innovation.
Of course, when we consider the maritime and ports sector in the UK it very quickly becomes apparent that the sector has impacts well beyond the port security fence, whether considering wider regional economic growth, the resiliency of key supply chains and the potential for cross-sector collaboration and connected logistics.
We have recently delivered the Department for Transport, Ports of the Future blueprint, as a whole-value chain, retailer to dockside, challenge-led initiative. Our work focussed on digitalisation and decarbonisation as two key themes, creating the UK smart ports blueprint and next steps towards executing that vision. We have also captured wider issues such as people and process, and how we enable collaboration in a competitive and conservative environment. Link to the report: https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.cp.catapult/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/16102923/DFT-UK-Ports-of-the-Future.pdf
We directly followed this work by collaborating with five individual UK ports on clear, actionable use cases as the next level of activity from our UK wide Ports of the Future report. These reports were launched at an event bringing all five ports together talking about their challenges, with Government, their customers, technology providers and other stakeholders. At the event we also hosted BAE Systems and Cranfield University, to bring transferable lessons from the defence and aerospace sectors. Link to the event recording: https://youtu.be/Gj1q2jvSX4Y
The Catapult continues to support innovators in maritime and ports, working with freeports around the UK and innovators addressing the biggest challenges in the sector, for example in the recent Clean Maritime Demonstrator call and in EU projects. The Catapult has the skills to support UK innovators, researchers and stakeholders in maximising their potential impacts in the maritime sector and beyond, including:
Connected Places Catapult has experience and expertise across transport and places domains, including autonomous systems, the built environment, decarbonisation and digitalisation. We work cross-sector to maximise the potential impacts of innovation.
To find out more about our work, or how to learn more about the Catapult and how we can support you, contact Tom White, Maritime and Ports Lead at Thomas.white@cp.catapult.org.uk