An innovation centre that aims to revolutionise the way ports operate over the next 30 years has opened in the North East.
The centre at the Port of Tyne has opened after a partnership was formed with a number of organisations in the region including the Port, Teesport operator PD Ports, Nissan, Connected Places Catapult, Accenture, Royal HaskoningDHV and Ubisoft.
The UK’s first Maritime Innovation Hub - which has been officially opened by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling - aims to bring together businesses and academics to develop solutions to the technological challenges facing the maritime sector and the wider logistics industry.
The centre has been launched just a few weeks after the Government published its Maritime 2050 Strategy, which aims to maintain the UK’s position as one of the would’s top trading nations by modernising ports to cope with the demands of an increasingly digitised economy.
Port of Tyne chief executive Matt Beeton said: “We’re delighted to launch the UK’s first Innovation Hub and welcome the support of all our partners in driving innovation for the benefit not just of the maritime sector, but also the global logistics and supply chain.
“It’s important that we harness skills and innovation from all industrial sectors to develop our global proposition and enhance our competitiveness”.
Mr Beeton was joined at the launch by Frans Calje, chief executive of PD Ports, which operates Teesport, normally a competitor of the Port of Tyne.
He said: “Northern Ports need to collaborate with manufacturers and technology partners to increase their global competiveness and rebalance the economy. The 2050 Innovation Hub will enable us to share knowledge and expertise to drive revolutionary change in the maritime industry powered by advancing technologies.”
The initiative was praised by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, who officially opened the centre.
He said: “A very important part of the Maritime 2050 strategy is innovation. We’re going to see over the next few years the arrival of autonomous shipping, new environmental standards, there’s going to be new ways of using IT and it’s going to take smart innovators in centres like this to come up with those new ideas.
“It’s all very well having a strategy that sits on the shelf. But what I want actually is something that delivers genuine outputs and genuine change over the next 30 years, keeping this sector at the forefront internationally.”
