CirclesOfLife partner the Università degli Studi di Genova (UniGe) is a public university. It is the main blue economy related research and training institute in Italy and is located in the city of Genoa.
While most projects on maritime sustainability focus on fuel transition and other mitigation actions from either a ship or a port point of view, the current project implements two key innovative concepts:
i) introducing a circular approach to shipping environmental performance and
ii) tackling challenges that affect the building, maintenance, and end-of-life of the ships in order to reduce effects not simply when/if the ship is in operation but considering the whole potential impact.
Within this innovative framework, CirclesOfLife co-create innovative proposals by pooling together competences and expertise coming from research institutions, leading shipyards, consultancy firms, certification societies, and other key stakeholders involved in the different life cycle phases of the ship. The idea is to improve current understanding of key production and demolition steps of the shipyard considering real life use cases and evaluating which phases impact the most on either energy consumption or environmental emission.
As for UniGe, since it is the main blue economy related research and training institute in Italy, the main contribution will be connected to the market evaluation of the effects of indicators on the shipyard competitiveness as well as on the discussion on how to gather data for the developing of key indicators and related passport and then for validating relevant project outcomes so to properly communicate results and facilitate the acceptability of industry of the suggested solutions. UniGe will play therefore a key role in discussions and validation of ideas and concepts. Findings of the project will then be used and implemented in relevant teaching and training material as part of the UniGe policy to exploit research projects to promote cutting-edge education.
Activities will be managed by the newly formed Mobility and Energy for Future lab that pooled together a variety of PhD students and young researchers tackling key challenges that are affecting future of EU society.
Together we will be able to form a reliable, workable and sustainable approach to shipbuilding and ship design for the future of the maritime sector.
More info about UniGe can be retrieved here.
CircleOfLife is part of the activities managed by one specific UniGe research centre on Logistics: CIELI.