“We are very proud and excited to be one of 30 partners across Europe in the prestigious MONALISA 2.0 project aiming at increasing safety of navigation. This achievement confirms MARSEC-XL’s competencies within maritime software engineering, which are now being recognized internationally. After six years of hard work at MARSEC-XL, we have reached our long-term goal and today we placed Malta on the global maritime hi-tech map. We are confident that this project will boost global adoption of our MARSSA technology, the open system architecture for maritime electronic systems, which will further unleash innovation in the maritime industry. This is a truly unique opportunity for Malta and we are happy having created it for this country,” commented Krystyna Wojnarowicz, president of MARSEC-XL. “With 20 test bed ships in the MONALISA 2.0 project, we will be able to demonstrate in full scale how our MARSSA technology allows for full seamless interoperability between a multitude of shipboard and onshore electronic systems. This will be a great step forward for the entire maritime industry on its way into the digital age,” said Geir Fagerhus CEO MARSEC-XL. 

The MARSEC-XL initiative is a public-private partnership within the budget of the Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Business in the portfolio of the Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth, Dr Edward Zammit-Lewis. Participation of MARSEC-XL in the MONALISA 2.0 project has also been pre-approved by Transport Malta in March 2013.

The MONALISA 2.0 project aims at contributing to a continuous improvement and development of efficient, safe and environmentally friendly maritime transport in the European Union with the implementation of a series of measures in accordance with the EU’s transport policies. MONALISA 2.0 is an extension of the ongoing MONALISA project and will be based on the results and experiences from the first MONALISA project under the Motorways of the Sea programme, which has received very positive feedback from all stakeholders, international bodies and the European Commission.

MONALISA 2.0 project was approved by the member states’ Financial Assistance Committee under the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) programme, in line with the proposal by the European Commission. According to the evaluation report by the EU: “The proposed Action is relevant to the call for proposals in the area of Motorways of the Sea; Its impact and quality are good; The maturity is very good as the Action is ready to start.”

Vice-president of the European Commission in charge of Mobility and Transport Siim Kallas will sign the Commission Decision documents. The official project kick-off meeting will take place in Brussels in October with over 300 invited participants. The project lead entity and coordinator is the Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA, Sjöfartsverket). “We at the SMA would like, together with the shipping industry, to take responsibility for the future of shipping and this is proof that we are on the right track,” said Peter Fyrby, Head of Shipping Management at the Swedish Maritime Administration. “The project was accepted in all its parts and without any budget cuts. We will commence the hard work quite immediately,” added Magnus Sundström, Head of Unit, Research and Innovations at the Swedish Maritime Administration.

The MONALISA 2.0 project is a concrete step in the process of further developing the Motorways of the Sea concept by implementing concrete pilot actions and studies that will foster deployment of new maritime services and processes thus contributing to increased safety at sea. The main activities in the MONALISA 2.0 project will revolve around sea traffic management operations and tools as well as operational safety and safer ships.

The project will also re-use and adapt to the maritime domain the results and experiences from the development within the aviation sector and its SESAR (Air Traffic Management) programme, which has been strongly supported by the European Union through the Framework Programmes and TEN-T during the past decade. A close cooperation has also been established with the DG MARE CISE programme (Common Information Sharing Environment) to support control of sea areas under Costal States responsibilities in order to exchange experiences and results.

The MONALISA 2.0 project consortium consists of thirty public, private and academic partners, which together constitutes a balanced, relevant and competent partnership in order to implement the project in an efficient way. The geographical scope of the partnership covers the Baltic Sea, North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea regions and encompasses the EU member states: Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Greece and Malta as well as Norway. The total budget of MONALISA 2.0 project amounts to €24 million and the implementation period of the project is 2013 – 2015.

MARSEC-XL, Marine Software Engineering Cluster of Excellence, sets out to shape the digital future of the maritime industry. MARSEC-XL, an innovation hot spot for the maritime industry, provides an unbroken sustainable innovation chain encompassing a range of activities from applied research, education and training to business operations and technology transfer. MARSEC-XL serves as a neutral ground where internationally leading brands, start-up companies and academia work collaboratively. Founded in Malta in 2007 with industry and government support, MARSEC-XL has created MARSSA, Marine Systems Software Architecture, the first open system reference architecture for the maritime industry.

For more information please contact [email protected] or visit the MONALISA project website http://www.sjofartsverket.se/en/MonaLisa/