Environmental Impact of Maritime Activities

Key topic areas:
  • Effects of maritime activities on the natural environment
  • Ways (at policy and operational levels) of limiting and avoiding negative effects of maritime activities
  • The development and implementation of international instruments for the protection of the marine environment
  • Development of new and sustainable practices for the maritime industry

Maritime Safety

Key topic areas:
  • Law, policy and governance influencing maritime safety
  • Accident aetiology and safety modelling
  • Technological trends - contributory and disruptive influences on the maritime industry and vice versa
  • Simulation for ship safety

Maritime Energy Management

Key topic areas:
  • Maritime energy policy and governance
  • Economics and social dimensions of energy management
  • Energy management over the life-cycle of ships and in maritime onshore facilities (ports, shipyards)
  • Renewable energy including ocean energy applicable to the maritime industry
  • Marine technology and innovation related to energy
  • The circular economy from a waste reduction and renewable energy perspective

Maritime Social and Labour Governance

Key topic areas:
  • Maritime human resource development through education and training
  • Organizational behaviour for optimizing well-being and overall performance
  • Technology - its place in education and training and its impacts on the human element
  • Seafarers and other maritime professionals’ rights and welfare
  • Gender, diversity, and culture in the maritime industry
  • Supply and demand of maritime labour
  • Migration laws and maritime professionals

Maritime and Marine Technology and Innovation

Key topic areas:
  • Technological development including digitalization, artificial intelligence, autonomous shipping, big data and its manifestation and effects in the maritime industry e.g. in autonomous vessels, in sustainable energy generation, in education and training etc.
  • Trend analyses of technology and its impact on the maritime industry and society
  • Predictive modelling of technological developments and their impacts e.g. on labour supply and demand
  • Security infrastructure for technological systems - currently focused on cyber-security
  • Fundamental philosophies relating to the sociological phenomena that drive a “technological society”

Maritime Economics and Business

Key topic areas:
  • Global economic and business environments for shipping and ports
  • Shipping market mechanism
  • Financial maritime risk management strategies
  • Optimal maritime investment strategies
  • Efficient and effective port operations and management
  • Shipping and ports as global logistics and supply chain components
  • Optimal ship routing and freight pricing with real-time AIS data
  • The circular economy from a business perspective

Maritime Law, Policy and Governance

Key topic areas:
  • Promote the understanding and efficient implementation of maritime legal instruments and attendant administrative mechanisms and related policies
  • Design, formulation, implementation and evaluation of law and policy at international, regional, and national levels
  • Administrative framework for fulfilling national obligations under international treaties
  • Maritime and port security as well as unlawful acts at sea including terrorism, piracy, illegal migration at sea, cyber-security breaches, and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
  • Implementation mechanisms e.g. under the legal enforcement regimes prescribed by the IMO, ILO and other UN bodies
  • Unlawful acts in the form of corruption, i.e. facilitation payment, bribery and the promotion of anti-corruption awareness in the industry, together with the industry, NGOs and other UN bodies
  • Application of international law and policy to non-conventional vessels including domestic ferries and fishing vessels
  • The circular economy from a policy and legal perspective