The report presents an analysis of research projects in the area of maritime education and competence development within the EU. The report shows that there are transnational projects that aim til enhance maritime education and competence development in alignment with both The Lisbon Strategy and The Bologna Process. However, low numbers in research and development intensity within the EU, in comparison to international competitors such as Japan, South Korea and the USA indicate that it is important both within the EU and amongst the individual member states, to continue to allocate resources to maritime education, research and innovation clusters. It is necessary to increase these numbers in order to be able to accommodate the EU objective, ”World leader in maritime research and innovation” (The European Maritime Transport Strategy 2008-2018).

The report argues that it is necessary to ensure a better harmonization of education and competence development in a maritime EU. This will enable EU to compete on the quality of maritime education, which can make possible to attract highly-educated workforces outside the EU to a greater extent. The report also advocates that knowledge from maritime research projects should be gathered at a central place, as it can be a jungle for researchers and professionals from the maritime industry to find their way to relevant research findings. Vital knowledge could get lost instead of benefiting the industry. Finally, if this knowledge is ensured, the good results in transnational research projects can contribute to create ”rings in the water” in maritime education and competence development in a maritime EU.

The report was written by NMU consortium partner Maritime Development Center of Europe (MDCE) as a deliverable in the EU project, Press4transport. This project seeks to ensure European transport research more visibility and accessibility. More information can be found at www.press4transport.eu

For download the report go to http://nsr.nm-uni.eu/download/cat_view/61-public-download-area/104-publications-in-trade-media