Partners
University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) was founded in 1968 and is the third largest university in Norway. Uniquely located on the edge of the Arctic, UiT is the northernmost university in the world and a unique learning destination for students and researchers. In collaboration with three other Norwegian maritime universities, UiT established Norway's Centre of Excellence in Maritime Simulator Training and Assessment (COAST) in 2020. COAST's mission is to be the world's leading provider of simulator training and assessment methods for maritime education and training. The university takes special interest in research related to emerging technologies, climate change, arctic science, environmental threats, as well as maritime research that supports sustainable development. UiT has a strong nautical and machine learning group with significant infrastructure including high-end full-mission ship simulation technologies, UiT Onshore Operation Centre, virtual reality headsets, and training ships. This infrastructure mainly supports maritime education and training as well as various types of research activities, including i-MASTER.
University of Gothenburg (UGOT) is among the largest universities in Northern Europe. It is the most wide-ranging and versatile university in Sweden and an active international university engaged in collaborative projects and partnerships all over the world. In Horizon 2020, UGOT has become a beneficiary in 164 projects, including 26 European Research Council projects. UGOT's Department of Applied IT (AIT) hosts the Gothenburg Knowledge Lab (GKL), an institution for research that provides equipment and knowledge on generating, representing and analysing data. Equipment for data collection include video cameras, microphones, audio recorders, eye-tracking devices, virtual reality headsets, and software for tracing data from digital systems. GKL also provides specialized software for analysing data and the infrastructure for storing, archiving, indexing and sharing data between the different members of a research project. AIT is situated in the highly intensive technological innovation cluster on campus Lindholmen, which has the Sweden's largest maritime simulator centre for education and research. There are a total of nine ship simulators, including bridge simulators for training navigation and teamwork, a nautical operations studio and a Dynamic Positioning (DP) simulator for advanced operations involving precision navigation.
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, headquartered in Germany, is the world's leading applied research organization. It currently operates 75 institutes and research institutions throughout Germany. With its focus on developing key technologies that are vital for the future and enabling the commercial exploitation of this work by business and industry, Fraunhofer plays a central role in the innovation process. As a pioneer and catalyst for ground-breaking developments and scientific excellence, the Fraunhofer Centre for Maritime Logistics and Services (CML) develops innovative solutions for the maritime sector and the maritime supply chain. The focus is on solutions for end-to-end digitalization and process automation, service concepts, and AI-supported data analysis, as well as autonomous maritime systems and sustainable shipping. The innovative concepts are tested and improved at the CML through simulation, models and in real operation. Fraunhofer CML has been engaged in a variety of relevant research projects on maritime training, simulation, AR and AI applicability as well as machine learning techniques within maritime datasets. Fraunhofer CML currently owns and operates three full-mission ship handling simulator bridges as research simulators including the respective interfacing possibilities.
TERP AS is a leading Norwegian company in adaptive learning solutions in the maritime domain. TERP's goal is to make knowledge attainable through AI-powered, adaptive learning technologies to ensure excellence in education and professional skill training. The company has strong knowhow in machine learning applications and adaptive learning solutions and already has several products widely used in the industry. The TERP web service allows users to develop adaptive learning resources that adjust to the needs of each individual. The Adaptive Books (Abooks) work offline and enable the students to study on personal smartphones whilst having a strong cost-advantage over conventional learning materials.
Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), founded in 1898 as the Imperial Export Academy, is one of the largest educational institutions dedicated to business and economics, business law, and social sciences. WU is a key contributor for the multi-dimensional impact analysis of the i-MASTER intelligent learning system (ILS). Its excellence in research and teaching is well reflected in high rankings like 11th (out of 155) in Masters in Management and 2nd (out of 62) Masters in Supply Chain Management according to the QS Top Universities Program Rankings for 2022. WU has a long legacy of online learning and information platform development with LEARN, one of the most-frequented university eLearning platforms in the world. The Institute for Transport and Logistics Management (ITL) at WU focuses on education and research services within the field of transport, logistics, and supply chain management. It offers a wide range of different consulting services for its customers - from e-business, optimization of business processes or the implementation of innovative solutions to vocational management training in public and private transport organizations. Over the course of research projects with both scientific and empirical approaches, ITL develops innovative solutions in the transport, logistics and supply chain context.
The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) is an internationally prominent research institute in the transport sector, whose principal task is to conduct research related to infrastructure, traffic, transport, and mobility users. VTI is an assignment-based authority under the Swedish Ministry of Infrastructure, dedicated to continuously developing knowledge pertinent to the transport sector and in this way actively contributing to achieving the Swedish transport policy objectives. VTI operations cover all modes of transport, including areas of pavement technology, infrastructure maintenance, vehicle technology, traffic safety, traffic analysis, mobility users, transport economics, and transport systems. VTI conducts commissioned research in an interdisciplinary organization, and also undertakes investigations, consulting services, and various measurement and testing services. The research from VTI has direct applications in both national and international transport policies. The institute has a wide range of advanced research equipment and world-class infrastructure, including laboratories for road material testing, measurement technology, crash safety testing, and world-class driving simulators. The library at VTI is a national resource for the supply and dissemination of information in the field of transport research.
Novia University of Applied Sciences is the largest Swedish-speaking university of applied sciences in Finland, with over 4000 students and 300 staff. With traditions dating back to 1813, Novia offers multidisciplinary higher education with a practical orientation, training professionals for expert and development posts based on the requirements of the working life and its development. Aboa Mare, Novia's Maritime Academy, is specialized in maritime simulator training, providing Bachelor and Master-level education as well as short courses to students, shipping companies, authorities, and maritime industrial stakeholders. The Aboa Mare simulator suite consists of ten ship bridge simulators and a wide range of other maritime simulator training solutions and has been upgraded on a regular basis to meet future challenges. Aboa Mare has strong simulator training know-how and expertise and its simulator instructors are well trained in pedagogy. The research team combines both strong knowledge of maritime operations and development expertise for structuring, testing and validating simulation tools and intelligent solutions for shipping.
University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) is the largest maritime higher education institution in Norway. USN is responsible for the Norwegian government project MARKOM 2020 to professionalize maritime education, coordinating Norwegian regions and increasing recruitment and quality of maritime R&D. The Department Of Maritime Operations engaged in the i-MASTER project has extensive experience in national, EU and international research projects on integrating emerging technologies into maritime education and training. Notable projects are ENHANCE, a EU Horizon 2020 project on enhancing human performance in complex socio-technical systems, InnoTraining, a national reseach project on innovating maritime training simulators using VR and AR, a research project on the OpenAR framework for augmented reality advanced maritime operations, and the "Towards Improved Training and Performance" project funded by the Research Council of Norway and the German Academic Exchange Service.
