Maritime Sensor Technologies for the European Market: Research, Development and Implementation. Good practice guide.

Abstract

This COLUMBUS guide was developed as a result of discussions with COLUMBUS and AtlantOS project partners, speakers and participants at the COLUMBUS Brokerage Events ‘Knowledge Transfer in Maritime Sensing Technologies’ on 23 November 2017 (AtlantOS General Assembly 2017, Gran Canaria) and on 23 January 2018 (EuroGOOS Headquarters, Brussels). Over the course of successive EU Framework Programmes, the European Commission has made a significant investment in research and innovation projects designed to advance ocean observing and monitoring capacities through the development of marine environmental sensing technologies. There have been varying levels of transfer of intellectual property arising from these projects towards market/application and the reasons for this are both complex and varied. This guide considers some of the success stories as well as common challenges and bottlenecks along the value chain from research project to market/application and proposes, where possible, some recommendations. The guide may be of interest to a wide audience but is particularly targeted at (i) funding agencies commissioning marine technology research and (ii) technology developers (private and academic) engaged in such research. Nevertheless, technology implementers and intermediaries will equally be interested in some of the recommendations and findings. The guide draws from and builds upon the work done across a number of complementary projects. These include the Horizon 2020 AtlantOS1 project and the the Seventh Framework Programme Ocean of Tomorrow marine sensing projects, outputs from which are explicitly mentioned below. The success stories, challenges and recommendations presented in this document are a compilation of views and feedback derived from dedicated events organized in the framework of the COLUMBUS project, focusing on knowledge transfer in research and development of innovative maritime sensing technologies. As a result, the views presented in this document may not necessarily be representative of the entire community and may even be challenged or contradicted by other stakeholders.