The UK government announced two new investments totalling £84.4 million (US$102 million) to help decarbonize the maritime sector: a £77-million (US$93-million) Zero Emission Vessel and Infrastructure (ZEVI) competition and a £7.4-million (US$9-million) flagship UK National Clean Maritime research hub.

The two investments are partnerships between UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department for Transport (DfT) through the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE). UK SHORE aims to transform the UK into a global leader in the design and manufacturing of clean maritime technologies.

ZEVI. The £77-million ZEVI competition, launched by DfT and delivered in partnership with UKRI’s Innovate UK, sits alongside the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition in the suite of UK SHORE initiatives.

It builds on the vision set out in DfT’s clean maritime plan, supporting this goal by funding long-term, real-world operational demonstrations of scalable clean maritime solutions.

Successful projects must show they could use this money to work with major UK ports and operators to launch a zero-emission vessel by 2025 at the latest. Examples of such technology include battery electric vessels, shoreside electrical power, ships running on low carbon fuels like hydrogen or ammonia, and wind-assisted ferries.

The competition will be overseen by Innovate UK, which has a record of delivering similar competitions across government successfully.

UK National Clean Maritime research hub. The UK National Clean Maritime research hub will be delivered by UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). It will bring together an interdisciplinary consortium of leading UK research organisations to address low technology readiness level research challenges in clean maritime.

Priorities will include:

• Taking a systems approach to supporting the development and implementation of clean maritime solutions. The hub will address research challenges in low and zero-emission fuels, energy sources and vessel technologies for the maritime sector;

• Land-side infrastructure required to enable the uptake of low and zero-emission fuels, energy sources and vessel technologies by the maritime sector; and

• The role of energy efficiency solutions in facilitating the uptake of low and zero-emission fuels, energy sources and vessel technologies by the maritime sector.