List of the sessions concerned by the Call for Abstracts:

Adaptation to Climate Change and environmental transition

• Adapt to climate change
  Convenor: CEREMA (France)

  
  The effects of global warming on the coastline, ports and estuaries are already visible and are likely to increase if we do not react in measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Beyond climate change mitigation actions, territories as well as infrastructure managers and service providers will have to adapt to climate change, and sometimes, locally, in a way that is disruptive compared to what has been done until now.

  The environmental transition of transport is an essential point in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, because transport is the first concerned by gas emissions. This concerns both ports and inland waterways. Innovative solutions using new modes of propulsion or the use of data to reduce journeys are being studied.
   

• "Less is more" - Sea Tech as a tool to unlock the full potential of the maritime industry in Small Island Developing Countries
  Convenor: Sustainable Sea Transport Initiative (SSTI) (Fidji)

  
  Technology has a major role to play for the maritime transportation sector to unlock its full development potential while achieving zero carbon emission by 2050. However, in developing countries, all-tech or high-tech solutions are not always accessible or implementable on a sufficient scale to have an impact.

  This is especially true in Small Islands Developing States (SIDS), often situated away from the global supply chains and far from large R&D centers, and where local economies struggle to fund innovative solutions. As a result, innovation can can sometime take different forms than in more developed economy – for example through "low-tech" innovation.

  SIDS, especially in the Pacific region, are also often referred to as “Large Oceanic Nations” to highlight the importance of the Blue Economy to their development. In that context, opportunities for the private and academic sectors to contribute to a thriving maritime cluster are plentiful, if the specific context is fully taken into account. Among other challenges, solutions implemented in these countries must ensure that the tech used, 1) is locally available and accessible and can be easily maintained; 2) can be integrated into, and contribute to strengthen the local supply chains; 3) “do no harm”, i.e. do not negatively impact the environment or the social fabric when considered in their full-life cycle.

  What materials to favour in boat building for small and medium domestic transport (e.g. new resins or new eco-fibers)? Can latest developments in boat designs be translated to developing contexts (e.g. high-performance sailing vessels, multi-hull, foiling vessels)? What room for solar and electric propulsion (how to ensure supply and accessibility)? How can IT be best used to unlock economic and development potential for domestic transport (development of specific user interface, payment applications)? How can international collaboration contribute to increase access to funds, technology and training in developing nations (public seeds funds, private accelerators)? These are among the questions that can be raised.

  This session aims at exploring the deployment of "Sea Tech" in the context of developing countries; at identifying what concrete innovations (accross high-tech or low-tech possibilities) can be targeted in priority to leverage the development of a viable sustainable sea transport industry in SIDS; and envision the development of a network of private sector operators, R&D specialists, academics, civil society reps interested in strengthening access to Sea Tech in island nations.

  Target participants and audience are Sea Tech companies interested in expanding their business to developing markets; academia, especially researchers in applied science working at innovative solutions that are specially designed for developing environments; CSOs and business networks; private and public organizations providing funding to business innovation, esp. in a development context; international development professionals, etc.

France-India collaboration

• France India Workshop on Ocean Technology towards advanced Knowledge and sustainable Development
  Convenor: IFREMER (France) and India national institute of ocean technology (NIOT) (India)
   

  A session gathering scientists and engineers from France and India to discuss avenues for cooperation in marine science and technologies, echoing the bilateral roadmap on the blue economy and ocean governance which has been established in the wake of the French government’s Indopacific strategy and the government of India’s Deep Ocean Mission program.

  Topics : Underwater Vehicles and Marine Instrumentation (including sensors, instruments/tools, systems for ocean exploration) ; Ocean Observation Platforms and Data Acquisition (focus on deep sea extreme environments) ; Marine Renewable Energy Technologies ; Technologies for Coastal Zone Management.

new fuels including Hydrogen

• Opportunities offered by Hydrogene in the maritime world
  Convenor: Bretagne Développement Innovation (BDI) (France)

  
  Maritime and port territorial loops for renewable hydrogen:

  > Focus on Hylias project
  > Focus on Transrade project (Lorient)
  > H2 Production with MRE energy (wave energy to H2 on port infrastructures for local needs)

  Building Hydrogen ship in Britain: it’s already today:

  > Presentation of CBS’s Ships
  > Reffited boat: Focus on Porrima & Energy Observer

• New fuels: behavior in aquatic environments and responses to accidental spills
  Convenor: CEDRE (France)
  
  Synthesis of the behavior in aquatic environment and the risks in terms of transport by sea of new fuels (Ammonia; LSFO: Low Sulphur Fuel Oil; VLSFO: Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil ; ULSFO: Ultra-Low Sulphur Fuel Oil ; HVO: Hydrotated Vegetable Oil ; LNG: liquefied natural gas ; Etc. ...), whether they are used for the propulsion of ships or for the supply of distribution plants. Presentation of the European IMAROS project (new generation of LSFO).
   

• Distributing hydrogen from offshore wind farms as a fuel for ships
  Convenor: France Energies Marines (France)
  
  There is a global interest for hydrogen as a complementary energy medium for industrial and mobility applications. In the offshore sector, coupling between wind farms and hydrogen production units is under active consideration. One key aspect of the on-going reflections is the production and distribution of hydrogen at sea. Offshore distribution of renewable hydrogen or ammonia, close to their production area, could be a great opportunity both for the wind industry and the shipping industry, optimising the supply of green energy for maritime transport. The purpose of this panel discussion is to explore the mutual benefits and challenges for the set-up of a network of offshore renewable hydrogen/ammonia filling stations.

Wind propulsion

• Wind Propulsion: Blending regional initiatives, national developments, and international networks for sustainable shipping

  Convenor: International Wind Ship Association and Bretagne Développement Innovation (BDI) (France)

  
  Reemergence of wind propulsion as a major technology development in 21^st shipping / workshop for a concrete shared pathway with India. Wind propulsion has a significant air and noise pollution reduction impact, carbon and other associated toxic emissions, noise from cavitation and machinery onboard. There are three key trends developing within the sector:
  
  > Tweaking: The retrofitting of existing vessels with wind propulsion systems to reduce fuel use up to 30% and to extend the carbon budget available to shipping.
  > Transition: Natural replacement with wind optimised wind-assist & primary wind vessels + operation adjustments to maximise the wind energy component.
  > Transformation: Accelerated replacement of existing vessels with primary wind vessels and the uptake 100% energy autonomous wind vessels and even ‘carbon positive’ vessels that are generating significant alternative fuel available for shore based usage.
  
  These trends are at different stages of development; however they hold various levels of promise across numerous SDG objectives especially in the smaller vessel segments with the return of fuel costs into local economies, the opportunities to revitalise smaller ports, reduce pressure on fisheries and revitalise local shipping services and employment.

  Blending regional ecosystems, national development and international networks has the potential to fuel wind propulsion takeoff and to help building a really decarbonised shipping.  This is the vision we are trying to put into action with the International Windship Association, the French Wind Ship Association, Bretagne Developpement Innovation and the "Région Bretagne". Local communities of industrial groups, start-ups, ports, local government, academics and civil society driven by IWSA, IWSA hub, and BDI are part of a French, European and global network of wind propulsion ecosystems of innovators and enablers.
  This is leading to a reemergence of wind propulsion as a major technology development in 21st shipping that should be shared worlwide : the Sea Tech Week session is a concrete workshop to creating a pathway with India and beyond.

  The session will be organised of plenary sessions, workshops and feebacks to create a Country & Regional Map for Shipping in India fit for a decarbonised shipping world with wind propulsion at the heart of the decarbonisation pathway. Creates impact analysis of changes to shipping at local, regional and international level.

  Focus for call for session
  > India country focus – studies looking at the uptake of wind propulsion (wind-assist and primary wind) for the current Indian commercial fleet
  > Economic analysis on the uptake and impact of wind propulsion systems for shipowners and for national and regional economies.
  > Small Vessel Segment – papers covering wind propulsion deployment on fishing vessels and short sea shipping in both developing and developed countries.

Boat and AUV design and engineering

• Greener maritime transports (French-Norwegian session)
  Convenor: Innovation Norway, Chambre de commerce France-Norvégienne and Ambassade Royale de Norvège en France
  
  Presentation of the newest solutions and example of French-Norwegian collaboration (hydrogen maritime - autonomous ships - electric ferries). The presentation will be held by business leaders, key industry private and public actors, local politicians.
   

• Esprit de Velox : one small step for seaman, one giant leap for mankind’s maritime impact
  Convenor: Esprit de Velox (France) and Bureau Veritas Marine&Offshore (France)
  
  Endorsed by the UN Decade of Ocean Science, Esprit de Velox is a Responsible Research  and Innovation programme that crosses the scientific world’s requirement and  the vision carried out by the companies engaged in the maritime ecological  transition.
  
   > 30 crucial years for climate and biodiversity,
   > Emerging of the Ocean's key role in the metamorphosis of the Earth system,
   > Shared need for an exemplary scientific presence at sea,
   > Need to collect clean data and produce interdisciplinary knowledge from the vessel itself.
   
  These are both the observations and ambitions that are guiding an extraordinary path to the 70-metre ocean-going, positive impact vessel, designed to embark 50  people on board for transdisciplinary research campaigns from pole to pole, on the front line of climate and biodiversity.

• Navigation and control of Underwater vehicles
  Convenor: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa (India) and National Institute of Technology Silchar (India)

  
  In the recent years, research on navigation and control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) has become challenging for scientific and economic reasons in view of their several applications e.g. deep-sea operations, off-shore installations inspection, mapping of sea floor, environmental data gathering and sampling, and defence.

  This special session is intended to invite research contributions made by peers actively involved in navigation and control of AUVs addressing issues such as communication constraints in acoustic medium, uncertainties and disturbances. In the last decade, the new area of research has emerged related to cooperative control between several marine vehicles and heterogeneous marine vehicles.

  
   

Materials

• Corrosion monitoring of concrete infrastructures in marine environment
  Convenor: LabSTICC (France) and French Corrosion Institute (France)
  
  This session organized by the labSTICC laboratory and the French Corrosion Institute focus on structural health monitoring (SHM) methods and related technologies applied to corrosion and degradation of reinforced concrete infrastructures in marine environment. Experts from all around the world are invited to discuss the latest achievements, from the sensing methods to their deployment in field through smart solutions. This will be an unique opportunity for port and public authorities, companies and academic institutions to imagine innovative solutions. Applications are associated with, but not restricted to, coastal and offshore concrete infrastructures such as port, nuclear plants, bridges, platform, wind turbine, etc.
   

• Sustainable polymer materials for marine applications
  Convenor: IFREMER (France)

  
  This session will discuss the current status and   future prospects of replacing current marine materials, particularly polymers   and composites, with more sustainable alternatives. Two aspects will be discussed:

  > First, the options for reducing environmental impact of structures such as floating vessels and their equipment, (boats, ships, buoys, fishing gear…), which can be recovered at the end of their service life, will be presented. In this case the choice of improvements includes thermoplastic composites   which can be recycled and biosourced polymers and fibres which have lower   footprints and can be composted.

  > A second set of applications concerns structures which either risk   accidental loss or are deliberately abandoned after service. In this case the ideal material will be completely biodegradable and leave no trace, and the options are more limited. The session welcomes contributions on both aspects.

Pollution

• HNS Spill prevention: study, inform and train
  Convenor: CEDRE (France)
  
  The maritime traffic of Hazardous and Potentially Hazardous Substances is constantly increasing. In order to better understand the risks in case of accidental spills, we will describe this traffic and then focus on the chemical substances that are transported in liquid form and evaporate in case of a spill at sea. The authorities in charge of the response must then face a toxic cloud, potentially explosive, risking to reach the civilian population. The session will present different preparation tools: a synthesis of work on the behavior of HNS in the aquatic environment (behavioral modeling, laboratory analysis and floating cell tests), presentation of results following the captations by hyper spectral camera) and training tools (e-learning modules, chemical operational guides, etc).
   

• Marine Litter: Solutions for Monitoring, Mitigation and Prevention
  Convenor: IEEE-OES and Laboratory for Ocean Physics and Satellite remote sensing (LOPS) (France)

  
  While quantitative information on production and use of plastics is to some extent available, the amount and fate of plastics discarded or leaked into the environment is highly uncertain. In particular, knowledge of how much plastics, at different scales down to micro and nano levels, reaches the ocean and the pathways and fate of such plastic in the ocean remain poorly known.

  A focus is needed on how science and technology could quantify the pervasiveness of marine pollution and facilitate an understanding of the mitigating impact of reducing the stock of plastics in the ocean. The goals for meeting such a challenge go through the determination of a strategy for monitoring marine litter in the ocean and develop solutions for addressing the problem.

• underwater noises: Understanding and Preventing it
  Convenor: IEEE OES France Chapter (France), Technopole Maritime du Québec (Canada) and Institut France-Québec Maritime (France-Canada)

  
  In the past hundred years, the anthropogenic noise introduced into the marine environment has reached unprecedented levels. Effects of shipping noise on individuals and populations range from communication masking, behavioural disturbance. Production of stress hormones, etc. which consequently negatively affect both the animal individual fitness and population dynamics.

  The purpose of this session concerns, on the one hand, all the systems or methods enable to prevent or reduce the pressure of shipping Underwater Radiated Noise (URN) on the marine environment and, on the other hand, all the methods allowing the quantification of the URN level. The latest advances in marine acoustics research will be presented: passive and active acoustics, impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine organisms (from invertebrates to marine mammals) and also at ecosystem level. Various stakeholders will be likely to participate in this session: researchers, manager of natural environments, public decision makers, entrepreneurs, shipping companies, etc.

  
   

Maritime transport and ecosystems

• Technical innovations to reconciliate marine transportation and ecosystems
  Convenor: Office Français de la Biodiversité (France)
  
  Marine transportation affects ecosystems through many processes: disturbance from underwater noise, collisions with animals, chemical contamination from hulls, engines or ballast water, atmospheric pollution from exhaust gaz, dissemination of non-indigenous species, etc. This session will highlight ongoing efforts to develop, test and promote solutions to reduce these pressures to levels that do not threat the marine ecosystem health as a whole. Technological devices, environmental monitoring and practical changes will be addressed, in order to draw an international state-of-the-art of the most promising solutions to achieve the ecological transition of shipping in the very next years.
   

• Marine traffic - cetaceans interactions
  Convenor: ISYEB, MNHN and LETG, UBO (France)
   

  Collisions with ships have become an important threat for cetaceans. The growing trends of marine traffic worldwide reinforces this concern. Large whales such as fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and NA right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) are particularly susceptible but smaller species are also impacted. Lethal encounters occur mainly with large vessels such as cargos, while smaller vessels can be responsible of trauma, cut and amputations.  Speed of the vessels is particularly important.

  Identifying areas of strong interaction between ships and cetaceans, estimating the actual mortality magnitudes and thinking about mitigations measures are main points of present studies, and reflection.

Poles and maritime routes

• Challenges of increasing traffic at the poles: Antarctic/Arctic
  Convenor: UMR Amure/IUEM (France) and Institut Polaire Français (IPEV) (France)
  
  Polar navigation is inherently risky. Antarctica and the Arctic are subject to intensifying maritime traffic. More numerous and bigger ships cruise the area: scientific research vessels, state ships, freight ships, fishing vessels and cruise ships. Traffic intensification in polar waters increases the risk of incidents and accidents, endangering passengers and crews as well as threatening the fragile natural environment. This calls for strategic risk management of human safety as well and environmental protection.
   

Ports

• Towards the definition of port ecology and ecological port
  Convenor: Institut France-Québec Maritime (France-Canada)
  
  The confrontation between maritime transport and ecological transition raises colossal challenges. It questions both the technical system, able to respond to environmental issues, and the capacity of the socio-system to initiate adaptation dynamics. If the ship is often at the heart of the reflections to engage this green revolution of shipping, the role of the port in this transition appears more difficult to apprehend. Commercial ports, as interface spaces, offer ecology a system of flows that is complex to grasp as a whole. The port metabolism therefore calls for a necessarily interdisciplinary approach that this session intends to highlight.
   

• Highly-efficient innovative water-based Sea Water Air Conditioning solutions
  Convenor: EuroSwac Project (UK)
   

  SWAC (Sea Water Air Conditioning) at a glance: It is a technology based on thermodynamics principles using the hydrographic system. It is made to produce thermal energy dedicated to buildings (air conditioning heat/climatization, hot water) or for industrial processes (cold rooms, drying, ice production, etc.).
  While the need for cooling in coastal regions and ports is increasing, cooling is still mainly produced through chillers, a technology using large amounts of electricity generated partially by fossil fuels, slowing down the ability to meet EU energy-climate objectives. Sea Water Air Conditioning cooling technology requires often to work closely with the maritime industry to develop innovation technology aspects such as self-burying system, flexible pipe concept, corrosion potential, and temperature data logger, etc.

  Papers highlighting the possible applications of the SWAC technology in maritime environment are very welcome in this session. To operate at sea, a ship needs to produce its own board energy. Some ship kinds are more demanding than others. Some examples may be given as air conditioning on large passenger ships or ice creation or cooling aboard referee container carriers or fishing ships. Improving the board energy plant efficiency, using a SWAC approach, is really cost effective. The cold ironing system (connecting ship board energy to the port facilities) and the port installations may also benefit the SWAC technology by reducing the emissions.
  We are looking for technical presentation dealing with SWAC technologies. Interesting topics may be selected in the following open list:

  > Study & lower the environmental impacts,
  > Optimize the overall SWAC costs and business models,
  > De-risk the investment to foster replication,
  > Integrate a SWAC system into the shipping,
  > Enhance the skills and competences generating local jobs and value creation,
  > Anticipate the possible impacts of climate change,
  > Engineer innovations to effectively simplify the installation process,
  > etc.

   

Smart Transport

• Enabling Net-Zero through 5G at Sea
  Convenor: JET Engineering System Solutions (UK)

  
  Continuous connectivity at sea has the potential to create a safer, more secure, and environmentally sustainable global Blue Economy. In this workshop JET-ESS will discuss how increased telecommunications and data transfer at sea can contribute to smarter and low-carbon solutions, towards the ambition of “Net-Zero”. The session will deliver an oral presentation, followed by a discussion panel, focused on:

  > How the use of 5G at sea has the potential to decarbonise the installation, environmental and operational monitoring of offshore wind farms,
  > How maritime data will enable strategic planning and land-sea continuum reducing emissions in connected/smart ports,
  > How high speed connectivity at sea enables the increased adoption of autonomous vehicles at sea, reducing carbon intensive vessels.

• AI in Meteorology and Oceanography
  Convenor: IMT Atlantique (France) and RIKEN (Japan)
  
  The main topic is the fusion of Data Assimilation (DA) with Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the fields of Meteorology, Oceanography, and Climate. The use of AI and statistical techniques such as neural networks in geophysics has a potential to enhance our knowledge and to improve physical models’ performance by exploiting more from available observations and by accelerating DA workflow for real time response. This session aims to exchange ideas about potential future research on the fusion of DA and AI with HPC in the research fields of meteorology and oceanography for enhancing future collaborations between RIKEN (Japanese research agency) and IMT-Atlantique (Brest, France) based on the international agreement signed in 2019.