Decarbonisation of the maritime industry

By Alexandros Charalambides

Over the past five years, there has been significant growth in entrepreneurship activities in Cyprus with networking events, entrepreneurship competitions, startup accelerators and angel financings forming the backbone of the entrepreneurship activities on the island. The entrepreneurship ecosystem is still at its early stages of development with government and university stakeholders still evaluating their role and activities in this space.

Cyprus also has the opportunity to position itself as a regional cleantech hub in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region. Cyprus’ prime geographic location for harnessing renewable energy resources such as solar and wind, as well as the recent discovery of natural gas, enables Cyprus to explore an “all of the above” energy strategy and transition to an energy mix with lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

However, as dictated by the Smart Specialisation Strategy methodology, a country does not simply “choose” a field to invest in, but rather embarks on an entrepreneurial journey to invest where one is good at, where there is a critical mass of excellent research and innovation and where future trends can be seen.

For this reason, for the past two years, the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), Cyprus Energy Agency (CEA) and Chrysalis LEAP, in cooperation with the Cypriot shipping industry, as well as with a group of port authorities and other bodies from Valencia (Spain), Piraeus (Greece) and Turku (Finland), have been working towards the adoption of an ambitious roadmap, which will contribute towards the strategy adopted by the International Maritime Organisation, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent (based on 2008 levels) in the maritime industry. The effort was funded by EIT Climate-KIC, the EU’s leading climate innovation initiative, through the Net-Zero Emissions Resilient Maritime Hubs project.

This activity gave the opportunity to the team of CUT, together with the other partners (Cyprus Energy Agency, Chrysalis Leap, Fundacion Valenciaport, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Digital Hub Logistics Research Hamburg, Athean Research Centre and Unifund), to successfully submit a proposal to the European Institute of Innovation and Technology on the financing and implementation of a Maritime ClimAccelerator.

“The operation of a maritime accelerator in Cyprus is another steppingstone towards our vision to establish Cyprus as a cleantech hub of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Mena region,” said Savvas Vlachos, director of the Cyprus energy agency. “By combining the years of experience in the maritime field of the Cyprus stakeholders, the country’s increasing research capacity, and given the new emission targets being set, it is the perfect opportunity for Cyprus to become a leader in the region.”

The Maritime ClimAccelerator with a budget of approximately €3 million over the next three years, through its vast network of collaborators, will offer participating start-ups funding, training, peer to peer coaching and theme-specific mentoring (both virtually and in-person). Thirty to 40 start-ups will be accepted per year and will be asked to provide innovative solutions for the transition to sustainability of the maritime industry, both locally and globally, and will be given the opportunity to present their ideas in front of investors, port authorities and shipping companies.

The mission of the accelerator is to support and develop start-ups which will provide innovative commercial solutions to the maritime industry across the pillars of sustainability, supporting them in their transition to climate neutrality and resilience, thus becoming the strategic partner for the maritime industry in the scouting, acceleration and incubation of high-impact climate and sustainability innovations. Applications will open in June, and more details can be found at www.maritime-accelerator.org

Associate professor Alexandros Charalambides is chair of chemical engineering department of the Cyprus University of Technology