Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition winners announced

Posted on: 17/09/2021

Winners of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) were announced aboard HMS Albion on the 15th September by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps as part of the Net Zero Hub during London International Shipping Week.

First announced in November 2020, as part of the 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, this £20m competition aims to support the design and development of technologies for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by the UK’s maritime sector as set out in the Clean Maritime Plan and support the transition to Net Zero by 2050.

Launched in March 2021, a total of 55 projects involving 208 organisations were awarded funding across 2 strands of the competition representing a broad array of innovative technologies that seek to springboard the UK’s Maritime sector closer to Net Zero over the next 7 months. Click here to see the full list of winners.

The CMDC was significantly oversubscribed with quality bids, demonstrating the first-class capabilities of the UK maritime industry and its appetite to invest in innovation.

In response to the significant amount of quality projects received by Innovate UK, DfT allocated £3.259 million in addition to the original £20 million budget of the clean maritime demonstration competition.

KTN worked closely alongside the Department for Transport and Innovate UK to support the delivery of this competition to ensure organisations made the most of this opportunity to kickstart a green maritime revolution. KTN’s efforts focused on stakeholder engagement, hosting the competition briefing event and three consortium brokerage events prior to the submission deadline.

Across the 55 winning projects, 49 had previously engaged with KTN highlighting our credentials within the sector at connecting innovative people and organisations together to drive positive change.

Although £20m will not get us far on the journey to Net Zero it does represent acknowledgement from the UK government that the maritime sector is important and does need support on its Net Zero journey. The £20m has reinvigorated interest in innovation and given the confidence to many businesses to start acting now. I hope this is the start of continued support for the UK maritime sector enabling the UK to become leaders in clean, smarter maritime technologies.

Dr Matt Moss, Knowledge Transfer Manager Maritime at KTN

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