Research projects
Project highlights at NTNU IMT
At the Department of marine technology we have a broad range of projects, both funded by EU and the Norwegian Research Council - as well as other big and small projects. See an extensive list below.
FME MarTrans
Norwegian R&D centre for Maritime Energy Transition (MarTrans) is an eight-year collaborative project with 65 partners within maritime industry and research, funded by the Research Council of Norway under the Research Centre for Environment-friendly Energy (FME) program. 2025-2033.
Arctic Ocean 2050
This ten-year program will facilitate the development and implementation of updated management principles in the new, blue Arctic Ocean. The program runs from 2025-2035 and brings together the full width of the Norwegian research community in a joint, interdisciplinary research program. The goal is to provide fundamental and applicable knowledge and skills that are urgently needed.
SFI Seaweed
SFI Seaweed aims to develop sustainable seaweed that can reduce environmental impact and contribute to a greener transition by 2035. To achieve these goals, NTNU and SINTEF, together with other universities and industry, will collaborate to address bottlenecks in cultivated seaweed production. NTNU IMT's focus is hydrodynamic.
FLEXSHIP
The overall goal of the EU project FLEXSHIP (2023-2026) is to develop and validate safe and reliable, flexible, modular, and scalable solutions for electrification of the waterborne sector. Flexible and modular large battery systems for safe on-board integration and operation of electric power, demonstrated in multiple type of ships is the goal.
BREACH - ERC Advanced Grant
The ERC Advanced Grant, a very prestigious EU grant, was received in 2024 to fund Professor Ingrid Bouwer Utne’s work to make robots and autonomous systems understand situations better when there is imminent danger and give operators insight into what they are actually ‘thinking’. The grant gives the opportunity for five years of fundamental research from 2025.
INSPIRE project
INSPIRE is a Horizon Europe and RCN co-funded partnership project which integrates floating wind farms together with hydrogen production to optimize the design, to reduce rare earth element (REE) usage, and to enhance the system lifetime.
Research projects at the Department of Marine Technology
National Projects
| Project | Programme | |
| NCEI - Norwegian Centre for Embodied AI (2026-2035) | RCN | |
| CBF BlueNature (Centre for Biodiversity Forecasting) | RCN | |
| SFI Seaweed (2026-2034) | RCN | |
| Polhavet 2050 (2026-2035) | National consortium | |
| MORE - Understanding mineral formation processes at the Mohns Ridge (2026-2029) | KSP | |
| Norwegian Maritime AI Centre (MAI) (2026-2031) | RCN | |
| MarTrans (2025-2032) | FME | |
| Maples (2025-2028) | KSP | |
| Fuse (2025-2028) | KSP | |
| NextShipp (2025-2028) | KSP | |
| SeaPrime (2025-2028) | KSP | |
| BirdWake (2025-2028) | KSP | |
| Torsion (2025-2029) | IPN | |
| OptiFlex (2025-2028) | KSP | |
| Pulsed Jet (2024-2028) | KPN | |
| SafeCoast (2024-2027) | RCN | |
| Hi-EFECTS (2024-2026) | Nordic grand solutions programme | |
| NorTek | IPN | |
| HYDROGENi (2023-2030) | FME | |
| NTNU Vista CAROS (2023-2028) | Vista | |
| AirOcean (2023-2027) | KSP | |
| Nymoor (2023-2027) | RCN | |
| FAME - Curbing Fisheries and Aquacultures Maritimes air Emissions (2023-2027) | RCN | |
| SafeGuard (2023-2027) | RCN | |
| SeaWorthy (2023-2026) | RCN | |
| Safesub (2023-2026) | KSP | |
| MIDAS (2022-2028) | RCN | |
| ProfSea (2022-2026) | RCN | |
| NUWind (2022-2027) | Mobility programme | |
| DREAMS (Design Re-Engineering and Automation for Marine Systems) (2021-2028) |
KSP | |
| NorthWind (2021-2029) | FME | |
| SFI Harvest (2020 – 2028) | RCN | |
| SFI Autoship (2020-2028) | RCN | |
| SEAOPS - Safe and energy - efficient operations of ships | KSP | |
| Ship Performance and Cyber-Physical Systems (University Technology Centre) (From 2005-) | UTC |
European and international projects
| Project | Programme |
| Nexus (2027-2029) | EU |
| Blue Tech Twinning (2027-2029) | EU |
| BlueOcean (2026-2030) | MSCA |
| Fleetfor55 (2025-2028) | Horizon Europe |
| BREACH (2025-2028) | ERC Advanced Grant |
| STEESMAT (2025-2028) | EU |
| Twilighted (2025-2028) | Horizon Europe |
| Marbles (2025-2030) | EU |
| BlueBARGE (2024-2027) | EU |
| Twinvest (Digital Twin to provide investors in onshore wind farms valuable insights about current operations and future investments)(2024-2027) | EU |
| Lorelei-X (Long-endurance cooperative Robotic tEchnologies for Localisation of targets during Emergency Incidents – Twinning for eXcellence) (2024-2027) | EU |
| INSPIRE: Innovative design and operation for rare earth material reduction and optimized lifetime for next generation offshore wind-based hydrogen production (2024-2027) | Co-funded by EU, RCN and others |
| Inkfish (2023-2027) | Sydney University cooperation |
| DigiWind - Digital masters of Wind and energy (2023-2027) | EU-co-funded within the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) |
| Made4Wind - Innovative circular materials and design methods for offshore wind farms of the future (2023-2027) | EU funded |
| Iconic Wind - Smart, Aware, Integrated Wind Farm Control Interacting with Digital Twins (2023-2027) | Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Actions, the UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee scheme, and Innossuisse |
| FLEXSHIP: Flexible and modular large battery systems for safe on-board integration and operation of electric power and propulsion (2023-2027) | Horizon Europe (European Commission) |
| Climarest (2023– 2026) | Horizon 2020 |
| Seamless (2023-2026) | EU |
Other Projects
| Project | Programme |
| Brohode havbruk | Regional programme |
→ See completed projects here
Explanation:
RCN: Research Council of Norway (Norges forskningsråd)
IPN: Innovation project industry (Innovasjonsprosjekter i næringslivet)
KSP: Collaborative and knowledge building project (Kompetanse og samarbeidsprosjekt)
KPN/KMB: Knowledge building project for the industry (Kompetanseprosjekter for næringslivet)
BIP: User-driven innovation project (Brukerstyrt innovasjonsprosjekt)
BIA: User-driven innovation platform (Brukerstyrt innovasjonsarena)
FRINATEK: Independent projects in mathematics, natural sciences and technology under the FRIPRO funding scheme
JIP: Joint industry project
SFI: Centre for Research-based Innovation (Senter for forskningsdrevet innovasjon)
SMARTRANS: Næringslivets transporter og ITS
SafeGuard
SAFEGUARD (2023-2027) is a Norwegian Research Council (RCN) funded project for intelligent autonomous systems for safeguarding operations and infrastructure at sea. Safeguarding critical infrastructures, production systems, risk management, and robust monitoring and communication in vast and remote ocean areas are more important than ever.
DigitalSea ICE
The goal in the RCN funded DigitalSea ICE project (2024-2027) is to build a multiscale digital system that integrates regional sea ice forecasting models and local ice-ice/ice-structure numerical models with shipboard, and regional Arctic sea ice and environmental observations. The aim is more precise forecasting of ice conditions in the Arctic – including better understanding of long-term variations.
SFI Harvest
SFI Harvest's (2020-2028) ambition is to develop scientific and technological knowledge for the responsible harvesting and processing of underexploited species. This will be achieved by developing new technologies to contribute to solving the global challenges that is providing food to a growing population, in a sustainable manner.
SFI Autoship
SFI Autoship (2020-2028) is a research-based innovation centre that will contribute to Norwegian players taking a leading role in the development of autonomous ships for safe and sustainable operations.
Vista CAROS
NTNU VISTA Centre for Autonomous Robotic Operations Subsea (CAROS) (2022-2027) aim to become a world-leading research centre on autonomous underwater robotic operations with focus on resident and collaborating autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that are supported by subsea docking systems for energy charging and communication.
SFI Blues
SFI BLUES (2020-2028) aims to enable Norwegian industry to create new types of floating stationary structures for the next generation of ocean industries which satisfy the needs and requirements from renewable energy, aquaculture, and coastal infrastructure.
Videos from some research projects at the Department of Marine Technology
Can floating solar islands meet the world's future energy needs?
NextGenIMR – from outer space to ocean space
Students in the course “TMR4243 Marine Control Systems 2” at IMT are performing DP control systems lab experiments on the C/S Enterprise in the Marine Cybernetics Laboratory.
20 years with Centres of Excellence led by the Department of Marine Technology
- NTNU AMOS - Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems - Centre of Excellence (2013-2023)
- Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures (CeSOS, Centre of Excellence 2002-2012)
