The Norwegian Maritime AI Centre (MAI) is a national research centre dedicated to advancing the innovative use of artificial intelligence (AI) across the maritime sector.

Led by NTNU in collaboration with key academic, industrial, and governmental partners, the centre represents one of Norway’s most ambitious efforts to harness AI for the maritime sector.

Our mission is to accelerate the operationalisation of AI in the maritime value chains – from ship design and construction to navigation, logistics, maintenance, shipping, crew training, and energy management – while ensuring safety, transparency, and trust.

We do this by:

• Developing shared, open, and reusable AI technology foundations for the maritime domain.
• Demonstrating their potential through innovative use cases with our partners.
• Building competence, capacity, and awareness across research, education, and industry.

Objectives

The centre is built around four main research objectives (RO):

1. Specialise and fine-tune AI foundation models for the maritime domain, making them reusable across multiple applications.
2. Develop methodologies and algorithms that exploit maritime domain knowledge for creating AI-ready data and edge-AI systems.
3. Understand and overcome regulatory, ethical, human, organizational and commercial barriers to AI deployment in the maritime sector.
4. Demonstrate AI in innovative use cases, developing prototypes and actions toward commercial exploitation.

Together, these objectives ensure that research and innovation is both technically sound and societally responsible.

Structure and Focus

MAI is organised into three main work packages:

1. Technology foundation (WP1) – Creating shared models, data, and algorithms for maritime AI.
2. Use cases & applications (WP2) – Demonstrating AI through 13 major use cases, and several smaller industrial use cases.
3. Open innovation, capacity building & scale-up (WP3) – Engaging students, professionals, and partners through education, training, and collaborative innovation.

This structure ensures a seamless flow between research, application, and impact — from fundamental AI methods to practical tools and solutions.

Centre organization and governance

Impact

The Norwegian Maritime AI Centre will deliver:

• A shared technology foundation for AI in the maritime domain.
• Demonstration prototypes that prove the potential of AI in for the maritime sector.
• Education and training of about 25 PhD candidates, 5 postdocs, and 200 master’s students.
• A strong ecosystem that fosters innovation, sustainability, and global collaboration.

By connecting Norway’s world-leading maritime industries with cutting-edge AI research, MAI aims to shape the next generation of maritime products and services.

A Collaborative Effort

The centre is funded by the Research Council of Norway and partners. Researchers in MAI collaborates with several hundred companies and organizations in the maritime sector, ranging from ship designers, yards, operators, technology suppliers, regulatory authorities, and research clusters.

Together, the collaborating companies and organizations represent the maritime value chains and form a powerful community working toward a shared goal: to accelerate how maritime AI is made ready for deployment.