The motivation for this project arises from the fast exploration of the arctic sea and the fact that Norwegian waters are the primary entrance to high north transport. Thus, the key decision and innovation must be made with the Norwegian maritime industry. Consequently, this project will develop the cutting-edge arctic ship design knowledge needed to ensure a competitive Norwegian maritime industry. The next 3 to 5 years will be crucial for competence building due to the strong world-wide interest in the arctic sea.

To ensure that the Norwegian maritime industry can be the most competitive stakeholder concerning arctic ship design, the following key competences need to be developed:

• Consistent design methods for the arctic sea considering rare and unknown events
• Concise identification of the design relevant actions occurring during the ships life-cycle
• Safe and sustainable ship design for economic arctic sea transport
• Highly trained experts (PhDs) in the design departments to develop cutting-edge products

External project partners and collaborators: Rolls Royce Marine, DNV, SINTEF, CARD, MUN and Aalto.

Operational logistics is one of the core problems encountered when dealing with sustainable Arctic sea transportation and field operation issues. Given the fact that established business models and integrated value chains within commercial shipping operation and offshore petroleum activities can not be duplicated/are not suitable for Arctic transportation, field operation and shipping, an important question for ship-owners and major operators is to determine the best and most commercial and sustainable business model, given levels of uncertainties and risk and investments into type of vessels and chosen models for fleet operation. This collaborative research project will specifically address the issue of operational business models and design of sustainable and integrated value chains, within both commercial transarctic shipping and arctic offshore field operation. Key aspects that the project will look into are as follows:

• Identification of stakeholders' preferences and key performance indicators (KPI's) through workshops and seminars
• Development of ready-to-use simulation-based decision support tools for Arctic field logistics and transit transport

External project partners and collaborators: ABB, CHNL, DNV, HiÅ, MARINTEK and Northenergy.