The UAE is committed to protecting global and regional maritime security by means of addressing threats to maritime navigation, the marine environment, and global trade.
According to the UAE statement at the UN Security Council’s open debate on maritime security, roughly one-third of the world’s energy resources are transported by ships. Hence maritime transport is crucial to shaping the global economy as well as energy supply and global sustainable development.
Additionally, all countries rely on maritime transport for access to essentials such as food, vaccines, medicines, and other goods and services.
While not immediately apparent, maritime security is heavily impacted by climate change, such as the degradation of the ocean environment, which can further fuel maritime instability and hamper ocean-based activities.
The pathway to green shipping in the UAE comprises an understanding of maritime security and the need to enhance the country’s competitive status among the best maritime hubs worldwide.
With an understanding of the global and regional significance of maritime security as well as its impact on climate change, ASPIRE – the program development pillar of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), is gathering universities, research institutions, and individual innovators from all over the world to tackle global maritime security challenges through the MBZIRC Maritime Grand Challenge.
To be held in 2023, the competition is the first-of-its-kind experiment that will involve a heterogeneous collaboration among unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] and unmanned surface vehicles [USVs] to perform complex navigation and manipulation tasks in a GNSS-denied marine environment.
Universities, research institutions, and innovators will convene to find practical solutions to pressing challenges such as illegal fishing, piracy, smuggling, and human trafficking.
Such initiatives throw light on the growing role of academia in addressing global maritime security, especially as the maritime industry the world over is experiencing a paradigm shift, influenced by digitalization and decarbonization, in a post-COVID environment.
Initiatives such as the MBZIRC Maritime Grand Challenge equip key influencers with an understanding of the complex eco-socio-technical environment that the maritime in which the industry operates, as well as familiarizes them with the prevalent regulations in this ecosystem.
