Huge success for Bremen’s smart port community: it was only in March that more than 70 business enterprises, together with science institutes and public authorities, rolled out the smart port strategy for the ports of Bremen and drew up a roadmap for the digitised smart port of tomorrow. The smart port community has now been chosen to receive substantial support for its future cooperation.
The port management company bremenports, acting on behalf of the Special Asset Ports and as coordinator of the smart port initiative, submitted an application for the DATI Pilot research project to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, together with Bremen University and the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL). The good news has just arrived from Berlin in a letter that said, “Your community has come out ahead of almost 500 applications from all over Germany. Congratulations.”
Bremen’s entry, entitled “Smart port transfer – cooperation at the ports of Bremen as innovation booster as we head for a smart port (SPorT)” is thus one of only 20 initiatives nationwide to be selected for funding.
What this means in real terms for Bremen’s smart port community is that over the next four years its work and projects will receive funding of up to five million euros from the German Agency for Transfer and Innovation (DATI) as part of the DATI Pilot research project organised by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The first introductory meeting, where the 20 selected innovation communities will discuss the future structure of the research project, will take place at the end of June. The project will officially be rolled out at the beginning of 2025. The special thing about the DATI Pilot programme is that is intended in particular to generate knowledge transfer from the research sector into practical applications and identify potential new solutions to social challenges.
Kristina Vogt, Bremen’s Senator for Economic Affairs, Ports and Transformation, is delighted at the opportunities this creates: “The financial support provided by the Federal Ministry of Research for the smart port community is an enormous vote of confidence in the innovative strength of Bremen’s ports. These funds of up to five million euros will enable us to make significant progress in the digital transformation of our port infrastructure. Together with business enterprises, science and the entire maritime sector in Bremen, we plan to implement numerous groundbreaking projects. This is a major step towards safeguarding the competitiveness of the ports over the long term and establishing Bremen as a pioneer of smart port solutions.”
For Kathrin Moosdorf, Senator for the Environment, Climate and Science, this success once again confirms one of the key strengths of Bremen’s science sector: “Here in Bremen we perform really well when it comes to transferring research findings into practice and thus transforming innovative solutions into real applications. Our Logistics Research and Transfer Cluster paves the way for the smart port community. The close cooperation between science and the port industry, knowledge sharing and joint elaboration of solutions is well-established practice here and this has now paid off in the positive decision from the Ministry.”
New impetus for the overall project
Robert Howe, Managing Director of bremenports, is also convinced: “The funding will add vital new impetus to the overall project and take the smart port community as well as the digitisation projects at the ports of Bremen a good step forwards.”
For Martina Wellbrock, who was primarily responsible for promoting the DATI Pilot application as bremenports representative for the Special Asset Ports, together with Bremen University and the ISL, this is when the work will really begin. She is a member of the steering committee for the special project, together with Professor Michael Freitag, Spokesperson of the Logistics Research and Transfer Cluster of the Federal Land of Bremen, and Professor Frank Arendt, Managing Director of ISL Bremen/Bremerhaven. “We are all eagerly looking forward to this new funding and are delighted that we have been chosen to promote digital port projects over the coming years, strengthening knowledge sharing between the science and business sectors, and developing and testing new methods to streamline processes in the funding landscape.”
Professor Michael Freitag, representative of Bremen University, added, “Logistics research is not only for the ivory tower. Our results have to be implemented as prototypes in cooperation with the business enterprises at the ports of Bremen. That is essential if research is to lead to added value for the economy, the region and society.”
Professor Frank Arendt from ISL, the third partner in the research project, believes this will generate genuine opportunities: “Through these transfer activities, SPorT also offers a first-class chance for the ongoing development of smart port concepts and software demonstrators that have already been developed by the R&D institutes in the Federal Land of Bremen, together with business enterprises and public authorities.”
