Focus on “Digital Weser” and other future topics
The Smartport community is growing: almost 150 participants from business, institutions and authorities came together for the first Smartport Event 2025 at the DIGITAL HUB INDUSTRY. The event marked the start of further collaboration on joint projects to digitalize and increase the efficiency of Bremen's ports.
bremenports Managing Director Robert Howe emphasized: “Developing the intelligent port of the future can only be achieved together. The fact that more and more players are getting involved in our joint smart port community is therefore a great success in itself.”
But the participants at the Smartport event were also able to tick off a number of goals that have already been achieved: Be it the fact that the port railroad in Bremen and Bremerhaven is now fully digitalized and operated via a specially developed port railway operating system, projects such as the Ship Mooring Measurement System - SAMS for short - or the success that the Smartport community was able to achieve as part of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research's Datipilot funding guideline, which means that a total of up to 5 million euros in funding is now available for the Smartport Transfer (SPorT) joint project: Some milestones have already been reached.
Another key topic was the “Digital Weser” project, which aims to enable transparent and efficient management of ship calls along the Weser. Following a joint agreement, which was also the subject of yesterday's Smartport event, this project is now set to gain significant momentum:
The Senator for Economics, Ports and Transformation, the Hanseatic City of Bremen Port Authority and bremenports have agreed to implement the recommendations of a preliminary study on optimizing port calls in the near future. The aim is to increase transparency and efficiency in shipping through a digital platform. This is Bremen's response to the expectations of shipping companies and the requirements of the National Port Strategy as well as the goals of the international “GreenVoyage2050” initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In order to develop the “Digital Weser”, the agreement states that appropriate resources are to be provided and existing systems and personnel structures expanded. On the other hand, further partners and, in the medium term, the Weser ports in Lower Saxony and the Waterways and Shipping Authority are to be integrated.
Making the flow of traffic more efficient and transparent
The port operations offices will act as central coordination points in order to make the flow of traffic more efficient and transparent. The specific requirements to be met are now being developed together with the smart port community based on the recommendations and regulations of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
“The aim of the “Digital Weser” is to provide a clear impetus for the digital transformation of Bremen's ports,” reports Smartport Coordinator Matthias Hinz. A first step in this direction is the short-term provision of financial resources to optimize the existing port information system - in particular to better integrate it into the online offerings of the port authority and bremenports and to enable automated data exchange with the industry in the future.
But other future topics were also on the agenda: start-ups such as CargoKite and Flowfox presented their innovations, the “Smartport Living Lab” for networking research and practice was discussed and the participants took the opportunity to engage in intensive discussions. “The Smartport community thrives on dialog in order to define and implement common goals,” concluded Smartport coordinator Matthias Hinz.
