UK innovators transforming the maritime sector

0:16 – 0:27

We’ve developed a wind propulsion system for commercial shipping. It’s a rigid wing that sits on the deck of the vessel, so effectively it reduces thrust to the vessel from a differential in pressure to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

0:33 – 0:43

At spatial cortex, we develop sensors and analytics that helps workplaces understand and reduce the risk of injuries, like back injuries from manual handling or from desk waste work.

0:49 – 1:23

So there’s a big driver at the moment for the decarbonisation of the maritime sector. And we’ve developed the world’s first uncrewed surface vessel that is powered by hydrogen, where you’ve got zero carbon emissions whilst operating for long periods of time in harbour and at sea. The opportunity that the accelerator has given to us is engaging with key trial partners in the maritime sector like Port of Time and Serco. We are trialing our manual handling solution so it is the full body ergonomic solution. It will give us detailed understanding of the effectiveness of our solution and also optimize our solution further.

1:23 – 1:56

At the Port of Town, our strategic goal is to have zero harm year on year. So it’s a perfect collaboration for the Port of Time, fostering innovation, working with SMEs, working with the likes of Kailash, to be able to be a test bed for these innovative technologies. So the grant money has permitted us to go through the journey of designing, testing, trialing the vessel and its hydrogen powertrain and we are soon to conduct our at sea test with that hydrogen powertrain. Proving that use case has been an excellent opportunity for us. So we’re at the stage now whereby we can use the tech, we can certify it and commercialize it.

1:56 – 2:27

Trig has actually been extremely helpful for us in getting approval in principle with a classification body bureau, Veritas, to verify that the wing meets class requirements in a real world environment. Obviously funding is one of the benefits, but it’s not the only thing. We’ve had a huge amount of support and coaching and guidance throughout the whole process. We also benefited from business support with financial modeling, market sizing and thirdly, the investor readiness. Without the connected places catapult, we would not have been able to grow the team from six of us to a team of 20.

2:27 – 2:48

Helping out in the local economy. Trig’s been extremely helpful in our commercial growth. We’ve got now installing the first wing on a ship, so that’s extremely exciting, a huge milestone for the company. We’ve also secured 1.25 million in grant funding from the UK government, Innovate UK and we have secured a 1.25 million seed investment round. And all of that came as part of the benefits that we got out of the program.

2:49 – 3:28

We have ambitions whereby we have a fleet of these vessels for offshore renewable energy, for offshore oil and gas, for, for marine protected areas and for defense and security. And we’re investigating their potential for a larger variant, significant decarbonisation potential there for all of those use cases globally. Our ambition is making our technology available to majority of workplaces in key sectors including transport, maritime and warehousing. Our technology has the potential to reduce injuries by 77% and that is our driver. Over the next few months we’re looking to verify the technology to make sure that it works the way that we know that it does and to prove that to the world.

3:28 – 3:57

We can then go to full commercialization, sell these units to the global fleet to help decarbonise shipping around the world. It’s been absolutely crucial for us as a startup based in the UK, we would not be where we are with this 25 ton robot sea monster if it were not for that funding. Trig has been very helpful for us. Apply, get the learnings that you need from it, get the support you need from IT and go and do some great things. SA.