At the inaugral Maritime UK [follow the link to see a great video]awards held in Southampton on the 19th Sept, attended by the Minister for Shipping Nusrat Ghani (@Nus_Ghani) the launch of the Solent regional hub was formally announced.

As a regional hub the compact area of the Solent demonstrates the importance of the maritime sector both to the region and to the UK as a whole.

Its great to see the Solent being promoted to a wider audience as the excellent place it always has been to live and work.   Our Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute has been at the heart of  these efforts since it was formally launched in 2012 with its first director Prof Ajit Shenoi from Ship Science.  The co-location with Maritime Engineering on our Boldrewood Innovation Campus of Lloyd’s Register Global Technology Centre in 2014 along with partnerships our many other industry partners has been key to its increasing activity

Now led by Prof Damon Teagle SMMI is actively promoting the Maritime 2050 strategy published by the Depatment of Transport earlier this year and which sets to  equip the UK to lead the world in maritime.  Exciting times are ahead with the technology challenges of decarbonising shipping at the forefront as well as embracing the digital revolution especially in the ever inrceasing use of maritime autonomous systems.

All of this makes it an excellent time to study Maritime Engineering as part of our Ship Science programmes. Our dedicated admisisons team always welcome enquiries or why not  visit us on the next University open day on Saturday 12th October and see our state-of-the-art faciltities including our 138 m long wave and towing tank