Virtual Sea Trial – Ensuring that a single shortened sea trial is sufficient to pass all future ship commissions 

Novia University of Applied Sciences and project partners set out to innovate shipbuilding and commissioning with the three-year co-innovation project Virtual Sea Trial, funded by Business Finland. The Virtual Sea Trial project is an international collaboration working closely with the shipbuilding industry and the Meyer Turku Necoleap ecosystem.   
  
“Modern large cruise ships are essentially small floating cities, necessitating all onboard systems to function and interact flawlessly and safely. Yet, the validation and verification of system-level functionality traditionally occurs late in shipbuilding, typically during harbor and sea trials”, says Mikael Manngård, Project Manager at Novia UAS.    
 
The Virtual Sea-Trial project aims to shift the system-level testing months to years earlier by developing virtual commissioning and testing technologies. The goal is that maritime technology providers and shipyards can demonstrate new, efficient ways of designing, building, and testing onboard systems through virtualization. The risk associated with installing novel green technological innovations onboard is thus reduced.   
 
Mirva Salokorpi, Research Manager at Novia UAS, expressed her satisfaction with the new project, stating that “it is gratifying when strategic work pays off.” She went on to explain that the consortium of Universities of Applied Sciences, Universities, and industry built up in previous projects laid the groundwork for this project. The insights gained from previous collaborations provided a strategic roadmap for implementing the Virtual Sea Trial Project.  
 
Virtual Sea Trial is a 6-million-euro public research project funded by Business Finland. Novia’s part is 2.3 million euros, and the project starts in 2024. The consortium consists of the following partners: Novia University of Applied Sciences, Åbo Akademi University, University of Turku, University of Oulu, Meyer Turku, Wärtsilä, Kongsberg Maritime Finland, Valmet, Steerprop, Loisto Pro, Semantum, and Cadmatic . 

For more information, contact  

Novia UAS, Project Leader, Mikael Manngård, phone +358 50 576 6530    
Novia UAS, Research Manager, Mirva Salokorpi , phone  +358 44 762 3532 

Sender

Novia UAS, Communicator, Caroline Lång