World’s first system of autonomous ships kicks off at the Baltic Sea

World’s first system of autonomous ships kicks off at the Baltic Sea – DIMECC’s innovation ecosystem brings forerunners and investments to Finland

Finnish maritime industries will create an ecosystem for autonomous marine transport. The objective of the ecosystem is to create the world’s first autonomous marine transport system to the Baltic Sea. Ships will be fully autonomous in 2025. The first pilots and applications in months to come are cargo ships and freight.

There are almost 80 companies in the ecosystem through Finnish Marine Industries Association. The largest investors are Cargotec, Ericsson, Meyer Turku, Rolls-Royce, Tieto, and Wärtsilä. About half of the ecosystem’s funding comes from Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. ”Industry created this idea and objective. There is global competition going on to get the first model. We have to be quick. This is why we selected DIMECC to run and implement the ecosystem”, says Rolls-Royce Marine SVP Sauli Eloranta.

”This is an ambitious objective which can lead to new business. Tekes is willing to share risks with private sector by funding such an ecosystem. We welcome all innovators in the world to test their ides in Finland. We have the best platforms here”, comments Tekes’ senior advisor Rauli Hulkkonen.

”This ecosystem is a continuum to our long-term and determined R&D&I facilitation, where we boost cross-industrial innovations. Finland has world-class marine technologies and ICT competencies. By combining these in a novel way the objective can be reached”, says Harri Kulmala, CEO of DIMECC Ltd.

”There is no lack of ideas in Finland. We have world-class digital and marine competencies. We can launch huge marine industry investments and new employment in Finland by accelerating in IoT, by taking big data seriously, and by raising our products to new quality levels. This calls for brave and fast actions”, comments Juha Heikinheimo, the chairman of board of Finnish Marine Industries Association.

Technology Industries Finland, which includes Finnish Marine Industries Association, announced in September 1st, that DIMECC is the innovation platform to create 100 000 new jobs in Finland. ”Ecosystem makes significant innovation-based investment wave possible. We create competitiveness, jobs, and well-being”, says Kulmala.

More information:

Harri Kulmala, DIMECC Ltd., harri.kulmala(at)dimecc.com, +358 40 840 6380

Sauli Eloranta, Rolls-Royce Marine, sauli.eloranta(at)rolls-royce.com, +358 40 580 8664

Juha Heikinheimo, Finnish Marine Industries, juha.heikinheimo(at)napa.fi, +358 40 501 5181

Rauli Hulkkonen, Tekes, rauli.hulkkonen(at)tekes.fi, +358 50 557 7893