Technologies and Application Areas

Technologies

In collaboration with stakeholders from research, industry, and policymakers, ISSS members engage in joint activities focused on developing, integrating, and deploying innovative technologies. These advancements prioritize digitalization and automation, leveraging ocean robotics and AI for tasks such as communication, navigation, inspection, intervention, monitoring, control, maintenance, decommissioning, and signal processing. To support these efforts, ISSS members are creating sensors, actuators, durable materials, and power supplies for subsea technologies, as well as innovative materials suited for extreme underwater conditions. Additionally, the collection, analysis, and visualization of data are essential for effective environmental monitoring and contribute to the Maritime Data Space, Ocean Internet of Things, and civil sea and ocean monitoring networks.

Based on the established network and collaboration, several ISSS members are working together in joint projects granted by the European Union research and innovation funding programme: Prep4Blue, SEARCULAR, BlueMissionAA, Iliad and SEAGLOW.

Application Areas

The Innovation Platform for Sustainable Sea and Ocean Solutions aims to accelerate the transition to industrial applications across five key areas, each supported by a dedicated Expert Group. These areas include Aquaculture, Clean Oceans, Ocean Energy, Waterborne Transport, and Maritime Test Sites.

© iStock
© Pixabay
© Pexels/Jeremy Bishop

Aquaculture

Aquaculture covers the entire value chain of sustainably extracting marine resources, such as fisheries and seaweed harvesting, with a focus on advancing blue biotechnology from breeding to processing. Achieving this sustainably is key to fulfilling the EU Green Deal's Farm-to-Fork objectives. This requires cutting-edge technologies and strategies to address challenges like climate change, habitat degradation, competing resource demands, and fisheries-induced evolution.

The ISSS Expert Group on Aquaculture is developing innovative solutions for production and processing, including the study of new species, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), alternative feed sources, and improved fish welfare and health management. Their work also focuses on sustainable food production, by-product utilization, and waste recycling. These advancements rely on technologies such as sensor development, AI-driven automation, data analytics, monitoring systems, and advanced feeding technologies.

Clean Oceans

Cleaning the oceans of waste and pollution is vital for strengthening coastal and environmental protection. Currently, an estimated 100 to 142 million tons of waste pollute the oceans, with an additional 8 million tons of plastic and 1.5 million tons of microplastics entering the seas each year. The Expert Group Clean Oceans addresses this issue across the entire value chain, focusing on prevention, detection, removal, and recycling of all types of marine debris, including plastics, metals, fishing gear, chemical pollutants, oil spills, and unexploded ordnance (UxO) in both open waters and coastal areas. Innovative technologies such as drones and optical sensors for monitoring, AI-driven autonomous robots for identification and cleaning, and data collection, analysis and modelling are employed to tackle these challenges effectively.

Ocean Energy

The ocean will play a crucial role in the transition to a sustainable global energy system, with significant growth projected by 2050. Offshore wind energy, in particular, is poised for rapid expansion, driving innovation and supporting the shift toward cleaner energy. As traditional extraction of minerals, oil, and gas declines due to lower production and rising costs, ocean energy is emerging as a vital solution for meeting future energy demands while reducing environmental impact. Next to offshore wind, the ISSS Expert Group focuses on further marine-based renewable energy sources such as wave energy, tidal energy and floating PV.

Waterborne Transport

The EU supports waterborne transport in addressing its key challenge of balancing energy efficiency with environmental impact, encouraging the shift of freight transport from road to water. The dedicated ISSS Expert Group is working on developing efficient, emission-free, and eco-friendly waterborne transport solutions, contributing to R&D innovations in this field. With several ISSS members actively involved in the Waterborne Technology Platform, ISSS maintains strong connections with European stakeholders. Additionally, ISSS members participate in the Horizon Europe SEAGLOW project, which aims to demonstrate the potential of five different technological applications to reduce fossil fuel consumption and GHG emissions on small-scale fishing boats in the North and Baltic Sea basins.

Der Ocean Technology Campus (OTC) in der Ostsee.
© Fraunhofer IGD
Digital Ocean Lab

Maritime Test Sites

Maritime Test Sites are essential infrastructures to accelerate marine engineering innovation and enable the validation of prototypes in real conditions as well as pre-industrial tests. ISSS will interlink existing research infrastructures offshore and onshore, as well as establish joint data platforms across Europe for interdisciplinary research to reduce the risk of costly, unplanned and unnecessarily complex rulings being issued to responsible business operations. Through the high variety of ISSS members location the platform offers a unique network of offshore maritime test sites across Europe. These include AZTI’s Offshore marine aquaculture experimentation area on the Basque Coast, the Digital Ocean Lab in the Baltic Sea (Fraunhofer), the Smart Bay Santa Teresa in Italy (ENEA), the HarshLab in the Basque Coast (TECNALIA), the Trondheimsfjorden Test Area for Autonomous Ships in Norway (SINTEF Ocean), the North Sea Lab (TNO) and the Ste-Anne-du-Portzic Test Site in Brest, France (IFREMER).

Contact

Joanna Przedrzymirska-Ziółkowska

Contact Press / Media

Joanna Przedrzymirska-Ziółkowska

Project Lead Sustainable Sea and Ocean Solutions (ISSS)

Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD
Joachim-Jungius-Str. 11
18059 Rostock, Germany

Phone +49 15152026776

Lorena Iden

Contact Press / Media

Lorena Iden

Project Development Sustainable Sea and Ocean Solutions (ISSS)

Fraunhofer-Institut für Graphische Datenverarbeitung IGD
Joachim-Jungius-Str. 11
18059 Rostock, Germany

Phone +49381 4024 486

Katrin  Mögele

Contact Press / Media

Katrin Mögele

EU Office Brussels

Mobile +49 151 41486451