Trondersk revealed plans for a Silicon Valley-style maritime innovation hub in Trondheim, Norway on December 12th 2025 to meet national goals of autonomous shipping leadership. This announcement capped an eventful week that featured Kpler's acquisition of Spire's maritime assets as well as validations in IoT and decarbonization research.
Over the last week, maritime technology developments highlight decarbonisation, digitalisation and autonomous operations. Lloyds Register and partners open global innovation centre for future ship technologies; NAPA gathers Japanese maritime stakeholders for AI-powered design; Shipbuilding knowledge transfer AI platform announced; and, Kraken Robotics presents innovative integration of unmanned mine countermeasure systems for NATO navies.
Recent developments in maritime technology include a new global centre of innovation for low carbon and intelligent ships, major funding and investment into autonomous and digital solutions, venture capital for maritime tech start-ups, awards for clean propulsion technologies and smart, connected ports, and conferences dedicated to these topics, all demonstrating rapid, commercially-driven innovation across the value chain.
Early November 2025 saw two more initiatives in maritime innovation. On November 5, RINA launched an Open Innovation Hub in Singapore in cooperation with the Maritime and Port Authority, to support digitalization and decarbonization activities at sea. At the same time, Lloyd's Register opened its International Maritime Future Technologies Innovation Centre, again in conjunction with COSCO Shipping Group and a number of academic partners, to incubate zero-carbon, intelligent ship systems.