Maritime Singapore has consistently invested in innovation and technology, from enhancing smart port operations and safe and efficient shipping, to the use and bunkering of low/zero-carbon marine fuels. On public-sector R&D development, the Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI) collaborates with various R&D centres of excellence in local universities and A*STAR to grow maritime R&D talents, strengthen academia-industry collaboration, and increase R&D translation and deployment to industry. To grow our maritime startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem, the MPA and NUS Enterprise jointly established the Port Innovation Ecosystem Reimagined at BLOCK71 (PIER71) programme. MPA has also setup enablers such as regulatory sandboxes (e.g. maritime drone estate, maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) testbed, Living Labs), a maritime data hub, and innovation funds (e.g. Maritime Innovation & Technology (MINT) Fund) to support R&D, product development and field trials.
These efforts have seen results on many fronts. Since inception in 2013, the MINT Fund has supported about 1800 research scientists and engineers and over 60 technologies deployment in the maritime sector. PIER71 has accelerated over 110 marinetech startups, which have collectively raised over S$65mil in investments from venture capitalists. MPA also supported over 50 innovation projects by startups and their industry partners. Several startups have since internationalised their solutions in overseas markets. In addition, new business models, joint ventures and consortiums have emerged from MPA’s industry digitalisation and decarbonisation programmes, for example, the digital bunkering initiative, additive manufacturing for just-in-time production of spare parts for ships, and harbour craft electrification initiative. Overall, these have contributed towards Maritime Singapore’s strong global ranking, including being ranked as second for Maritime Technology in the 2024 Leading Maritime Cities of the World Report by DNV and Menon Economics.
