Just after this year’s snowy delay, the Conoship New Year’s Reception finally took place. This year’s reception theme was outside our traditional scope, as we spent the evening exploring what technologies, regulations, and systems are beyond our waters and how we can work together to achieve new opportunities. The reception was held on the 16th of January with a room filled with maritime key players, to celebrate the beginning of the new year and to reflect on the successes of 2025. 

Expertise From Outside the Maritime Industry 

To assist us in envisioning the possibilities that broadening our expertise would bring, we invited four different professors from the University of Groningen, each demonstrating their own approach from their sector and relating their expertise to shipping. The speakers were as follows:

1. Bayu Jayawardhana – Scientific Director of Engineering and Technology
2. Nasser Kalantar-Nayestanaki – Professor and Research Director at the Faculty of Science and Engineering
3. Goda Perlaviciute – Professor at the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences
4. Ruven Fleming – Associate Professor and Scientific Coordinator at the Groningen Centre of Energy Law and Sustainability,

First, Bayu shared his vision for the development of an ecosystem of autonomous systems. Regardless of the complexity at hand, it all starts with the need for close cooperation between everyone involved.

Meanwhile, Nasser presented his vision by highlighting the safety considerations and risks as the maritime industry explores new and unconventional energy solutions, in his case, nuclear energy.

Goda introduced another intriguing insight, showcasing how crucial work on public evaluations and acceptability of energy sources is for the success of new technologies.

Lastly, Ruven introduced another key topic. His presentation included regulatory and legal constraints and opportunities for the implementation of alternative fuels in the maritime industry.