Norway’s largest ever private investment in maritime knowledge development was launched with the full support of public and private leaders in Oslo in 2008. Since then the initiative has grown consistently, with 15 professorships currently sponsored at five universities and colleges around the country.
The Ministries of Research and Higher Education and Trade and Industry have expressed their support for the effort, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry is sponsoring its own chair at the Technical University in Trondheim, NTNU.
More than NOK 100 million has been put up by private sponsors to fund maritime R&D and education. Fields of study range from Arctic Technology to Ship Design and Environmentally Friendly Shipping. Sponsors include such maritime flagships as DNV/Det Norske Veritas, Wilhelmsen, Kongsberg Maritime and Leif Höegh. Sponsorships run for five years, after which time the Norwegian government will assume responsibility for funding of the chairs.
More recently the regional clusters along the west and south coast have joined the initiative, the latest being the offshore clusters in Kristiansand and Ålesund, giving Maritime Knowledge Hub a mix of offshore and maritime content that reflects growing trends in Norwegian maritime development.