Italy’s Fincantieri and France’s Naval Group, the parent companies of joint venture Naviris, announced on 30 November 2023 that the final demonstrations of the five-project Research & Technology (R&T) Programme that initiated the joint venture’s activities had taken place in Genoa, Italy, on 22 November.
Signed on 4 June 2020 and managed by the Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation (OCCAR), the Naviris R&T programme contract marked the kick-off of the joint venture’s activities. It “set the foundation of the competitiveness of the joint venture and has been a fundamental enabler of the c-ooperation between Fincantieri and Naval Group”, the companies stated in a joint press release.
The five study projects that made up the Naviris R&T programme were focused on:
- ‘the Digital ship’, which has sought to develop ship simulation capabilities throughout a vessel’s whole lifecycle to better predict performances and reduce the amount of real testing;
- ‘Energy consumption optimisation of electrical architecture’;
- ‘Winning a sea state’, which aimed to improve the range of use of onboard systems thanks to better ships seakeeping;
- ‘Fuel cells’, which looked at fuel cell solutions for surface vessels;
- and ‘Factory of the Future’, which looked at the use of digital and robotic technologies to boost shipyard competitiveness.
The final demonstrations related to the results of the ‘Digital Ship’ study topic and their applicability.
“Naviris and OCCAR expressed their deep appreciation to the entire integrated team comprising Fincantieri and Naval Group technicians for their involvement in the demonstrations, for the richness of the results achieved and for the demonstrations that took place earlier for the other study topics,” stated the joint press release. “These presentations demonstrated a great degree of co-operation and integration of the team, a good baseline for future co-operation and the use of these developments for future naval programmes (both the technologies and the use of the developed software).”
