First Founding Industry Member joins Marine Software Engineering Cluster of Excellence in Malta
Navico Norway AS, a global leader in marine electronics, has joined as the first Founding Industry Member of the Marine Software Engineering Cluster of Excellence in Malta (MARSEC-XL).
Jens-Thomas Pietralla, President and CEO of Navico, becomes the first Chairman of the Industry Board of MARSEC-XL, a joint venture between Steps Ahead Ltd and EuroMedITI Ltd.
This announcement follows the inaugural MARSEC-XL Industry Board meeting, held on the 21st October 2007 attended by invited representatives of leading marine companies and academia, and the First International Conference on Marine Software Engineering (iC-mSE@MALTA) held between 22nd-23rd October 2007 in Malta.
Navico is setting out a new course in the digitalization of the yachting industry by joining the initiative as the first Founding Industry Member. Additional Founding Industry Members are expected to be announced shortly, including leading yacht builders, engine manufacturers and content providers.
The Marine Software Engineering Cluster of Excellence (MARSEC-XL) sets out to shape the digital future of the yachting industry through the formal application of marine systems and software engineering. The mission of MARSEC-XL is to provide an unbroken sustainable innovation chain encompassing a range of activities from applied research, education and training to business operations and technology transfer. The vision is to promote Malta as a neutral ground where leading brands can work collaboratively.
MARSEC-XL has identified a lacuna in the marine systems and software engineering aspects of yacht building, manifested in the lack of interoperability of the onboard ICT and electronic systems. This niche has extensive potential, and Malta presents the ideal location for its development, given its strong ICT orientation and maritime heritage, its location in the middle of the yachting market, and its highly developed marine infrastructure centred around the Grand Harbour, Valletta.
The initiative has strong backing from the Maltese Government represented by: Malta Maritime Authority; Ministry for Investment, Industry and IT; University of Malta; Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology;
Malta Council for Science and Technology; and Malta Enterprise.
MARSEC-XL consists of three distinct and interconnected units:
-The Marine Institute for Software Engineering at Malta in collaboration with Fraunhofer IESE (Kaiserslautern, Germany) and the University of Malta, MI-SE@MALTA
-The Super-yacht Technology Expansion Centre, S-TEC, the first “living lab” in the yachting industry
- The Marine Business Port, MBP, offering international companies the opportunity to establish a presence centrally in the Med and become part of MARSEC-XL.
Editors’ Notes
Navico is the parent company to seven well-established and differentiated marine electronics brands:B&G, Eagle, Lowrance, Simrad, MX Marine, Northstar and Navman.
For further information please contact Renee Mead, Global Senior Manager - PR and Information renee.mead@navico.com, phone: +47 46 411 705.
EuroMedITI is a platform for technology transfer and business-driven research and innovation in Malta and the Mediterranean region. For further information please contact: Anton Bartolo,
abartolo@euromediti.com, phone: +356 79 25 05 87.
Steps Ahead is a company supporting the fast introduction of software determined systems and services in the marine industry. For further information please contact Geir Fagerhus,
geir@stepsahead.se, phone: +46 706 800 500.