The European Maritime Education & Training conference is organised by partners involved in two EC-funded maritime education/training projects. These are the EC Interreg IVB North Sea Programme Northern Maritime University (NMU) and the EC Leonardo da Vinci Programme International Marine Environment Certificate (IMEC).

The aim of the conference is to bring together experts from industry, academia and government bodies to present and discuss key issues relating to European maritime education and training developments/initiatives. Such factors are considered vitally important in an era of rapid change, to take account of legislative requirements, and to help overcome a worldwide shortage of seafarers amidst rising demand for sea transportation.

Speakers include senior European policymakers, industry experts, and leading researchers and teachers from throughout the maritime industry and education/training sectors. Delegates attending the conference will include representatives from shipping and logistics firms, seaports, shipping service providers/users/suppliers, government, teachers and researchers, school/college career advisors, as well as maritime students and trainees (with reduced delegate fees for the latter).

The NMU project is funded through the EC Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme. The aim of NMU is to create a transnational maritime business knowledge cluster within the North Sea Region. NMU is led by Edinburgh’s Napier University Transport Research Institute (TRi) and partner organisations include a further eight major maritime research institutes and universities in Northern Europe plus maritime industry advisors. For further information visit: www.tri-napier.org.

IMEC is funded by the EC Leonardo da Vinci Programme, and is aimed at developing a certificate documenting personal environmental skills in marine and maritime issues. IMEC is led by Rambøll Storvik & Co AS in Norway with expert partners throughout Europe. The core idea of IMEC is to raise awareness and knowledge of marine environmental issues among staff working at sea and in ports. Further information may be obtained from www.imec.no.