The Lloyd’s Register Safety Accelerator announced its first round of innovation challenges to find solutions for how to improve human safety on ships and floating platforms at a launch in central London yesterday. Among speakers were Paul Schuberth, corporate security, safety, health and environment (SSH&E) manager at Exxon Mobil Corporation; who described the oil firm’s approach to safety of personnel and processes, and some of its developing work in the field to reduce risk to workers, such as use of drones in confined spaces, and wearable devices.
As the launch heard, the nature of marine and energy, and the places in which these industries operate, makes working in these sectors some of the most dangerous in the world. Although conditions for crew and personnel are improving, there is more to be done to improve the safety of life on board, say Accelerator organisers.
Lloyd’s Register is looking for proposals from companies with digital ideas to address this Challenge Round, which seeks new ways to create safer work environments, particularly in marine and offshore.
Winning companies will receive trial funding and the chance to collaborate with commercial partners to accelerate the development of their technologies. Partners for this challenge round include Kotug and Gassco, plus others to be identified at the Innovation Day in Hamburg on September 4.
The winning entrepreneurs will retain all their IP (intellectual property), besides mentoring, entrepreneurial support and access to domain expertise to help bring their solution to market though support from Plug and Play Tech Centre and Lloyd’s Register.
The four categories are:
Detecting minor leaks in ‘complex industrial environments’ with Norwegian gas transport firm Gassco – exploring new ways to identify, quantify and respond to minor leaks, as part of the daily operation of the facility.
Navigating gas vapour clouds with Kotug – seeking methods to detect and visualise potentially explosive gas clouds, enabling vessels to avoid and navigate around it.
Ensuring marine and offshore crew competency – seeking tools and concepts to ensure crew are always performing competently, reducing risks and injuries, through monitoring, measuring, advising, for crew to do their job safely.
Enhancing dynamic risk assessment – seeking new ways keep personnel better informed about operational risks affecting them in real time in their workplaces and transform risk assessment from a static exercise to a process that is dynamic, intuitive and real-time.
Richard Clegg, Chief Executive, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, was among the speakers at the launch. He said: “Accelerating the uptake and application of technology for the benefit of society is one of the pillars in the Foundation’s strategy. The Lloyd’s Register Safety Accelerator offers a great way of achieve this by bringing together people with challenges with those that have solutions. It’s a win-win, and in the process makes the world a safer place. I’m excited to see what innovative investable ideas come out of it.”
The deadline for applications is 5 August 2018. Shortlisted entries will be invited to a live pitch and Q&A with a panel of judges. The launch of trials for successful applicants is scheduled to take place in Winter 2018.
The Safety Accelerator is a joint initiative between Lloyd’s Register, one of the world’s leading providers of professional services for engineering and technology and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a charitable foundation helping to protect life and property by supporting engineering-related education, public engagement and the application of research, which is funding the programme.
The Safety Accelerator is run with Plug and Play Tech Center, the innovation platform and venture capital fund in Silicon Valley.
For more about the Lloyd’s Register Safety Accelerator, including how to become an industry challenge partner, or applying to solve a challenge, visit: www.lr.org/en/safety-accelerator.
Picture by Mark Rowe: rig off Invergordon, eastern Scotland.
