UCL Energy Institute's shipping group is recognised for their work with the maritime industry

At the 2015 UCL Awards for Enterprise, the shipping group at the UCL Energy Institute, led by Dr Tristan Smith, were presented with the UCL Consultants Award. This award recognises the efforts and accomplishments of UCL’s most innovative and entrepreneurial staff in furthering enterprise through consultancy.

Over the last 5 years, and enabled through UCL Consultants Ltd (UCLC), the group has undertaken a variety of applied research and consultancy contracts from a number of stakeholders in the maritime industry. The projects range from policy analysis to scenario modelling and technical support. All the projects have been associated in some way to the energy efficiency and emissions from international shipping – the focus of the group’s research and mission. One of the largest contracts came from the UN-designated agency for regulating international shipping, the International Maritime Organisation, which involved leading a consortium of ten organisations to produce the Third IMO Greenhouse Gas Study 2014: a major publication for the industry, which will be used as a reference for CO2 emission regulatory discussions for the next five years.

Besides the IMO, the group has undertaken work for the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development Russian Green Shipping Programme, Royal Belgian Shipowners Association, INTERTANKO, Shell, ICCT, IEA and International Paint. Dr Smith and his team also work closely with B9 Shipping and with the Sustainable Shipping Initiative and the Carbon War Room on various innovative finance and technology projects.

To accommodate this growing volume of consultancy work, and exploiting UCLC’s capabilities, the group has now set up University Maritime Advisory Services (UMAS), which is a sector focussed, commercial advisory service that draws upon the world leading research of the UCL shipping group combined with the advisory and management system expertise of MATRANS Ltd. UMAS brings unparalleled sector knowledge on the subject of energy and shipping, with over 50 years collective experience, making it the largest university based consultancy on GHG and energy matters related to shipping.

“Key selling points for UMAS are that our work is multidisciplinary, informed by an ongoing dialogue with many of the shipping industry’s key stakeholders, and is underpinned by state of the art data, rigorous models and research practices” said Dr Smith.

Dr Simon Davies, founder of MATRANS says “all aspects of the international shipping sector are, and will continue to be, presented with significant challenges in the areas of emissions control and energy efficiency. UMAS has been created to provide the sector, as a whole, with a highly focused, professional services advisory offering aimed at assisting shipping and maritime companies and organisations to meet these challenges, to reduce risk and, to optimise the strategic opportunities these challenges bring”.

Here is what some of the UMAS clients had to say:

“Dr. Tristan Smith and his team have been instrumental in ensuring that our initiatives to identify profitable carbon emission reductions in shipping are grounded in high-quality rigorous science, research and analysis” Jeff Erikson – Global Projects Director - Carbon War Room

“UMAS research gave substance to our initial assumptions enabling us to transition renewable powered shipping from a technology-only offer into a wider system solution where UMAS' techno-economic modelling provides the ongoing and solid foundation for realising 21st century industrialised wind-powered ships”  Diane Gilpin – Founder Director - B9 Shipping

Find out more about UMAS

Find out more about consultancy at UCL

Find out more about the work being done by the UCL-Energy Shipping Group