University and Royal Navy commit to expanded research partnership

The University of Plymouth and the Royal Navy have reaffirmed their commitment to working together on a range of innovative research and other initiatives.

The two organisations initially joined forces in 2021 with the ambition of conducting research and advancing understanding around the future potential of marine autonomy and maritime cyber security.

They have now agreed to collaborate, for at least a further three years, on an expanded range of disciplines that also includes floating offshore wind (FLOW) and the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

This work will be carried out through the continued sharing of facilities and equipment owned by the University and the Navy.

It will also make use of Smart Sound Plymouth, the UK’s premier proving area for designing, testing and developing cutting edge products and services for the marine sector.

The extended partnership agreement was signed by Professor Kevin Jones, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at the University, and Commodore Marcus Rose, Deputy Director Underwater Battlespace Capability at the Royal Navy.

Professor Jones said: “The University and Royal Navy have a proud history of collaboration. In recent years, that has grown in scope and significance, with the development of research and student projects directly aligned to global security and the health of the ocean. Our extended and expanded partnership will enable us to build on those successes, uniting our world-leading expertise and technologies in areas that are of critical importance on a regional, national and global scale.”

Commodore Rose added: “Navy Develop looks forward to continuing our close work with the University’s high calibre staff and student cohort and reaping the mutual benefits of this extended agreement. As the pace of change accelerates, our collaboration with the University of Plymouth is a valuable enabler for Navy Develop.

“Having formally worked together since 2021, we have collectively achieved some notable successes in surface and sub-surface autonomy and as we both look to assess and embed a whole host of new emerging maritime technologies, I anticipate more success in the future.”

Since the signing of their collaboration agreement in 2021, the University and Royal Navy have worked on a number of mutually beneficial initiatives.

This has included cooperating around the development and deployment of a number of uncrewed vessels, and enhancing resilience against potential cyber security incidents.

This has made use of University facilities including the Marine Station, the Cyber-SHIP Lab and the Maritime Simulation Laboratory, in addition to uncrewed vessels owned and operated by both organisations.

As well as involving personnel from both parties, undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University have undertaken projects covering new sensors, data quality, marine autonomous platform capability, and data analytics.

These are all areas that the reaffirmed collaboration aims to build on, with the plans being to continue involves researchers, students and other personnel in a varied range of activities.

Discussions are also taking place around the development of future PhD opportunities, potentially looking at the use of AI to inform battlefield intelligence and enhanced decision-making for Navy personnel.