Projects

The aim of the three-year WETCOAST project is to gain more insight into carbon storage in salt marshes and mangroves. In this way, the partners are taking an important step towards natural solutions that can be financed with carbon credits.

Critical maritime infrastructure requires continuous monitoring and rapid information exchange. BLUE SENSE builds a secure 5G drone platform that enables security services to deploy drones for surveillance, inspections, and the protection of infrastructure at sea and in ports.

PORTSHIELD is developing a Belgian laser-based counter-drone solution for ports and critical maritime infrastructure.

Threats at sea and in the air are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. MARLIN is working on an intelligent surveillance solution that combines cameras, sensors, and artificial intelligence to detect, identify, and track drones and other suspicious objects more quickly.

SEAMLESS develops an integrated maritime surveillance system that combines sensor data, satellite imagery, AIS information, and AI-driven analytics into a single operational and actionable situational awareness picture.

Critical infrastructure in the North Sea is vulnerable to external threats. IWAT is developing an innovative solution to detect such threats, including sabotage, anchor impacts, diver activity, and other potential disruptions affecting cables and other subsea infrastructure.

Underwater threats such as small underwater drones and other hard-to-detect objects pose a risk to critical maritime infrastructure. TRIDENT introduces an autonomous solution that can detect and track these threats using advanced acoustic sensors.

DEEP GUARD develops a physical security barrier designed to protect ports, waterways, and other critical maritime infrastructure against both surface and underwater threats. The project focuses on validating the technology through large-scale impact testing.

NEMESIS demonstrates an AI-driven drone platform for long-range surveillance of the Belgian North Sea. Through BVLOS operations, automatic vessel detection, AIS correlation, and anomaly detection, suspicious activities can be identified and monitored more quickly.

All living organisms leave DNA traces in the environment. These traces can be used to map the presence of biological species. Nevertheless, there are some obstacles to applying this method in a complex marine environment such as the Belgian part of the North Sea.

Offshore wind turbines are subject to varying loads from wind and waves. This results in fatigue of the structures and a finite lifespan. The partners in FIRMEST develop forecasting tools so as to better estimate the lifespan of existing and future wind turbines.

The PIT project investigates how pitting corrosion occurs in carbon steel maritime structures, such as offshore wind turbines. The partners develop new methods to detect and quantify this form of local corrosion early, continuously and reliably.