Since the 3rd December the University of Bremen boasts a new Institute for Maritime Technologies (MarTech-Bremen). The initiators and founder members are Prof. Gerold Wefer (Faculty of Earth Sciences) together with MARUM, Prof. Frank Kirchner (Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science) together with DFKI-RIC and Prof. Hansjörg Dittus (Faculty of Production Engineering-Mechanical & Process Engineering). The Bremen Senator for Education and Science, Renate Jürgens-Pieper, and the President of the University of Bremen, Professor Wilfried Müller, have welcomed the founding of the institute: “MarTech-Bremen is an important step towards strengthening the leading position occupied by the City State of Bremen in the field of marine sciences and a milestone in the cross-departmental strategy pursued by Bremen in establishing marine technologies as a key technological field.”
Among the goals pursued by MarTech-Bremen is the bundling and further development of national competencies in the area of maritime technologies for exploring the oceans as well as observation and monitoring of the marine habitat. Another aim is to cooperate with the private sector and other research institutions with a view to enabling German industry to harness vital deep-sea resources for future generations in a way which is economically efficient, technically safe and also sustainable. Moreover, the institute is expected to contribute towards making state-of-the-art equipment more accessible to German researchers, so that they can assume leading international roles, especially within Europe, in researching the ocean depths.
MarTech-Bremen distinguishes itself not only on the basis of Bremen’s comprehensive and recognized competencies in the area of marine research: in combination with local expertise in the development of new intelligent technologies for maritime robotics and the intermodal system integration of terrestrial and orbital infrastructures it possesses other features which make it absolutely unique in Germany and even in Europe. MarTech-Bremen is open to other research groups within the University as well as extra-mural research facilities and interested partners in the private sector.
