Naval Group and the Norwegian research center SINTEF have signed a Partnership Cooperation Agreement under the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore future collaboration in the fields of Research and Development (R&D), both for civilian and military use.

 The signature took place in a symbolic context, onboard the French FREMM frigate Aquitaine, which was stepping by Trondheim, in the presence of Vegar Johansen, President of SINTEF Ocean, and Emmanuel Brochard, Europe R&D Partnerships for Naval Group.

This strategic partnership with SINTEF, one of Europe’s largest independent research organisations, aims to leverage our complementary expertise to support innovation in the maritime and defense sectors. This partnership is part of a wider initiative to promote R&D cooperation between Naval Group and Norwegian research centers and reflects our shared ambition to drive innovation through cooperation.

A FORMAL FRAMEWORK
This MoU provides a formal framework for SINTEF and Naval Group to explore potential R&D initiatives of mutual interest in the field of ship design and performance optimization, marine power and propulsion systems, logistics, maritime autonomy, underwater robotics and sensor platforms, ship digital twin and system-of-systems simulations.

SINTEF and Naval Group already work together on several European projects developed through the European Defense Fund*: the DTHOR project on Structure monitoring architecture, the EDINAF project on European digital ship reference architecture, and the Calipso project on Innovative Propulsion Systems, coordinated by Demokritos, the largest multidisciplinary research centre in Greece.

DEEPEN COOPERATION
"We are very honoured to be able to deepen our cooperation with SINTEF, a leading research center in Norway. This cooperation agreement will contribute to develop and share know-how and best practices, and foster the development of joint projects, in relation with naval technology", says Guillaume Weisrock, Naval Group's SVP for Sales and Business Development in Europe and North America.

"This agreement with Naval Group is a good opportunity to mutualize our expertise and know-how for the development of research projects in the naval domain", says Øyvin Hellan, Vice President Research (SINTEF)

 A PRIVILEGED AXIS OF COOPERATION BETWEEN NORWAY AND FRANCE
nternational naval defence player, Naval Group brings extensive experience as system designer and system integrator of the whole warship (naval architecture, development, manufacture of naval platforms, combat systems, communication, through life support, infrastructure, drones and weapons). With a strong industrial base and a long-standing tradition of delivering high-end solutions to navies worldwide, Naval Group is committed to strengthen its presence in Norway and support the Royal Norwegian Navy’s evolving needs.

While Naval Group has already a long track record with Norwegian defense and maritime industry, we keep exploring with several Norwegian companies their integration in our global supply chain (construction, through-life support, R&D), as well as partnerships with R&D institutes and academics, to benefit from the world class expertise of Norway in the field of research.

This new partnership with SINTEF strengthens Naval Group’s will to participate in cutting-edge research and development efforts in collaboration with Norway’s staple research centers.

*The European Defence Fund (EDF) is a European Union (EU) programme designed to finance the research and development of industrial programmes in the field of defence. With a budget of €7.9 billion for the period 2021-2027, it is the first European fund entirely dedicated to defence. It aims to strengthen the competitiveness and innovation capacity of European defence and contribute to the EU's strategic autonomy.