12 August 2022,
Six giants of the global maritime industry have teamed up to address concerns related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
The Maritime Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Innovation Lab 2022 is an open competition for interested participants (individuals, institutions, companies, students, etc.) to submit their ideas on addressing DEI in the maritime industry. It was established by Thome Group, Hafnia, Anglo American, RightShip, Rio Tinto, and Wilhelmsen.
Teams who have been selected for further consideration will participate in the innovation lab to refine their elevator pitches before a “Dragon’s Den session” with business executives. The winning team will work with the taking part partner organizations and receive cash to put their idea into practice.
According to the BIMCO/ICS 2021 Seafarer Workforce Report, women make up only 1.2 percent of the world’s seafarer workforce, and according to the Diversity Study Group 2021, there is a significant lack of ethnic and female representation in senior positions. As a result, the maritime industry struggles to find and keep the talent needed to succeed in the face of rising uncertainty and complexity.
Through crowdsourcing and the application of a rapid and agile process from ideation through product creation, the innovation lab seeks to find innovative solutions.
The competition this year was inspired by the Women in Maritime Lab 2020, which led to the development of SeaCode, a platform that provides peer-to-peer support to seafarers while collecting and compiling market data. SeaCode was recently incorporated into the ISWAN group.
Jamie Morgan Ramsamy, Head of HSSEQ at Thome Group, announced this year’s program and stressed the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the industry. She also emphasized that it was up to industry stakeholders to start embracing new ideas and ways of thinking as the industry innovates to meet future demands.
“Diversity is more than just gender and we are very excited to be part of this industry push behind the Maritime Diversity, Equity (DEI) & Inclusion Lab. We look forward to working with our partners and participants on the project and to seeing these very exciting ideas coming to fruition,” said Mr. Ramsamy.
Source: Maritime Global News