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12 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News sinkings of the tankers Erika and Prestige and the grounding of the car carrier Tricolor. In addition, the events of September 11 and its aftermath have brought safety and security issues fur- ther to the fore in the public conscious- ness. The conventional approaches to ship safety and security are under scruti- ny and the potential for new approaches is being investigated. In spring 2004 a formal proposal for the establishment of the SAFEDOR project was submitted to the European Commission with the joint aims of enhancing global maritime safe- ty through innovation and strengthening the competitiveness of the European maritime industry. Q What is SAFEDOR and what is it seeking to achieve? A Short for Design, Operation and Regulation for Safety, SAFEDOR is a joint industry research project, funded by the European Union, into the risk- based design and approval of ships. The project falls within the 6th Framework Program (FP6) of the European Commission. SAFEDOR recognizes the key role played by European companies in the design, construction and operation of modern, seagoing vessels. European expertise and involvement are particu- larly strong for those sophisticated ship types where safety is afforded the high- est priority, e.g. roll-on/roll-off passen- ger ships, cruise ships, gas tankers and container ships. While the work of the EU-funded project is aimed achieving advances in maritime safety that will benefit the international shipping com- munity, it is also envisaged that the com- petitiveness of European companies will be enhanced. Q Why SAFEDOR? A SAFEDOR advocates an alterna- tive, risk-based approach to maritime safety in which safety is seen as a design objective rather than a constraint. SAFEDOR will use progress that has already been made in the probabilistic risk assessment field, including several advances in the maritime sector, to offer a holistic approach to ship design and operations. By advancing the practical use of risk-based methods in a range of applications, SAFEDOR will then be able to propose a new, risk-based regu- latory framework. Q How will SAFEDOR achieve its goals? A The SAFEDOR participants have set themselves a range of key tasks, the outcome of which will help to realize the project's goals. First, methods and tools will be developed to assess a range of operational, extreme, accidental and cat- astrophic scenarios, taking into account the human element and integrating the results into a risk-based design environ- ment. From there, innovative solutions and products for the safe, secure and economic operation of ships will be developed and assessed for their poten- tial use as risk reducing measures. The third line of activity focuses on the establishment of a risk-based regulatory framework to facilitate new approaches to ship safety based on a systematic use of first principle tools of risk assess- ment, mitigation and reduction. Finally, prototype designs will be developed for a range of European safety-critical ves- sels to validate the proposed methodolo- gy and demonstrate its practicability Q Who are the SAFEDOR participants? A The SAFEDOR partnership com- prises over 50 organizations and includes representatives from across the maritime spectrum, from flag states (Danish Maritime Authority), shipown- ers (Carnival plc) and shipyards (IZAR) to equipment manufacturers (SAM Electronics), seafarers, academia (the Ship Stability Research Centre of Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities) ? Ì À ? ` Õ V ? ? } Ê i Ì Ì i À Ê 7 > Þ Ê Ì ? Ê / À i > Ì ? } i Ê 7 > Ì i À ° 3 U R W H F W L Q J W K H S U L V W L Q H Z D W H U V R I R X U R F H D Q V M X V W J R W H D V L H U $ Q G D O R W E H W W H U 7 K H Q H Z ' V H U L H V V H S D U D W R U V I U R P : H V W I D O L D 6 H S D U D W R U D U H V X F F H V V I X O O \ E H L Q J X V H G E \ W K H F U X L V H V K L S L Q G X V W U \ I R U W U H D W L Q J E L O J H Z D W H U W R , 0 2 D Q G &