“A major initiative to bring the maritime industry players and academia on a common platform for effective dialogue, deliberate on the need and ways to support achievement of Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015, and promote quality research in the direction, is our aspiration and goal”, says Dr Poonam Kapoor, President of the ISF Institute of Research and Education (IIRE www.iire.in). “The motto is Research with a Purpose!!”, she further emphasized.
IIRE, which is a division of Inner Search Foundation, a charitable public trust established in the year 2000, is launching the International Maritime Research Confluence (IMRC – www.researchconfluence.iire.in) as a decade long project spread from 2020 to 2030. The trust is the CSR arm of the ISF Group (www.isfgroup.in) which also comprises business entities focused on services to the maritime and allied industries.
The confluences will be a biennial affair, with research activities and dissemination of knowledge in the interim periods, outputs from one confluence becoming the feed for the next one for a focused effort to achieve goals. The IMRC 2020 will be held on the 13th and 14th of February 2020 in Mumbai at the Indian Register of Shipping in Powai.
“We are very happy to have the IR Class as our patron and also the host for the IMRC 2020; all thanks to Mr. Arun Sharma, Chairman of IRS, and also the present chairman of IACS. Other patrons include the VC of Indian Maritime University, Chairman of Mumbai Port Trust, and Chairmen of FOSMA and MASSA. The Director General of Shipping, Shri Amitabh Kumar is the chief patron at the confluence”, said Ms. Yogyata Kapoor, the Convener of the IMRC.
Ms. Yogyata Kapoor further added, “The IMRC will be attended by professionals and academicians from all walks of the industry: Ship Owners, Ship Yards, Investors and Decision Makers, Port and Terminal Authorities, Ship Managers, HSSEQ Professionals, Designers and Engineers, Individual Researchers and Authors, Academic Establishments, Equipment and Machinery Manufacturers, Manning and Crewing Agencies, Classification Societies and Maritime Authorities.”
Dr. Suresh Bhardwaj, Resident Director & Principal, MASSA Maritime Academy Chennai, and Editor of IIRE Journal of Maritime Research and Development says- “It is a much-needed step for the industry and this will certainly set a path for the growth which complements environmental conservation.”