Maritime Connected: work with us to find and bridge the safety gaps

The Ocean connects us. It’s a connection that is to be found in global trade, through our food sources and our energy supplies. The maritime industry thrives on this connection and yet, there are still gaps in data, knowledge, and perspectives, and those gaps can be at best, missed opportunities to improve safety or at worst, they create risks that put people and critical infrastructure in danger.

Ocean workers need to be safe in their occupations and their workplace wherever and whatever that is. Why is that? It’s because in our experience we find parts of the maritime system working in isolation. And where there is isolated working, there are more likely to be gaps. Working in isolation can create risks to safety that we can’t afford or missed opportunities to create something even safer and better. After all, the safety of those who make these critical industries possible matters more than anything else.

And now we want to offer grants to those who come up with ideas that can best explore this key question: how can the maritime system be better connected to engineer a safer world?  

For over a decade, Lloyd’s Register Foundation has been working globally to engineer a safer world. We have worked with some amazing people and organisations all committed to that same cause. Managing and mitigating the effects of climate change, the challenges and opportunities of new technologies and the ever-changing political landscape have added to the inherent dangers of working at sea.  

And now we’re looking for new ideas on how we might plug the gaps that will undoubtedly occur. We know that global efforts to address safety challenges are creating  gaps. We know that there are some places in the world who are struggling to make their voices heard. 

We know that different places need different solutions and sometimes there is a failure to understand how different parts of the maritime sector relate and impact on each other. These gaps create unsafe conditions for those working across that sector who need and deserve to be kept safe. We need to address them and we want to hear your proposals on how it might work. 

For example: 

• Are you working on a safety issue and you just know that there is a perspective that is missing, perhaps from a different part of the world, along the supply or design chain, from end-users or local affected communities? 
• Is there an area where people are working in isolated or disconnected ways, where stakeholder mapping and engagement could open up better understanding of the challenge and help create more effective and innovative solutions 
• Have you been working on an area of safety that you think could benefit other areas of the maritime system and you have an idea of how to share this?   

We want to hear your ideas. We know from experience that sometimes what appears to be the smallest project can have the biggest impact so please don’t think your idea won’t be considered. 

At the Foundation, we believe improving safety requires as broad a range of perspectives as possible from across the maritime ‘system’. For us, ‘maritime’ doesn’t stop at shipping, but also covers other ocean sectors, including ports, offshore energy, fishing and aquaculture. 

Preference will be given to human safety challenges relating to decarbonisation, digitalisation and the impacts of climate change for those working at sea and around the oceans. 

We expect all funded projects to show what you’ve done and what happens next - for example event reports, reports detailing underrepresented views, evidence reviews, evidence consensus papers, white papers, roadmaps, and manifestos.  We are looking to fund a number of small or medium projects.

We encourage all potential applicants to attend an informational webinar on 3rd September 2025 where we will provide an overview of the call, eligibility criteria, and application process, followed by a Q&A session.