Shipowners Hafnia, BW Group and energy major Shell have teamed up to invite ideas on how to solve some of the challenges faced by women in the maritime sector.

Announcing the “Women in Maritime Lab” on social media, the companies said they are looking for innovative ideas from people of all genders working in any company in the maritime industry that can be turned into “workable solutions”.

University students hoping to work in the maritime industry are also encouraged to apply.

Shortlisted teams will be invited to participate in a “virtual innovation sprint” led by the three companies.

The best ideas selected by a panel of judges will receive an award and a chance to work with these companies to conduct a proof of concept (POC) of their ideas.

The trio, which have formed a working group for this process, will fund the winning ideas generated by this program to turn them into workable prototypes.

“These prototypes will then be tested in our individual companies. The winning team will be given a chance to be part of the working group and the POC process," the companies said.

Schedule

A virtual kick-off meeting is scheduled for 2 November with submissions due in on 16 November.

Five teams will then be shortlisted and a winner selected from these on 24 November.

The results of the POC will be given on 19 January.

The partners said they interviewed key maritime industry leaders and sent surveys globally to employees in the maritime industry of all gender identities in preparation for this program.

Almost 200 completed surveys were returned.

These showed that on average, most employees rated their organisation average or below-average at attracting more women to join shipping and promoting those that are in shipping to senior roles.

Some 48% of respondents also said they know someone at work who was not taken seriously due to their gender.

“It’s clear that the challenges faced by women in maritime are broad,” the three said.

They urged those wanting to participate to think “widely” and “creatively”, be clear on what challenge or problem is being addressed in their application and why it is unique.

In preparation they outlined a number of questions which can be considered.

“Our objective is to look for innovative ideas, which can be implemented and scaled globally across our organisations,” they said.