The chatbots will be developed within WP3.2. of the project. They will be available here in March, 2025.
The instructional videos will be developed within WP3.1. of the project. They will be available here in December, 2024.
The final conference will be held online in August 2026.
The purpose of the final conference is to present the project results to a broader audience of stakeholders.
An inventory of routine maritime communication simulation tasks based on authentic scenarios and from different geographical contexts will be available here in September, 2024.
A short-staff training event titled “Exploitation and Dissemination of Project Activities and Outcomes” was organised by NOVIA, University of Applied Sciences from Finland on 29 January 2024. Held online, its main purspose was to optimize the exploitation and dissemination of the project’s activities and results, and the exploitation and dissemination management, which will further consolidate the cost-effectiveness of the project.
Multiplier events will be held in every country associated to the Digimar project in March, 2025.
The purpose of these events will be to make the results of the project and the developed digital tools widely known among different stakeholders in the national and international maritime industry and beyond.
In the global maritime industry, ineffective and ambiguous communication often is a contributing cause of shipping accidents. Unnecessary risk may also be created by communication in day-to-day routine conversations between ships and shore service operators (IALA, 2017). Routine maritime communication between shore service operators and ship crews significantly deviates from the standard protocol of communication, as shown in a coamprehensive data-based quantitative study recently conducted by Jurkovič (2022) who corroborated the findings of other authors in different geographical contexts (Dževerdanović-Pejović, 2013; Boström, 2020).
This which indicates a strong need for widely available relevant digital educational tools for maritime communication. Maritime education and training institutions and national maritime safety authorities, both have the role of partners in this project, are responsible for providing maritime communication education and training in which discourse use is integrated with specific roles and situations. Modern technologies allow the creation of speech-recognition chatbots for self-directed life-long learning. To date, no international project nor research study has addressed maritime communication from the point of view of shore service operators as a key communication agent that has a significant impact on navigational safety. In addition, so far no project has focused on the development of a combination of instructional videos and chatbots based on authentic routine communication data.
Another important finding made by Jurkovič (2022) is the need for harmonization between the documents that define the standard protocol of communication, and the need for a research-based revision of the Standard Marine Communication Phrases (IMO, 2001). The project will bring added value at European level because it will create synergies among two educational contexts that have developed from different educational traditions: that of the Scandinavian countries and that of southern and south-eastern European countries. Ultimately, the results of the project will be communicated to the international bodies competent for the maritime world globally and thus for the EU (IMO, IALA, ITU, IMLA, IMEC, EMSA), which will bring systemic added value to the results.
– Boström, M. (2020).
Mind the Gap! A quantitative comparison between ship-to-ship communication and
intended communication protocol. Safety Science, 123, 1–8.
– Dževerdanović-Pejović,
M. (2013). Discourse of VHF communication at sea and the intercultural aspect.
International Journal for Traffic and Transport Engineering, 3(4), 377–396.
– IALA. (2017). G1132
Guideline: VTS VHF voice communication. International Association of Lighthouse
Authorities.
– IMO. (2001).
Resolution A.91822: IMO standard marine communication phrases. International
Maritime Organization.
– Jurkovič, V.
(2022). Authentic Routine Ship-Shore Communication in the Northern Adriatic Sea
Area – a corpus analysis of discourse features. English for Specific Purposes,
68, 47–59.