ShippingLab is a non-profit collaboration platform dedicated to accelerating innovation in the maritime industry. ShippingLab will be responsible for building the necessary capacity and working more closely with relevant authorities and industry stakeholders. The initiative will provide strategic matchmaking and early screening of ideas and calls for proposals, improve the timing and quality of applications, and facilitate the consortia and partnerships needed to make projects competitive at European level. The partnership is supported by The Danish Maritime Fund.

One of the first concrete steps will be the Partnership Summits, bringing together stakeholders from across Denmark’s maritime sector to address challenges and opportunities with the potential to develop into joint innovation projects. The aim is to match the sector’s needs and expertise with relevant funding opportunities, enabling promising ideas to be developed and taken forward more quickly. The summits will provide a setting in which new ideas and partnerships can emerge and mature.

The format will be launched with the same programme at two locations in Denmark: on 20 October in the Copenhagen area and on 11 November in Jutland. The first two Partnership Summits will focus on electri­fi­ca­tion and energy efficiency, as well as dec­ar­bo­ni­sa­tion and carbon capture. Participants will hear about Danish and European innovation projects and gain insight into relevant funding opportunities.

The initiative builds on the recom­men­da­tions made by the Growth Team for Blue Denmark in 2025. These highlighted easier access to new forms of financing and an increase in the amount of EU maritime funding secured by Danish stakeholders as key to innovation, green investment and international com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness.

The ambition is for the industry to make greater use of the EU’s competitive funding programmes to develop new financing solutions that can support investment in the green transition of shipping. At the same time, the joint initiative supports the government platform’s ambition to combine progress in the green transition with increased com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness.