Academics, shipping trade associations, unions, a prominent P&I club and a leading classification society are to work together in a new €3.8m ($5.3m) research project aimed at boosting the industry’s understanding of seafarer fatigue, writes David Osler .
The European Commission-funded Project Horizon, which kicked off with a two-day conference in Warsash in the UK last week, represents a 30-month research programme that will look at how fatigue affects the cognitive performance of watchkeepers.
The project will make extensive use of bridge, engine and liquid cargo handling simulators in Sweden and the UK to produce real-time, realistic scenarios in which the impact of fatigue on decision-making and performance can be assessed.
The project will seek to improve safety at sea by developing a fatigue management toolkit, as well as recommendations for improving work patterns at sea.
Project manager Graham Clarke said: “While we now have evidence to show the scale of the problem associated with fatigue amongst seafarers, this project will take the understanding to a new level based on robust and reliable empirical data that can be used to make concrete, fact-based recommendations for avoiding or mitigating the dangers.”
Project Horizon brings together academics from Southampton Solent University in the UK, Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, the Stress Research Institute from Stockholm University and Bureau Veritas Marine Division, along with representatives from the European Community Shipowners’ Associations, the European Transport Workers’ Federation, the European Harbour Masters Committee, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, the Standard P&I Club, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch, and the Maritime & Coastguard Agency.
Sixty deck and engineer officers will take part in the research. Their performance will be measured by researchers as they undertake typical watchkeeping duties on simulators over a succession of seven-day periods. Experts will use a variety of scientific methods to measure the fatigue levels experienced by the officers and any resulting degradation in performance during a wide range of regular onboard operating conditions.
“All the partners welcome the support shown by the commission in this important area, through the funding of this research,” Mr Clarke said. “It is a highly significant project, which will increase the understanding of the problem of fatigue and effective measures to improve the safety of shipping and the health and welfare of seafarers.”