VTI's maritime research is strong - and more to come

More projects, but also broader research and more diverse funding bodies – VTI’s maritime transport research is strong and has made considerable progress in recent years. And there is more to come, promises the researcher who started it all.

Inge Vierth, who launched VTI’s maritime transport research initiative, has printed out two A4 pages of diagrams. One dating back to 2021, when she presented the research in the maritime field at a staff meeting, and one showing the situation today. A lot has happened, that is obvious.

“This is how external funding has increased,” she says, pointing to a chart showing that projects worth almost SEK 20 million have been launched in 2024, compared to SEK 5 million in 2019 and just a few in 2011.

“But that is not the only thing. It is also important to note that we have research more funding bodies, although the Swedish Transport Administration still funds half of our research. That type of diversification is positive. And we are also working on more research questions, and the work has propagated to more researchers at VTI.”

In 2025, about ten VTI employees work on maritime transport research in one way or another. Expertise is, for example available in economics, transport economics with a focus on freight transport and ports, behavioural science, logistics, traffic analysis, environment, and traffic safety. VTI also has extensive knowledge of simulators, environmental issues, and the design of policy instruments – expertise that can contribute significantly to maritime transport research.

A search of the DiVA digital scientific archive shows that VTI researchers wrote 66 reports and 27 academic articles in the maritime transport field between 2011 and 2025. About 17 projects are currently in progress, although the number varies slightly depending on how the field is defined.

The maritime transport research initiative began in 2019, when Inge Vierth was given overall responsibility for it. Previously, as an economist specialising in transport policy and business administration, she had mainly worked with freight transport, an important part of shipping, of course.

“One of VTI’s great strengths is its wide interdisciplinary range. Another is that we’re an independent research institute,” she says, describing the environmental and climate issues, human factors, and traffic safety as key research topics at present.

As for the future, she is a little more reluctant to say (some information will have to be saved for the column on the last page of this magazine). But VTI’s maritime transport research is far from finished. Much remains to be done; and if VTI receives the funding, there is every chance that the research will continue to grow.

“In many ways, maritime transport lags behind road transport, not least in terms of environmental and climate issues. Traditional fossil fuels are used almost exclusively, to give one example. Many problems remain to be solved, and this will require research,” she says, listing a few issues that may be particularly important in the next years.

“Ships’ emissions to water, safety, resilience, the application of new technologies, and knowledge to support both international regulations and local and national initiatives. For instance, how should Lake Mälaren, which supplies drinking water to over two million people be used for future maritime transport? And the provision of the sector with competent staff. The working conditions in the maritime sector are unique, for instance, as employees work and live on board ships.”

One example of an ongoing project, led by Inge Vierth herself, is SEAS, in which VTI is collaborating with The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), Chalmers University of Technology, Umeå University, the World Maritime Universityi and the Swedish Maritime Administration. The project aims to develop methods and models for cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) for infrastructure and policy measures in maritime transport, to ensure that they are of the same quality as the CBAs for road and rail transport.

This work is based on a systematic use of Automatic Information System (AIS) data, a form of GPS system that tracks the type, position, speed, and draught of individual ships in real time. Each data point, for each ship, is recorded every ten seconds, and the researchers use this information to describe the impact of different ship movements on the emissions to air and water, noise and traffic safety.

“The research community does not have access to this kind of comprehensive data for other modes of transport. It generates a vast amount of data, which presents both opportunities and challenges. Our job will include aggregating the data in a relevant way, combining it with other datasets, and performing analyses,” says Inge Vierth.

SEAS stands for Socio-Economic Analyses for Shipping. The three-year project is now about halfway through and is funded by the Swedish Transport Administration’s maritime portfolio, with a total budget of SEK 8.6 million. The initiative originated from the Directors-General of the Swedish Maritime Administration and VTI within the framework of their partnership agreement.

Text: Mikael Sönne

Translation: CBG