Several technologies and solutions to be combined and integrated should be chosen so as to provide the largest impact and these are expected to already be individually demonstrated or developed to TRL 7. This could for example concern various combinations of; power conversion/electrification /energy devices, sustainable climate neutral low emission fuels, HVAC, energy storage, operations, smart energy monitoring, renewables including wind assistance, hydrodynamics, cold ironing, slow steaming, just in time scheduling, propeller designs etc.

In order to address the above-mentioned challenge, proposals are expected to address all the following aspects:

• Energy system modelling and fast simulation assessment to demonstrate the expected energy efficiency gains and life-cycle emission reductions achieved by the resulting designs within their operating reference cases. A holistic/systemic approach should be applied to the design, which is to be based upon total vessel energy needs for use within reference operating profiles and business cases.
• A minimum of three vessel concept designs and use cases are expected to be developed including the following vessel types: short-sea, inland waterway and high-seas. For each vessel type, retrofit solutions for the baseline design (from 2008) should be proposed, as well as a completely new design.
• Development of an open-source design assessment tool which can be used to assess the operational Carbon Intensity of vessel designs.
• Development of decision-support or automation systems to facilitate the most effective implementation of operational energy efficiency improvements.
• Plans for exploitation and dissemination of results should include a strong business case and sound exploitation strategy. Development of business models to facilitate the deployment of the resulting vessel design concepts, in particular addressing financing, market needs and possibilities to support first of a kind deployment. Considering the potential of opportunities within EU support schemes such as the Connecting Europe Facility, Climate Change Innovation Fund and regional funds. Proposals are expected to demonstrate a clear and credible pipeline from the development to the operational deployment of the developed designs by 2030. This should include preliminary plans for scalability, commercialisation, and deployment (feasibility study, business plan) indicating the possible funding sources to be potentially used.

When appropriate, activities may also address the definition of a secure knowledge sharing platform to enable the necessary data-transfer to obtain detailed operational performance information.