MARAD 04-03

Tuesday, March 4, 2003

Contact: Robyn Boerstling

Tel.: (202) 366-5807

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) today announced a new research focus and unveiled a new web site; the initiative is aimed at encouraging and coordinating research and innovation in the U.S. maritime industry.

The need for more attention to maritime research and innovation is based on a recent 2002 report to Congress entitled Maritime Research and Technology Development. The study found that the investment in research by the various U.S. Government agencies and industry entities involved with the maritime industry is very low when compared with investments in the other modes of transportation.

In calling for this course of action, Maritime Administrator Captain William G. Schubert said, "It is time to return the U.S. to the position of a world leader in maritime research and innovation. We can no longer sit by watching our industry continue to fall behind the state-of-the-art of maritime transportation and continue to lose competitiveness in the global market place."

MARAD's new website (http://www.marad.dot.gov/Research) enables all components of the industry and other transportation partners to come together to share ideas, developments, and assessments of research needs and priorities. With industry and Government-wide participation, the site can be a starting point for facilitating collaborative interaction. Synergistic partnerships can energize the industry as well as contribute to accomplishing an individual organization's goals. The 2002 report to Congress can be found on the MARAD website, at http://www.marad.dot.gov/publications/.

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The overall mission of MARAD is to promote the development and maintenance of an adequate, well-balanced merchant marine, sufficient to carry the Nation's waterborne commerce, and capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time of war or national emergency.

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