The second European Forum organized by the Lürssen Design Center Kvarner/Maritime Center of Excellence and the University of Rijeka, this year with the main theme of “Resilient future for maritime innovation ecosystems”, was held on Monday, June 17, 2024, at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Rijeka. After last year’s EU Forum, dedicated to the future of universities, this year, the participants discussed cooperation on the development of innovations in the context of socially responsible activities of universities and the business sector, with an emphasis on multilateral initiatives.
The Forum brought together experts in the field of engineering, the maritime and business sectors, technology, and innovations, as well as the representatives of the local and regional authorities who showed their support and addressed the audience with their opening remarks, as follows:
– Snježana Prijić Samaržija, Rector, University of Rijeka;
– Peter Lürssen, CEO, Lürssen Group;
– Marko Filipović, Mayor, City of Rijeka;
– Petar Mamula, Deputy Prefect, Primorje Gorski kotar County.
The forum welcomed many guests, representatives of the UNIRI faculties, employees of both Lürssen and the Maritime Center of Excellence in Rijeka, heads of prominent Croatian and European companies, as well as distinguished guests, namely H.E. Mr. Christian Hellbach, Ambassador of Germany to the Republic of Croatia.
This year, in a slightly different format combining two plenary lectures and two panel discussions, the Forum hosted leading researchers in the field of green energy and the transformation of cities into green and sustainable oases of the future. The Forum aimed to gather international and domestic partners from the fields of higher education and science and the business sector to seek answers to the global sustainability challenges of maritime cities and regions, with a particular focus on clean energies and the blue economy.
The first plenary lecture was held by Radenka Marić, a leading American scientist in the field of clean energy and the 17th president of the University of Connecticut. Focusing on the green economy and the importance of hydrogen as an energy source in the future, the possibilities of its use and production, Dr. Marić particularly emphasized the role of hydrogen in storing excess energy produced in wind power plants or solar power plants.
The second plenary lecture, entitled “Senseable cities”, was held by Carlo Ratti, team leader at the SENSEable City Lab at MIT, and also the curator of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia 2025. A trained architect and engineer and one of the ten most cited scientists in urban planning, Ratti briefly presented the impact of digital technologies on people’s lives in cities and presented his most successful innovative projects implemented in cooperation with companies and local and national governments throughout five continents.
This year’s EU Forum featured a special philanthropic element: a presentation and an official launch of the Lürssen Foundation, which aims to contribute to the development of potential in the maritime sector, but also to the public needs of the community. As stated in the Statute, the Foundation will promote maritime engineering excellence, embed innovation in the maritime industry, and be a socially responsible actor advocating for local development. More information about the Foundation is available at its official website.
The full program of the Forum is available here.
