CMB opens forerunner of Maritime Campus Antwerp, for innovation in shipping (Antwerp)
MCA lABS was opened on Thursday in a building of the Antwerp shipping company CMB on the Gerlachekaai, a place where companies, researchers and students work together on the future of the shipping industry.
MCA is the abbreviation for Maritime Campus Antwerp. The company CMB has previously announced that it will build such a campus next to the BlueGate business park. The intention is to work on innovation in shipping there. CMB has received an environmental permit for that campus from the city of Antwerp, but organizations such as Natuurpunt have protested against this, because the campus would be located near the Hobokense Polder. “That is flat in a nature reserve,” says Natuurpunt. The province of Antwerp decided on May 5 at the latest of the MCA.
Because CMB does not want to wait for the opening of that campus, the company has already opened the co-working space MCA LABS on the Gerlachekaai. “Start-ups, companies, educational institutions such as the Hogere Zeevaartschool and other players from home and abroad can work together here on the future of the shipping industry,” says Bart Huybrechts. “For example, about how ships can sail on a greener energy source. Or how we can control ships remotely, and how we can, for example, allow digital systems to function deep in the sea. Or also: how we can still allow processed members on a ship far away to communicate with the home front.”
Construction MCA to start ten earliest at the end of this year
MCA LABS has room for 45 to 50 people. Today, the masters seats are not occupied yet, as the project is still in a start-up phase. Bart Huybrecht’s date MCA LABS is not just a place where people can brainstorm. “We also want to implement those ideas,” he says. So not only think, but also act.
When the maritime campus near the Hobokense Polder is finally built, MCA LABS will move to that campus, just like the companies CMB and Euronav do. It is not clear when the campus will open. Earlier, CMB said that the campus would open in 2024, but that will be postponed anyway due to the appeal procedure at the province of Antwerp. “If we get the permit, construction will only start at the end of this year, after the breeding season,” says Bart Huybrechts.
The ambitions that CMB has with the Antwerp Maritime Campus are great. “Antwerp must become a center for innovation in European shipping,” said Alexander Saverys, the CEO of CMB, in an interview with this newspaper at the end of 2020.