The data workstream of this project aims to explore the ways in which data held by the MCA, alone or in combination with other complimentary datasets, can be used by industry to promote innovation in this sector, and to inform us as to the regulatory issues and obligations associated with the operation of autonomous ships.

The MCA collects a large volume of marine and maritime data, including but not limited to vessel movement data (AIS), port call data and bathymetry. The majority of this data is used for operational purposes, and as such is not in a structure that can be readily used by industry.

We want to learn what data, formats and platforms industry needs to help it realise its ambitions to test and operate autonomous vessels in UK waters.

We want to understand the options and barriers to making MCA data available to industry.

We want to create a minimal viable data product or platform for a test area of UK water, in an accessible, non-proprietary format and in conjunction with other complimentary/interoperable datasets (weather, tide, bathymetry), that can be made available to industry.

We want to engage industry with this minimum viable product (MVP), to understand the value in this data product and to help understand our role as the regulator in this new data landscape.

We are seeking an innovation services provider to work with us to undertake the above steps for the lifetime of the project (March 2019 — February 2020).

We require an organisation that has national reach, is platform/product/software agnostic, has experience working with and sourcing data from a variety of different governmental, academic and industry partners and has experience building and testing data platform MVPs.