Oslo, 23rd February 2023
After being selected last July 2022 by the European Commission (EC) under the European Defence Fund (EDF 2021), the "Digital Ship Structural Health Monitoring" (dTHOR) consortium is proud to announce the official start of the project, which will last 36 months. dTHOR had its Kick-Off meeting at the Norway House 23rd and 24th of February 2023 with over 70 participants from the 35 partners from the 11 different countries. dTHOR will develop the next generation of a predictive Ship Structural Health Monitoring system based on innovative utilization of sensor measurement and hybrid analysis modelling enabling digital twins with high physical realism.
The great effort behind all the work done so far is due to highly competent partners in the project. dTHOR is coordinated by Norwegian partner SINTEF AS and composed by 34 others partners from 11 countries including Norway: JOTNE, Light Structures, SINTEF Ocean ; Belgium: SEA Europe ; France: Naval Group, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux énergies alternatives, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, SAFRAN DS, SIREHNA, Testia ; Germany: thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, QRelation ; Greece: ISD, Ethnicon Metsovion Polytechnion, Ethniko Kai Kapodistriako Panepistimio Athinon, Ethniko Kentro Erevnas Kai Technologikis Anaptyxis, HERON, Intracom Defense AE, Panepistimio Patron ; Italy: CETENA, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Politecnico di Milano ; Netherlands: MARIN, DAMEN, Ministry of Defense, RNL Aerospace, TU Delft ; Spain: Navantia, Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial Esteban Terradas, SAES, Tecnicas y Servicios de Ingeniería ; Sweden: SAAB Kockums ; Estonia: CAFA Tech ; Denmark: Structural Vibrations Solutions.
The kick-off meeting was opened by welcome addresses from Nils C. Skarland (Counsellor for Defense Industry, The Norwegian EU delegation in Brussel), Erlend Hoff (Norwegian Ministry of Defense), Trond Runar Hagen (Chief Digital Officer, SINTEF).
"dTHOR is a really strong consortium with highly competent partners through Europe" – Francisco Casalduero, project officer at the European Commission. The project coordinator Trond Kvamsdal highlighted in his concluding remarks that he thinks that an important benefit by coordinating and participate in EDF-projects is that one really gets exposed to the state-of-the-art in the topic of the project.
" It is an honor to lead such an ambitious project with so many competent and central actors in the defense and research industry. We are really looking forward to furthering the ambitions of EDF to promote cooperation among companies and research actors of all sizes and geographic origin in the EU, in research and development of state-of-the-art and interoperable defense technology and equipment.. – Trond Kvamsdal, dTHOR project coordinator
