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t the Pacific Islands Transport Forum and Expo in November 2018, University of the South Pacific (USP) and China Navigation Company Limited, trading brands as Swire Shipping & Swire Bulk announced a new research partnership to design a small, energy-efficient freighter: Project Cerulean.

We are researching the feasibility of building a 200 gross tonne, sail-powered cargo ship to service the smaller outer islands of Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands.

In Phase One of the Cerulean Project, we have been investigating the business case for various routes and identifying the design parameters for the vessel.

This element of Phase One in Project Cerulean has elicited interest so far from firms across Europe, but when devising locally and regionally appropriate solutions to the maritime transport challenges the Pacific Island countries face, the benefit of engagement with expertise and experience within our region cannot be understated.

The need for fit-to-purpose, regionally-appropriate transport solutions for the work required served as one of the primary justifications for launching Project Cerulean and we welcome inquiries from within our region. The project is drawing on lessons learned from the open-source Greenheart Project years ago, which provided an informative and useful case for collaborative design. However, the Greenheart case also illustrated the issues which arise from setting performance or design requirements prior to analysing the full breadth of transport work and conditions a vessel may encounter while operating in service of outer island communities around the Pacific. As examples, obligations to 100 per cent renewable energy power, use of batteries