The Ship Structure Committee, or SSC, is soliciting research project recommendations for fiscal year 2015. The Committee is looking forward to the maritime community’s insightful project ideas and enthusiasm to assist in another successful year of SSC project completions. This year the SSC has determined the focus areas most desirable for new research ideas, and thus most likely to receive funding.

To request a submission template or for further information, send an e-mail to the SSC Administrative Assistant or visit http://www.shipstructure.org. Research recommendations are due no later than December 22, 2014.

The research focus areas are:

• Severe Weather Performance
• Polar Operations
• Light weighting & Reduced Fuel Consumption
• Alternative Fuels
• Service Life

The SSC is a multi-organizational body created in 1946 to determine the causes of the brittle fractures experienced by welded merchant ships during and following World War II. From a 1943 board of investigation, the committee was commissioned as follows:

“It is hereby recommended that an organization be established to formulate and coordinate research in matters pertaining to ship structure in the same manner as has been the practice during the tenure of the Board.”

Since then, the committee has continued to organize and direct structures research, and is now comprised of ten organizations: the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Defense Research & Development Canada (DRDC), US Maritime Administration (MARAD), Military Sealift Command (MSC), Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), Transport Canada, Coast Guard Commercial Vessel Engineering, and Coast Guard Fleet Engineering.

The SSC is still very committed to its original charter to disseminate pertinent ship structures research and provides all of its research and case studies free to the public at http://www.shipstructure.org.

This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.