Request for Proposals Vessel Design Challenge Updated

U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD)
A Study on Vessel Design Challenge

RFP No. 693JF726R000016

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP):

The Maritime Administration’s (MARAD) Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance (META) program is issuing a request for proposals (RFP) for a Vessel Design Challenge (Challenge). This Challenge intends to fund multiple design teams willing to undertake integrated design work to improve fuel efficiency and reduce vessel underwater radiated noise (URN) to create the next generation of U.S. vessels.
Individual awards depend on number of designs proposed for the package. Awards are intended to be for not less than $150k and likely not more than $450k. Project completion timeline is 1218 months. Total funding available is up to $1.25 million.

A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

The META program (46 U.S.C. § 50307) is investigating the interconnections between broader fuel efficiency, reducing URN from vessels, and exploring potential co-benefits. It is the policy of the United States to revitalize and rebuild domestic maritime industries and workforce to promote national security and economic prosperity. Accomplishing this requires making United States-flagged and built vessels commercially competitive in international commerce, rebuilding America’s maritime manufacturing capabilities, and expanding and strengthening the recruitment, training, and retention of the relevant workforce. The most promising opportunities for optimizing fuel efficiency gains and achieving URN reductions are in the early ship design stage, using a systems approach. This requires intentional and integrated ship designs that prioritize fuel efficiency while simultaneously reducing URN. Advanced fluid dynamic modeling enables comparison among hull, engine, and propeller design and arrangement, providing valuable information to the industry about the return on investment (ROI) for various technology and design optimizations at the design phase. Individual technologies claim to provide efficiency and noise reduction benefits, but the additive costsavings have not been quantified for applying technologies in series and demonstrating increased efficiencies across multiple areas.
Recently published studies summarized the state of knowledge and availability of technologies that can be applied to vessels to improve energy efficiency while reducing vessel generated URN. Those reports crosswalk not only the interoperability of technologies and design elements, but the potential reductions, costs, and return on investment. The next phase is to demonstrate,