SHIPLYS is a three-year project that started in September 2016 with funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 690770. The project is in response to needs of SME naval architects, shipbuilders and ship-owners, who, in order to survive in the world market, need to: a) improve their capability to reduce the time and costs of design and production, b) reliably produce better ship concepts through rapid virtual prototyping, and c) meet the increasing requirements for LCCA (Life Cycle Cost Analysis), environmental assessments, risk assessments and end-of-life considerations as differentiators. SHIPLYS aims to build on existing experience in the shipping sector, and transfer experience from the development of life cycle modeling and rapid virtual prototyping in other industry sectors. This paper presents an overview of the project, a summary of the initial stage of development of the project and the challenges posed. The paper will interest a variety of industry stakeholders including designers at shipyards, ship owners, classification bodies, researchers and technology providers to the shipping sector.

Contribution to the 17th International Congress of the International Maritime Association of the Mediterranean (IMAM 2017), October 9-11, 2017, Lisbon, Portugal