Dr.-Ing. Frank Roland graduated as a Mechanical Engineer, specializing in ship technology from Rostock University, Germany in 1985. He holds a PhD in ship production techniques from the same university (1989). Between 1989 and 2002 he worked in various positions in the German shipbuilding industry, being in charge for the research and development department of Meyer Shipyard from 1994 to 2002. Since 2002 he is Managing Director of the Center of Maritime Technologies, a research association which is active in the maritime sector in Germany and Europe. Dr. Roland has a wide overview of research activities in the maritime and related sectors. He has been evaluator and advisor to various national and European research programmes, such as member of the Sustainable Surface Transport Advisory Group for DG RTD in FP6. He is representing the German maritime community in the European WATERBORNE TP as well as in ECMAR (European Council of Maritime Applied Research, Council Member) and SeaEurope RDI (the research coordination group of the European shipbuilders and ship equipment association). Dr. Roland has worked on behalf of ECMAR in the coordination action EMAR2RES and in the Technology Transfer Panel of MARCOM+, both dealing with an increased cooperation between the marine and maritime sectors. In 2011 he was in charge for the MARPOS Technology Gap Analysis, analyzing maritime R&D projects from FP5 to FP7 and identifying future research needs. He has also been involved in the development of Strategic Research Plans on national and European levels. As Managing Director of CMT with some 90 direct members, he has an excellent access to various actors in the German and European maritime industry (shipyards, equipment, class societies, and operators), research and academia as well as with regional clusters across Europe.