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A new research consortium of universities and national labs from Finland, the U.S. and Canada is accelerating the development of Arctic-faring ships – positioning the three nations as global leaders in next-generation marine and offshore technology. With unique research facilities and expertise in Arctic marine engineering, Aalto University is set to play a critical role.

As Arctic sea ice melts and thins in a warming world, companies and governments are moving more cargo through the Arctic. The emerging seaways can save time and fuel, but the ice comes back whenever it’s cold, and most vessels aren’t built to handle it. Icebreaker ships lead commercial and naval vessels through icy water, clear ice from frozen ports and harbours and rescue vessels trapped by thick sea ice.

‘Most commercial ships are optimised for open water because that’s where they operate most often,’ explains Mikko Suominen, Assistant Professor specialising in polar naval architecture at Aalto University. ‘So a lot of common hull types haven’t been thoroughly tested in icy conditions. We can research how conventional ships will perform in the Arctic, which could inform new hull designs and help find the most efficient shipping routes.’

In addition ���ʵ��� University, the ICE-SHIELD research consortium includes VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and engineers and researchers from the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, the University of Michigan, Memorial University of Newfoundland and the National Research Council of Canada.

Finland’s global leadership in icebreaker design

Finland, the U.S and Canada signed the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE) Pact in 2024 to work together to compete with Russia, which has the world’s largest icebreaker fleet. More than 40 Russian icebreakers can escort commercial and naval vessels along the ​​Northern Sea Route, which is around 40% shorter than the standard route connecting Europe and China.

Finland is recognised worldwide as a pioneer in ice-going ship design and construction. While the country has a fleet of eight icebreakers, Finnish engineers have designed 80% of the world’s icebreakers, and domestic shipyards have built 60% of them. 

In contrast, the U.S. owns three polar icebreakers. It commissioned three new ones from an American shipyard in 2019, but the first vessel is expected to be completed six years behind the original schedule. To compete in the Arctic, the U.S. Coast Guard strategic plan calls for an increase in icebreaker construction. Canada has the second most icebreakers and they plan to add two more polar icebreakers along with 30 other vessels with various icebreaking capabilities.

The ICE-SHIELD team aims to help ICE Pact not just catch up with Russia’s capabilities, but surpass them. They aim to develop technology and methods that could increase their nations’ shipbuilding capacities, including high-tech shipyard infrastructure, improved cost-production models and more efficient shipyard operations. The team will also aim to improve the performance of commercial and naval vessels by designing and testing autonomous vessels, AI-powered tools and new hull forms. Such advances will be critical for both icebreakers and other ships venturing into a changing Arctic.

Innovations call for funding and collaboration

Suominen emphasises an urgent need to deepen our understanding of the performance of ship designs and ice loads in new ice conditions – and for that, funding is needed.

‘European shipbuilding in icebreaking has long been at the forefront of innovation, but limited research funding in recent years has slowed progress. If the EU wants to remain a global leader amid growing competition and investment in America and Asia, we need stronger support for European institutes and collaboration within member states’, he says.

According to Suominen, Finland’s world-class shipbuilding industry offers a unique chance to turn research into innovation. Close collaboration across sectors will help ensure that new knowledge benefits both science and industry.

Studying ice and waves at scale

Researching changing ice conditions at Aalto Ice and Wave Tank will help the ICE-SHIELD team to reach their goals. The 40 m x 40 m basin holds almost 4 million litres, and as the world’s only wide ice tank with a wave maker, it uniquely allows researchers to evaluate how interactions between waves and sea ice impact a wider variety of ship manoeuvres.

At a time when global heating is causing the area of the pack ice to decrease, marginal ice zones, sea areas with both sea ice and waves, are expanding, warns Jukka Tuhkuri, a leading ice researcher and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Aalto University. ‘We don’t know enough about the conditions in these marginal ice zones.’

Another challenge is the change of ice as a material. The future ice will be warmer. ‘When very cold, hard ice hits a ship, the pressure is large, but the contact area is small. With warm ice, the pressure is smaller, but the contact area is much larger, so the force may go up,’ explains Tuhkuri. He fears that ships that aren’t designed to withstand the loads from what he refers to as ‘warm ice’, yet will nonetheless venture into Arctic waters. 

The tank had a new wave-maker installed in Autumn 2025, which give it more globally unique capabilities –– including the capacity to mimic more realistic, chaotic and irregular wave conditions.

Meanwhile, VTT has made the available to researchers – a versatile, ice-faring ship for piloting new maritime technology. 

‘Our full-scale validation capabilities ensure that the technologies we develop perform effectively in real-world Arctic environments,’ explains Teemu Manderbacka, maritime research team leader at VTT and Professor of Practice in energy and mechanical engineering at Aalto University.

Other cutting-edge facilities include from University of Michigan, of Memorial University, and from the Research Council of Canada. 

By training students at their world-class facilities, the ICE-SHIELD members hope to not only enhance current capabilities, but future capabilities as well.

‘At Aalto, students get the chance to learn from research that’s genuinely amongst the best and most cutting-edge in the world. When you add collaboration with industry to the mix, it’s really a unique environment,’ Suominen says.

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The article is partially based on University of Michigan's text: