Kongsberg, BCIT Launch Marine Simulation Hub

Kongsberg Maritime and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) have announced a 76.5 MCAD investment to establish the Marine Innovation Simulation Centre of Excellence (MISE) in British Columbia, supporting maritime innovation, skills development, and objectives under Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy.

The partnership is enabled through the Industrial Technological Benefits (ITB) policy, supporting facility infrastructure, applied research, faculty expertise, and long-term capability development.

BCIT's new Simulation Center will be built around Kongsberg Maritime simulation technology, providing a synthetic environment, development tools, and APIs for applied research with Canadian industry, academia, defence, and public-sector stakeholders. It will support prototyping, human factor studies, testing, and incident analysis in areas including maritime safety, autonomy, cyber resilience, critical infrastructure, port development, and low- and zero-emission operations.

"Together with BCIT, we are establishing a long-term innovation and research hub for Canada's maritime sector—one that can support safer operations, faster competence development and the testing of new concepts before they are deployed in the real world," said Are Føllesdal Tjønn, Managing Director, Maritime Simulation at Kongsberg Maritime. "By combining advanced simulation with collaborative R&D, MISE will empower Canadian maritime capability and support future sustainable growth."

The partnership will also provide licenses for cloud-based simulation systems, allowing BCIT to extend learning beyond the campus and increase access to maritime education for Indigenous communities.