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Autonomous Systems: Land & Sea
29MAY

FAVOR funds the rulebook nobody finished

2 min read
08:47UTC

Liverpool John Moores University launched FAVOR on 1 June with £1.2m of Horizon Europe money to design a unified rulebook for autonomous ships, the pan-European architecture the MASS Code left unwritten.

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TechnologyDeveloping
Key takeaway

FAVOR takes the unwritten pan-European autonomy rulebook and the crew-aboard dispute into independent academic study.

The FAVOR project launched on 1 June 2026 with £1.2m of Horizon Europe funding, led by Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), to recommend a unified regulatory architecture for autonomous ships 1. Horizon Europe is the EU's research framework programme. FAVOR's remit spans regulation, risk assessment, cybersecurity, human factors, education and training, sustainability, and the transition of the maritime workforce, the strands a vessel rulebook leaves unresolved.

FAVOR sits one layer up from the operational route the MCA opened for UK trials. Where that route lets vessels into the water now, FAVOR addresses the cross-border architecture that does not yet exist: a single coherent framework rather than a patchwork of national regimes. Both descend from the IMO MASS Code , which set a baseline but left the harder questions of liability, workforce and harmonisation to be filled in by others.

Labour leads that list of unfilled questions. The seafarers' union Nautilus International argued at the IMO that a master should remain aboard whenever any crew are present, contesting the empty-bridge model the Code permits. The dispute pits an industry case for removing crew against a union case for keeping command on board, and FAVOR's workforce-transition strand is the forum where an independent academic team examines it rather than a vendor with hardware to sell.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

The IMO's MASS Code, adopted on 22 May 2026, sets the broad principles for autonomous cargo ships, such as who is legally responsible if something goes wrong and which degree-of-autonomy levels are permitted. What it does not do is specify how to measure whether an autonomous navigation system is safe enough, how to train seafarers for remote-supervision roles, or how to protect an autonomous vessel's control systems from a cyberattack. FAVOR is a three-year academic project led by Liverpool John Moores University, funded by the EU's Horizon Europe research programme. Its job is to recommend how to fill those gaps at the pan-European level. Seven strands cover different aspects: regulations, risk assessment, cybersecurity, human factors, education and training, sustainability, and workforce transition for seafarers who may lose or change their roles as ships become more automated. Nautilus International is the trade union representing maritime officers across the UK and Netherlands. It has argued that a qualified captain should be physically present on any vessel that still has crew aboard, even if the ship can steer itself. FAVOR's workforce strand is the formal academic space where that labour-relations question gets researched and turned into a policy recommendation.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

The Horizon Europe funding reflects the UK's post-Brexit participation in EU research programmes under the Windsor Framework and the 2023 Horizon Europe association agreement, restoring LJMU's eligibility for calls it was excluded from during 2021-2022. FAVOR is partly a demonstration that UK academic institutions can lead EU-funded maritime research projects again, with the consortium structure spanning Belgian, Dutch, and Greek partners alongside the UK lead.

Nautilus International's involvement surfaces a second structural cause: the MASS Code's empty-bridge provisions were adopted with the support of flag states whose primary interest is commercial shipping cost reduction. The empty-bridge model removes the largest single operating cost, crew wages, from long-haul autonomous cargo vessels.

Seafarer unions lack veto power at the IMO but can shape implementation through national legislation and collective bargaining agreements. FAVOR's workforce-transition strand provides the evidence base that union negotiators and sympathetic flag-state delegations need to push for master-presence requirements in the mandatory 2032 framework.

Sources:Liverpool John Moores University
Mentions:FAVOR →Liverpool John Moores University →Horizon Europe →Nautilus International →MASS Code →International Maritime Organization →Netherlands →Norway →Denmark →
First Reported In

Update #2 · Britain writes the rules; AUKUS names US robots

Liverpool John Moores University· 6 Jun 2026
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Causes and effects
Caused by
First global code for crewless ships
The IMO MASS Code adoption at MSC 111 defined the regulatory gaps that FAVOR was funded to address at the pan-European level.
Occurred 22 May 2026
Read story →
This Event
FAVOR funds the rulebook nobody finished
FAVOR is where the labour question the MASS Code dodged, whether a master stays aboard, gets studied by academics rather than asserted by vendors.
Different Perspectives
China (military commentary)
China (military commentary)
Chinese military commentary has called uncrewed maritime equipment 'an excellent force multiplier' that cannot overturn the fundamental logic of naval warfare, the lone voice against the Western consensus that autonomy is the central axis of naval modernisation. Beijing reads the airdrop trial as an incremental logistics fix, not London's claimed doctrinal breakthrough.
Iran (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Iran (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Spokesman Kazem Gharibabadi said clearance of the Hormuz mines is 'Iran's sole responsibility', rejecting the Omani-authorised allied mine-clearance mission as a jurisdictional dispute rather than a technical favour. Tehran has not ratified UNCLOS, the treaty that would otherwise settle transit-passage rights through the strait.
Norway (Kongsberg Discovery)
Norway (Kongsberg Discovery)
Kongsberg Discovery's Camilla Kiss said the subsea-protection contract shows the industry 'moving from recognising the need to implementing solutions', selling fused sonar and C-Scope software to an unnamed buyer because fragmented cable, pipeline and platform ownership means no single navy commissions this the way it commissions a warship.
Ukraine (Trinity Robotics)
Ukraine (Trinity Robotics)
Trinity Robotics doubled its Konyk One production target to 2,200 units and opened French joint-venture talks, co-founder Oleksii Konik said, because wartime demand outpaces what factories inside a live-fire war zone can safely hold. Ukraine is answering the authority gap other actors face by manufacturing around it.
United Kingdom (Ministry of Defence and Royal Navy)
United Kingdom (Ministry of Defence and Royal Navy)
The Royal Navy proved it can airdrop a mine-hunting robot from any A400M into Sea State 4 waters, working round a front line of just six Type 45 destroyers and eight Type 23/26 frigates rather than waiting for more hulls. First Sea Lord Gwyn Jenkins's 'uncrewed wherever possible' doctrine gets a delivery method; it still lacks a named operational deployment.
Nautilus International
Nautilus International
Nautilus International pressed the unresolved liability gaps as the MASS Code entered force, noting a master stays legally responsible without saying who answers when ashore. Entry into force changed nothing an operator may legally do, leaving the seafarer-displacement question open.