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Autonomous Systems: Land & Sea
6JUN

FAVOR funds the rulebook nobody finished

2 min read
11:59UTC

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
EU / Horizon Europe (FAVOR regulatory programme)
EU / Horizon Europe (FAVOR regulatory programme)
The EU funded FAVOR through Horizon Europe to fill the technical and workforce gaps the MASS Code's principles-only adoption left open, with LJMU leading a consortium spanning Belgian, Dutch, and Greek partners. The timing confirms Horizon Europe's post-Brexit UK association agreement is operational: LJMU is leading an EU maritime research call for the first time since 2020.
Norwegian Maritime Authority
Norwegian Maritime Authority
Norway has operated six MASS trial zones since 2019 and its AUTOSEA framework already covers the weather and traffic diversity that Plymouth's single-zone approach cannot generate from one harbour. The MCA's 12-day post-IMO publication is fast, but Norway holds four years of certification-grade operational data that the UK trial route cannot compress away.
Nautilus International (seafarer labour)
Nautilus International (seafarer labour)
Nautilus International argued at the IMO that a master must remain aboard any vessel where crew are present, directly contesting the empty-bridge model the MASS Code permits. FAVOR's workforce-transition strand is now the academic forum where that position will be researched into a policy recommendation, giving union arguments independent evidence rather than leaving them as assertions against industry.
Milrem Robotics / VDL Defentec (European UGV industry)
Milrem Robotics / VDL Defentec (European UGV industry)
Milrem and VDL Defentec demonstrated that European UGV manufacturers can open a second cross-border production line in months rather than years when procurement demand is large enough, handing over the first Dutch-funded THeMIS units for Ukraine at Born. The Born model gives European governments a template for mandating in-country final assembly as a contract condition, bypassing single-supplier bottlenecks.
L3Harris / US defence industry
L3Harris / US defence industry
L3Harris secured AUKUS platform naming one week after the IVER4 900 entered US Navy delivery under a Defence Innovation Unit contract, using an existing certification baseline that allied vehicles could not match in April 2026. The pattern positions US primes at the hardware layer of allied undersea programmes.
UK Ministry of Defence / Royal Navy
UK Ministry of Defence / Royal Navy
The Royal Navy co-signed the AUKUS Pillar II Signature Project naming two US-built vehicles in the same week the MCA and NSO built the institutional scaffolding for a British maritime-autonomy industry. Doctrine and rule-making are running ahead of the hardware: the Herne XLAUV was still seeking certification when the fact sheet was locked.