Over the last few months RINA has teamed up with the European Maritime Safety Agency(EMSA) on a pilot project aimed at testing the extension of the data exchange capability of the ‘THETIS’ system.
Currently, Recognised Organisations at EU level are required to enter data about a ship’s certification process, including the location and date of inspections, the type of certificate issued, its date of issue and expiry. This tested new feature in the system adds in much more technical data from within the certification documentation, including linking the full e-certificate into THETIS.
As a result of the successfully completed pilot project, the new feature is now in production and THETIS is able to receive and manage hundreds of pieces of data from the International Oil Pollution Prevention(IOPP) certificate and its supplement, including those relevant to the geometry of the ship, and is ready to extend this capability to other ship’s certificates.
The immediate advantage for users of the system is that for the e-certificates the link to the validation site is also available for immediate verification of the status of the certificate. Each e-certificate will be allocated a unique tracking number(UTN) to add to the security and usability of the system in accordance with the applicable International Maritime Organisation(IMO) Guidelines. This will enable port State control officers to check through THETIS the validity of e-certificates prior to boarding a vessel and take the necessary actions should those certificates be expired or cease to be valid.
“I would like to thank RINA for joining EMSA in this pilot project. Digitalisation and ultimately simplification of maritime transport is one of our strategic goals in line with the Union priority of “A Europe fit for the digital age” and e-Certification is an important milestone in this process.” said Maja Markovčić Kostelac, Executive Director of EMSA. 
Paolo Moretti, Chief Executive Officer of RINA Services, said: “We believe digitalization will have a considerable positive impact on the activity of ROs and the new EMSA web service is a great step in the right direction. For this vitally important system, however, it is fundamental that all aspects and implications are considered, tested and verified prior to roll out. RINA is delighted to be a partner of EMSA on such a strategic and challenging issue.”