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Staff Profile

Dr Paul Stott

Senior Lecturer

  • Email: paul.stott@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 6721
  • Address: Newcastle University
    Armstrong Building
    Queen Victoria Road
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE17RU
Background

Introduction

Paul Stott is a naval architect who has held line management positions in shipyards and has a wide-ranging background in international market research and strategic planning.  Paul entered academia in 2010 after spending twenty six years in the marine industries.  Working initially as a production and project manager in the shipyards of North East England he then spent twenty two years as a consultant working for companies and institutional clients in around forty countries, developing a considerable reputation in the field.  Consultancy work of particular note includes the following:

  • Innovative work in developing product mix strategies and the understanding of the economic links between shipyards and their markets, as a framework for setting targets.
  • Responsibility for strategic planning for the development of  (inter-alia) Wai Gao Qiao (China’s largest shipyard), Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding (UAE) and Nakilat Ship Repair Yard (Qatar).
  • Technical expert in a trade dispute between EU and South Korea relating to shipbuilding competitiveness, pursued through tribunal at the World Trade Organisation.   Monitoring of shipyard activities in South Korea and cost modelling to build and justify the case were undertaken over a period of about five years.

Background

1997 – 2010: Principal Consultant, First Marine International Limited

1996 – 1997: Director, Strategic Maritime Consulting

1988 – 1995: Director, A&P Appledore International

1986 – 1988: Project Manager, North East Shipbuilders Limited

1984 – 1986: Teaching Company (Research) Associate, Newcastle University / British Shipbuilders

Roles and Responsibilities

Senior Lecturer, marine production and shipping market analysis

Stream Leader, MSc Marine Transport with Management

Qualifications

BSc (first class honours), Naval Architecture and Shipbuilding, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1984.

Newcastle Teaching Award, 2011

PhD, Newcastle University, 2017

Memberships

Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects

Chartered Engineer

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Esteem indicators 

Participation in OECD working party 6 (Paris)

External examiner, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University 

External examiner for Maritime Business Modules, Plymouth University

External examiner for Level 6 modules delivered by Plymouth University at the University of Hong Kong 

Council Member, Shipbuilders and Ship Repairers Association (UK)

Member of the Market Monitoring Group of the Committee of European Shipbuilders’ Associations (Brussels).

Lecturing by invitation to the Federal University of Pernambucco, Recife, Brazil, July 2013.

Lecturing by invitation to CASS Business School, February 2013. 

Honours and Awards

Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights

Freeman of the City of London

Burrill Medal (1984) from the North East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, “for outstanding results obtained in Part III of the Final Examination for BSc Honours”.

Elmer L Hann Award from the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers for “paper entitled ‘Marketing Strategy for Merchant Shipbuilders’, 1995 Ship Production Symposium, Seattle, Washington”.

Public speaking

Newcastle University's annual Holmes Public Lecture for children 11 to 14 yo,  2016

Speaker at AVEVA Marine Reference Group Meeting (London), April 2011, speaking on "key concepts underlying shipbuilding performance and competitiveness". 

Insight Public Lecture at Newcastle University: "Whatever happened to our shipbuilding industry", November 2017 (subsequently repeated to public audiences in Liverpool, Sunderland and Gateshead).

Clyde Maritime Trusts's annual Glenlee Lecture, Glasgow, December 2018.

Keynote address to UK Society of Maritime Industries National Conference, on the theme of Implementing the UKs Shipbuilding Strategy, Portsmouth, February 2019.

Training seminar on the development of the shipbuilding industry to Clarksons PLC, March 2019.



Research

Research Interests

My research interests are related to the interface between marine industries and markets, in particular competitiveness and price / subsidy.  Interests include market forecasting, metrics and performance measurement, and the role of non-governmental organisations such as the WTO and OECD in regulating shipping markets.

Low Carbon Shipping Consortium (http://www.lowcarbonshipping.co.uk/), a research project which started in January 2010. It is majority funded by UK government research funding - the RCUK energy programme has committed £1.7 million over 3 years - but is also supported financially and in-kind by a number of industry partners including Lloyd’s Register, Rolls Royce, Shell and BMT. LCS is jointly run between five UK universities: Newcastle, UCL, Plymouth, Hull and Strathclyde.  My contribution has been in the field of the effects of the expansion of the Panama Canal on ship design (ini particular in the bulk sectors) and in understanding the investment climate for ship owners in relation to retro-fitting of carbon-reducing technologies.  Two papers from me have stemmed from this source.

Previous research interests have included control of distortion in thin plate structures in shipyard construction.

Projects

Consultancy for Heerema (2011) in the evaluation of production systems for the mass production of jacket structures.

Consultancy for Newcastle Science City (2012) in the validation of a business plan for the development of rotary sail systems for merchant vessels.

Low Carbon Shipping: A Systems Approach
Contributor to work packages 3 (logistics) and 4 (economics).

Consultancy for Japan Ship Centre (JETRO) (2018), summarising results of PhD research into shipbuilding competitiveness as they apply to the industry in Japan.

Teaching

Undergraduate

MAR1005 (Module Leader, 100% contribution): Marine Production Management I

MAR2012 (20% contribution): Engineering Applications

MAR2013 (Module Leader, 100% contribution): Marine Production Management II 

Postgraduate

Mar8022 (Module Leader, 100% contribution): Marine Production Business

MAR8043 (Module Leader, 80% contribution): Shipping Market Analysis and Risk Management

MAR8096 (Module Leader): Dissertation (MSc Marine Transport with Management)

SPG8010 (20% contribution): Renewable Energy; Marine and Offshore Devices

Administrative role as module leader

MAR8014: Marine Liability Insurance and Law

MAR8036: The International Safety Management (ISM) Code

MAR8023: Surveying Ships and Offshore Installations

Teaching Development

Whatever our graduates move on to do in employment, a thorough knowledge of the way that marine structures are produced is of fundamental importance.  The teaching of marine production in the School has been modernised and updated by Mr Stott since 2010 to make it valid to 21st Century graduates in whatever sector of the industry they enter, from offshore to yachts, or whatever role they progress into over their career, from production or project management to surveyor or designer.  A course of three modules aims to give a broad education to students in aspects of all sectors of the shipyard industries and seeks to teach a commercial view of the industries as well as the technical view.  The aim is that students leaving at stage 3 should be able to orientate themselves in a shipyard environment and to contribute positively in a managerial or design role.  Those choosing the masters level option will study further the business aspects of  the shipyard industries and will be eductated to operate at more senior managerial levels or as entrepreneurs.

Teaching in Brazil 2013

In July 2013 I spent a week teaching undergraduates at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, on the subject of competitiveness in shipbuilding.  This is a vital subject in a country that has a fledgling shipbuilding industry and wishes to compete with the giant yards of South Korea and China.

Publications