The BAW

Competence Centre for Waterways Engineering and the Building of Specialised Ships

Germany has the largest network of waterways in Europe. The German seaports on the North Sea and Baltic Sea handle around 290 million tonnes of goods per year, while the volume transported by inland waterway shipping is around 200 million tonnes per year. The inland and marine waterways in Germany are a central part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN) and play an important role for trade and sustainable logistics.

The Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW) is the main provider of science and technology services to the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) and the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV) with regard to all hydraulic engineering issues associated with the building, operation and maintenance of Germany’s federal waterways. In this function, the BAW is Germany’s scientific competence centre for waterways engineering. The BAW provides both policy advice for the BMDV and project advice for the WSV. An important part of the BAW’s work is to ensure that Germany’s federal waterways fulfil ever more stringent technical specifications, ecological requirements and meet increasing traffic demands. The BAW plays a crucial role here in securing a sustainable future for waterways as an important mode of transport in Germany.

In addition, the BAW regards itself as the competence centre for the building of specialised civilian ships in Germany. The work of the BAW includes the construction of new government vessels, e.g. for maritime emergency preparedness, marine environmental monitoring, sea surveying and wreck searches, as well as research vessels for marine and fisheries research. The BAW's clients are various federal ministries and their subordinate authorities.

Our science-based services require a high level of technical expertise, interdisciplinary methodological competence and integrated, practice-oriented working methods. We work professionally and methodically at the cutting edge of science and technology and are networked nationally and internationally through cooperation with universities and other research institutions.