About Us — Our Mission

Three commitments that shape every project MARBLE delivers.

01Build

Build maritime technology that holds up in operations.

From autonomy stacks and simulation to integrated systems. Designed for the real world, not the demo.

02Collaborate

Collaborate openly across the maritime ecosystem.

With NTNU, CNR, Ruđer Bošković, and partners across academia, industry, and government, building work that compounds across the field.

03Empower

Empower the next generation of maritime researchers and innovators.

Through hands-on training at our pilot sites, hosted research, and direct collaboration with PhDs, engineers, and early-stage maritime companies.

The principles that shape how we work, collaborate, and innovate.

Excellence

We set the highest standards – and never stop improving.

Excellence is the standard we bring to every idea, experiment, partnership, and result. We pursue knowledge with scientific rigour, curiosity, and attention to detail. We continuously challenge ourselves to learn, improve, and deliver work that earns the confidence of the international research community.

At MARBLE, excellence is not only about exceptional achievements. It is about doing every part of our work exceptionally well.

Boldness

We have the courage to pursue what others consider too difficult.

Progress begins with ambition, imagination, and the willingness to explore the unknown. We set demanding goals, challenge established approaches, and take thoughtful risks in pursuit of breakthrough solutions.

At MARBLE, we are not afraid of complex problems, uncertain outcomes, or ambitious ideas. We believe that meaningful innovation happens when expertise is combined with the courage to push beyond existing limits.

Openness

We share ideas, welcome different perspectives, and create more together.

The most important discoveries rarely emerge in isolation. We collaborate across teams within MARBLE and build open partnerships with researchers, universities, industry, public institutions, and communities. We listen with curiosity, communicate openly, and challenge ideas constructively. We share knowledge generously and value different disciplines, experiences, and ways of thinking.

At MARBLE, ideas are valued for their potential, regardless of where they come from.

Responsibility

We take ownership, honour our commitments, and deliver results others can rely on.

We are accountable for our work, our decisions, and their wider consequences. Our colleagues and partners can rely on us to act professionally, deliver consistently, and use resources responsibly.

At MARBLE, we pursue innovation with integrity and consider the safety, sustainability, and long-term impact of everything we develop. Responsibility means turning ambition into results that are trustworthy, meaningful, and built to last.

Excellence defines the quality of our work. Boldness expands what is possible. Openness brings people and ideas together. Responsibility turns our ambition into trusted and lasting impact.

Building something that wasn't possible before.

When we founded MARBLE in 2024, the goal was simple to describe and hard to do. Take more than fifteen years of maritime robotics research at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, the algorithms, the systems, the operational experience, the talent, and structure it for the world outside the university.

Croatia has world-class engineers. Croatia has world-class research. What it has historically lacked is a vehicle to bring that work directly to industry, on industry's terms, combining research excellence with the agility, delivery focus and timelines industry requires, without the perception that everything coming out of Eastern Europe needs to prove itself twice.

MARBLE is that vehicle.

We operate as a Research and Technology Organisation, independent, commercially-minded, agile. We work with autonomous vessel OEMs and maritime robotics SMEs. We build pilot infrastructure designed for industry use, not just scientific publications. We integrate autonomy systems into real platforms, develop hardware from the ground up, and validate everything we deliver at sea.

We work alongside the institutions we admire, NTNU, CNR, Ruđer Bošković, partners across Europe and beyond, because the best work in this field doesn't happen in silos. But our north star is operational outcome. Technology that performs in real-world environments.

This is what makes MARBLE different from the EU project landscape we emerged from. We were seeded by Horizon Europe. We are built to last.

We have the technology, the team, the infrastructure, and the partnerships. What we are building now is the next decade of European maritime autonomy, and we are doing it from the Adriatic.

Prof. Nikola Mišković, PhD

Director · MARBLE

A hub for innovation in maritime robotics.

MARBLE's headquarters spans 3,500 square metres within the former Brodarski Institut complex in Zagreb, currently undergoing extensive renovation. When complete, it will house four specialised laboratories, a mobile field-deployment unit, and a remote command and control centre for our three Adriatic pilot sites.

It's where the technology gets built before it goes to sea.

Explore the headquarters →

We're MARBLE.