A new project that evaluates impacts of the ISM code to the maritime safety culture is being started at Kotka Maritime Research Centre in the first quarter of the year 2008. The project lasts for 2.5 years and its total budget is about 730,000 euros.

The purpose of the project is to study how the ISM Code has influenced the safety culture in the maritime industry.

The project attempts to find best practices for shipping companies when improving their operations by implementing and developing their safety management system.

In order to assess the effects of ISM code, the METKU project studies maritime safety culture and attempts to measure the prevailing safety level of the Finnish maritime sector. The specific aims of METKU project are to: 

1. Study how the ISM Code has influenced the safety culture in the maritime industry, 
2. Show how accident analysis can be used for developing risk indicators,
3. Evaluate the use and usefulness of safety indicators in maritime and other domains to be able to give recommendations to safety development,
4. Study safety management practices in Finnish maritime and port authorities, 
5. Find observable degree of effort by which all organisational members direct their attention and actions toward improving safety on a daily basis, 
6. Explain how visible safety management is in the multi-professional authority co-operation, and 
7. Find the best practices for shipping companies to improve their operations by implementing and developing their safety management systems.