Short-sea shipping (SSS) is emerging as an important point of the transport policy of the EU. As intra-European borders are rapidly dismantled and Eastern Europe gradually becomes more open, SSS is earning a prominent role. It has good potential for enhancing the EU's competitiveness, economic and social cohesion, and making mobility more sustainable. Consequently, there has been an explosive growth in SSS-related research since the beginning of the 1990s. SSS-CA is part of a wider attempt to survey all this work in order to identify the critical conclusions and pave the way for further research in the SSS field.