Despite technological developments, maritime transports still depend on human action. Cargo and passenger ships fall under crew responsibility, and thus need to have qualified crews on board. Many concerns have been expressed in the recent years by maritime stakeholders and rulers on two major topics: crew shortage and navigation safety. Shipowners and trade unions are trying to face the desertion of young qualified crews, analyzing causes and sources of such phenomenon, in order to keep skilled people working on board and to protect their health. On the other hand, navigation safety became another key-issue as the globalized markets have requested the enterprisesto speed up their transport capability. This has entailed a demand for more perfoming shipping services, putting crews often under pressure, and exposing ships to the danger of accidents. Being away from home for long periods, difficuties in communicating with colleagues, nostalgia, sense of isolation, are all features of the on board working, and are all considered as causes of stress. These "stressors" can be sources of dangerous distractions and their presence can induce young people to avoid choosing to work at sea, worsening the already serious crew shortage.

Sectorial researches have shown there are many sources of stress. And that it's possible, with a targeted and tailor-made education and training, to make crew staff, above all those charged with responsibilities (officers), aware of them, able to recognize their and the others' arising stress statuses, and to psychologically and behaviourally master tools to manage them, protecting their health and improving effectiveness.

This paper intends to discuss findings and future works of the ongoing EU Research Project "SOS - Stress On Ships", developed by a consortium of 7 maritime higher education institutes from 5 EU countries and Turkey.