The 5th Conference of Innovation & Cooperation in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering (ICNAME 2021) and the 1st International High-level Forum on Smart and Autonomous Navigation Technology of Ships were held in Harbin, China on 16th and 17th November, 2021. Sponsored by China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry, Marinet Industry Center of Russia and Innovation & Cooperation in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering Association (ICNAME), co-organized by Harbin Engineering University, Russian University of Transport and Wuhan University of Technology, the conference was organized online. Experts and scholars of well-known universities, institutions and enterprises from China, Russia, France, Norway, Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc. were invited to share expertise on green ships, autonomous ships and smart ships, aiming to accelerate the innovation process of cutting-edge technologies in terms of low-carbon, digitized, intelligentized, and autonomous ships, and deepen global science and technology cooperation and jointly promote the development in naval architecture and marine engineering.