Waterborne transportation has long been the backbone of global trade, with the reciprocating internal combustion engine (ICE) as the dominant power source. In the efforts to decarbonize shipping, methanol has emerged as a promising alternative fuel due to its easy storability and favorable combustion characteristics compared to non-carbon fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. In the MENENS project, one of the research objectives is to better understand, further develop, and demonstrate different engine technologies that can employ methanol fuel in marine-sized engines. This study reviews maritime stakeholder research on methanol fuel for marine ICEs, emphasizing the chosen injection and ignition strategies across different engine technologies. In this paper, we aim to identify research gaps concerning methanol as a marine engine fuel, and provide insight into the initiatives and proposed research direction within MENENS.