Supergen ORE HUB awards for offshore renewable energy research
The Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy Hub has awarded almost £1 million to UK universities to support ambitious research projects investigating all aspects of offshore renewable energy (ORE).
It aims to support project areas that complement exisiting research, fill in gaps or add cross-cutting activities to explore the transfer of research findings between sectors within ORE. The research being funded in this first Flexible Fund call ranges from new and novel technologies for autonomously inspecting offshore wind farms to advanced satellite observations to improve the performance of offshore renewable installations.
The Supergen ORE Hub was established in July 2018 with £5 million funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and was subsequently awarded a further £4 million in June 2019. It provides research leadership to connect stakeholders, inspire innovation and maximise societal value in offshore renewable energy.
The Hub is led by Professor Deborah Greaves OBE, Head of the School of Engineering and Computing, Electronics and Mathematics at the University of Plymouth and includes Co-Directors from the universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Exeter, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Southampton, Strathclyde and Warwick.
Professor Greaves said ' We are delighted to award this funding aimed at enabling researchers, in collaboration with industry partners, to deliver fundamental research that will advance the development of the offshore renewable energy sector'.
Ross Wigg, Lead Industrial Partner of the Supergen ORE Advisory Board and Renewables Director - Asset Performance at the LOC Group, said 'with offshore renewables now a significant player in the nation's energy landscape, the benefits of scientists and industry experts working closely together - utilising their combined knowledge and expertise - will be seen by large and small companies across the UK and beyond.
'The successful research projects will be invaluable in tackling some of the key challenges that the offshore renewable industries face both now and in the future'.