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News 2023
Strengthening Europe’s Leadership in Offshore Renewable Energy
A new UCC led project MARINERG-i will help to realise the vast potential of offshore renewable energy.
MARINERG-i will be an Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Distributed Research Infrastructure (DRI). With a network of world-class testing facilities spread across Europe, MARINERG-i is setting out to become the leading DRI in the ORE sector globally.
According to Dr. Jimmy Murphy (Project Coordinator, UCC): "A more streamlined, higher-quality service will enable newer technologies either to fail and disappear or to progress towards commercialisation".
MARINERG-i is one of 11 new Research Infrastructures to be added to the ESFRI 2021 roadmap. This identifies and provides support for the best European science facilities that are of strategic importance according to the European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). Led by University College Cork, MARINERG-i is supported by Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, along with facilities in France, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway and Germany.
MARINERG-i will provide significant support to the EU Green Deal, strengthening European scientific and engineering expertise and fostering innovation in ORE technologies. By consolidating investment in infrastructure, MARINERG-i will provide best-value for money. It will ensure the best quality service by harmonising methodologies and processes across facilities, providing clarity and confidence in testing results for investors and policymakers. Ultimately the goal is to help accelerate innovation in ORE and discern the leading technologies.
Participating research infrastructures have already worked together providing testing programmes to developers for over a decade e.g. on the EU funded MaRINET and MaRINET2 projects. MARINERG-i’s positioning on the ESFRI roadmap will enable the network to establish a permanent structure with country membership fees and providing a range of professional services, reducing the reliance on irregular sources of funding.
The team are now embarking on a Preparatory Phase, where work will be funded by an almost €3 million Horizon Europe project, MARINERG-i_PP, commencing in December 2023. This project will establish the legal, governance, scientific and business components required to set up a dedicated coordinating entity known as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), ready to implement MARINERG-i DRI services.
For more on this story contact:
Email: marinergi@ucc.ie
MARINERG-i_PP has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe’s Research Infrastructures programme under grant agreement no. 101128668.