The EPSRC-funded Supergen UK Centre for Marine Energy Research (UKCMER), in association with Wave Energy Scotland, has opened a call for research projects in wave and tidal energy.
The £500,000 call for short research projects is open to staff from any UK university, engaged in wave or tidal energy research, who are eligible for Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) support.
The core Supergen program seeks to address the significant common needs for fundamental to applied research spanning wave, tidal and floating offshore wind energy technologies.
UKCMER noted the proposals should complement the ongoing work in numerical and physical modelling of wave-current flow interactions acting on devices.
Also, the projects should relate to novel control methods to improve performance and durability in arrays, and new design and test processes to predict and reduce risk and improve reliability.
Other proposal topics eligible for the call should be correlated with development of design and analysis tools to predict extreme responses and increase survivability; exploration of materials and processes, new to the sector, that increase service and operational life; and disruptive technologies for devices, subsystems and components including those offering scalability.
EPSRC and WES will jointly support up to five short projects that complement the ongoing work in UKCMER and WES, the organizations said.
Commenting on the call, Tim Hurst , Chief Executive of WES, said: “Wave Energy Scotland’s main objective is to develop cost competitive wave energy technology in Scotland, and collaboration between industry and academia to solve generic technical problems is a key part of our strategy.”
Robin Wallace , Principal Investigator at UKCMER, added: “Offshore wind projects are already common and we are starting to see the first commercial tidal stream and floating offshore wind projects take shape. The UK has developed and demonstrated more wave energy technologies than any other country in the world.”
“Now is the time for the UK to capitalize on our existing lead in these emerging ocean energy technologies which have the potential to generate significant green power in the decades ahead.”
The call for proposals is open from July 2 until July 28, 2017.