OERA opens tidal research call

Canadian Offshore Energy Research Association (OERA) has launched a call for research proposals in the areas of tidal energy, marine geoscience, and seismic and marine sound.

Proposal budget must be a maximum of C$20,000 ($14,000) per project, with the demand that the minimum of 50% of the proposed budget must be spent in Nova Scotia.

Also, the proposed work must be completed within one year. OERA said that the proposals should support and/or advance an OERA research priority area, or are an extension of existing research previously funded by OERA, or are deemed important and timely to advancing Nova Scotia’s offshore energy sector.

OERA identified the following research priorities related to tidal energy: improving the understanding of the impact of tidal devices on the environment; improvements in site characterization methodologies; development of low cost monitoring technologies; and deployment, retrieval and operations advances.

The deadline for research proposals has been set for January 15, 2016, and OERA informed it would notify the applicants of the outcome of their proposal within 90 days of the closing date.

OERA is an independent, non-profit organization that funds and facilitates collaborative offshore energy and environmental research and development including examination of renewable energy resources and their interaction with the marine environment, with the aim to enable the sustainable development of Nova Scotia energy resources.