The European Commission (EC) has designated funds for project that aims to deliver new business and investment opportunities in corrosion solutions and new materials for offshore energy installations.
The total of three new ‘Blue technology’ projects selected for funding under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), will share a budget of €2 million to develop joint roadmaps and bankable demonstration projects in the Atlantic and the North Sea in order to coordinate investments for innovation in a specific high potential blue growth technology, domain or value chain.
Among the selected projects is the NeSSIE project, short for North Sea Solutions for Innovation in Corrosion for Energy, which aims to draw on North Sea region expertise in traditional offshore sectors such as oil and gas, and shipbuilding, in order to develop corrosion solutions for emerging opportunities in offshore renewable energy sources including wave, tidal and offshore wind energy.
The countries participating in the project are UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Sweden.
Another project, called Enabling Technologies and Roadmaps for Offshore Platform Innovation (ENTROPI), will use the funds to advance key enabling technologies along the value chain to accelerate the deployment of multi-use offshore platforms, particularly for renewables and aquaculture.
Focusing on the Atlantic sea basin, the project will seek to develop the investment case for 3 bankable demonstration projects, each supported by a public-private partnership.
Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Ireland are participating in the ENTROPI project.
The third project selected for funding, called Disruptive and forward-looking opportunities for competitive and sustainable aquaculture (INvertebrateIT), aims to develop innovative approaches for the aquaculture sector, particularly using organic wastes for the production of invertebrates to be used for fish feed.
Grant agreements for the projects are being prepared for signature by April 2017, EC informed.