The first oil & gas company to be awarded a SCORE grant to diversify into renewables will use it to create 13 new jobs.
EPIC International won a share of the GBP 6 million pot to help it gain accreditation to run rope access training courses for wind turbine technicians at its Great Yarmouth base.
The GBP 12,000 grant will also go towards equipment, including a scaffold tower.
“We particularly welcomed EPIC International’s application because it is an oil & gas company with much expertise and experience in the offshore industry that is always looking at doing things differently,” Rob Bush, SCORE project manager, said.
“This is what we’ve been emphasising since the launch of the fund last year. Oil & gas companies are prime for SCORE grants because they are used to looking at challenges differently, cutting costs and being innovative.”
Dave Rowan, managing director of EPIC International, which he set up 17 years ago and has personnel working on offshore platforms all over the world, said: “Adding a wind string to the many other strands of his business was an obvious move.”
Already this year, he has installed a cylinder testing facility in his Vanguard Road base.
“We are in Great Yarmouth and there are billions of pounds being invested into creating wind farms off our coast with a pipeline of work going on for decades. It makes sense that we use our facilities to work in that industry, especially with our huge knowledge and skills bank after so many years in the offshore industry,” Rowan said.
The company will now go for membership of the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA).
SCORE (Supply Chain innovation for Offshore Renewable Energy) offers grants of up to GBP 50,000 to help companies across England to develop new products, processes and ideas – from patenting a product to exploring concepts that offer new ways of solving problems and driving efficiency in offshore renewables.
The programme is delivered by Nwes in partnership with Nautilus Associates and the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult.