Coda Octopus has been selected as one of eight Scottish companies to develop innovative subsea systems and technologies as a part of the Scottish-Japanese ‘Joint Ocean Innovation’ collaborative R&D program, with matched funding by The Nippon Foundation and Scottish Enterprise.
Coda Octopus’ subsidiary, Coda Octopus Products Limited, will be collaborating with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on one of five strategic subsea projects under the joint program.
It is expected that the funding over three years for the joint program will be a total of GBP 25 million (approximately USD 32 million).
In the program’s first year, a total of up to USD 11.5 million has been committed to fund the thirteen Scottish and Japanese companies, chosen to develop various innovative subsea systems and technologies for the exploitation of ocean resources within a period of three years.
No public announcements have been made regarding the individual company funding awards. However, the funding allocated to Coda Octopus is in the hundreds of thousands of pounds and is expected to increase over the three-year period, the company noted.
Annmarie Gayle , CODA’s chairman and CEO, said: “We are honoured to have been selected to be a part of this premier collaboration between two nations whose leadership in subsea market innovation is well known. The R&D project for which we have been selected is an ideal fit for our strategy to be a market leader for cutting-edge subsea technologies for both operating, detecting and tracking all types of unmanned and autonomous underwater vehicles.”
“ This global exchange of ideas and expertise is incredibly important to both Scotland and Japan’s continued success in the area of subsea systems and technologies, ” said Neil Gordon , chief executive, Subsea UK. “The companies which have been successful in the first innovation call have been given a huge opportunity to leverage their renowned subsea engineering expertise to tackle the technological challenges to the benefit of the whole industry.”