UK-US Offshore Wind Collaborative R&D

Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your US partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. US partners will be funded by NOWRDC following a parallel application.

To lead a project your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size or a research and technology organisation (RTO)
• be or involve at least one grant claiming UK micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)

If the lead organisation is an RTO it must collaborate with at least 2 UK registered businesses (one SME, and one business of any size). Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

A business or research and technology organisation (RTO) can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.

If a business is not leading any application, it can be included as a collaborator in up to 3 applications.

If an RTO is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

An academic institution or a public sector organisation can collaborate on any number of applications.

Your project must:

• have total costs between £150,000 and £600,000
• last between 12 and 24 months
• carry out at least 80% of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• start by 1 October 2024
• end by 30 September 2026
• work collaboratively with an R&D project in the US which is funded by NOWRDC

To be eligible for an Innovate UK grant award, the US project which you intend to collaborate with must also be awarded funding from NOWRDC. Applications identified as not eligible by either Innovate UK or NOWRDC will not be sent for assessment.

All businesses, whether in the UK consortium, or in the US project you intend to collaborate with, must be separate legal and non-linked entities. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.

The aim of this competition is to reduce the cost and risk of offshore wind development projects throughout the US. UK-US collaboration must be significant and meaningful. Your UK project must demonstrate integration with the US project.

Your project’s scope must address one or more of the challenge areas for this competition:

Challenge 1: Solutions to facilitate offshore wind resiliency and transmission coordination

• 1a: Development and demonstration of solutions that improve offshore wind power reliability
• 1b: Development and demonstration of innovations in coordinated transmission solutions that optimize efficiency across multiple large projects, minimize environmental impacts, and conform with onshore grid constraints
• 1c: Development and demonstration of solutions for integration of long duration energy storage of greater than 10 hours with offshore wind, to facilitate offshore wind resiliency, transmission coordination and integration.

Challenge 2: Operation & Maintenance (O&M) Systems Development

• 2a: Technologies and strategies that advance the effectiveness, cost efficiency, and safety of O&M
• 2b: Technologies and strategies that advance O&M supply chain development and flexibility

Challenge 3: Innovation to facilitate ocean area coexistence

Technology concepts that reduce offshore development and operational impacts on the marine biosphere

Your project can focus on the following themes for each of the challenges.

Challenge 1: Solutions to facilitate offshore wind resiliency and transmission coordination

1a:

• voltage control
• frequency response
• production forecasting and grid integration
• black-start and grid forming capability
• other wind powered reliability innovations

1b:

• improved cable routing or shared cable landfall
• offshore backbone and meshed grid or multi-terminal HVDC
• dynamic array cables at 132 kilovolt (kV) and or dynamic export cables
• other transmissions solutions

1c:

• feasibility studies on the techno-economic analysis of differing energy storage solutions with offshore wind, such as hydrogen, thermal storage and pumped storage
• feasibility studies joining up the physical requirements of the offshore wind-energy storage system with policy, market, dispatchability and digital arrangements
• energy systems-level modelling for offshore wind-energy storage integration and consideration of demand side response
• energy storage integration technologies with offshore wind development, considering turbine, farm and onshore network options
• other energy storage integration solutions

Challenge 2: Operation & Maintenance (O&M) Systems Development

2a:

• comparative assessments of O&M requirements and considerations associated with different substructure designs
• technologies to improve offshore wind turbine component health monitoring, including corrosion monitoring and management
• offshore wind turbine digital twin development and application in-practice
• technological innovations to facilitate wind farm maintenance for example robotic inspection technologies and integration into practice, LiDAR, drone, sensor
• innovations or assessment of opportunities to address technical and efficiency challenges associated with large-scale offshore wind buildout in deeper water and at greater distances from shore
• solutions to improve operational safety for example safety vessels, electrical safety at substation, fire safety, novel uses of drone and autonomous vehicles
• innovation in simulated workforce training
• other O&M safety and efficiency systems

2b:

• programmatic assessment for implementation of ocean-based testing and validation of approaches and technologies for O&M
• technoeconomic analysis of port and vessel upgrades specifically for O&M purposes
• other O&M supply chain technologies and strategies

Challenge 3: Innovation to facilitate ocean area coexistence

• technologies that attenuate adverse impacts on marine life for example reducing noise impacts, reducing siting conflicts and the impacts of installation practices
• structural alternatives or deployment methods that avoid or mitigate noise generation
• mooring line sensors for detection of secondary entanglement, marine growth, and line failure
• AI tools and other technologies, such as sonar, hydrophones, or camera systems, that improve detection and monitoring of fisheries and wildlife; or that improve marine navigation in and around offshore wind areas
• technology solutions that mitigate and reduce interactions with federally managed, protected, and endangered species and their habitats
• process or technology solutions to coordinate and integrate fisheries and wildlife monitoring and assessment including database and data sharing capacity building
• other innovations to facilitate ocean area co-existence

An online briefing will be held at 4pm UK time on Wednesday 18th October: click here for the joining link.

If you would like help to find a collaborator or US partner, please contact Innovate UK KTN’s Energy team or our Global Alliance team.