Round table ocean council to help shape EU funding calls

The European Technology and Innovation Platform for Ocean Energy (ETIP Ocean) will host the European Commission at its final annual workshop whose findings will form the basis of a strategy set to adapt the future funding calls to the ocean energy industry’s needs.

Illustration (Photo: Pixabay/Creative Commons CC0)

In the presence of European Commission officials, the ETIP Ocean secretariat will present the findings from the events and webinars at a workshop that will take place a day before Ocean Energy Europe 2018 Conference & Exhibition – set to kick off on October 30, 2018 in Edinburgh.

During the workshop, thematic round tables will be set up from a broad variety of participants that will focus on specific topics, such as grant funding for early-stage ocean energy technologies, market pull-revenue support for the sector, as well as knowledge transfer and collaboration activities – all discussed during the previously held webinars as part of ETIP Ocean program.

Recommendations and actions will be presented during the free-to-attend event which requires registration, and, according to ETIP Ocean, they will form the basis of the final Integrated Strategy.

Ahead of the final workshop, ETIP Ocean has organized another webinar to stress the increasing importance of common standards and certification for the ocean energy industry, as the sector grows and matures.

The webinar, set for September 27, 2018, will look into the work at the international level to settle on the standards, and will also highlight the benefits of standardization for ensuring quality, and reducing costs and risks of ocean energy technologies and projects.

Following the conclusion of scheduled activities, the ETIP Ocean Integrated Strategy will be presented to the European Commission and national research and funding bodies in December 2018.

The aim of the strategy to ensure that future call for proposals address ocean energy’s priority challenges and best fit the industry’s needs, according to ETIP Ocean – an initiative regarded as an advisory body to the European Commission.

It is managed by Ocean Energy Europe and the University of Edinburgh, bringing together 250 experts from 150 organizations covering the entire European ocean energy sector.