STREAM 1: Accelerating Innovation in the Forth and Tay Offshore Wind Cluster

Started

Renewable Energy Sources(Wind Energy)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor A McDonald
Sch of Engineering and Electronics
University of Edinburgh

Standard

EPSRC

01 April 2025

31 March 2029

48 months

£2,658,379

Energy

Scotland

Regional Engagement

Professor A McDonald, Sch of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh

Dr E Bonafe, University of Dundee
Dr M Brown, Civil Engineering, University of Dundee
Dr T A D Davey, Sch of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh
Dr K Dinnie, University of Dundee
Dr C Haggett, University of Edinburgh
Mr H Jeffrey, Sch of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh
Dr M Mueller, Sch of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh
Dr MD Newlands, University of Dundee
Dr V Onyango, University of Dundee
Professor JM Roberts, Sch of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University

This Place Based Impact Acceleration Account (PBIAA) aims to incorporate university research strengths in offshore wind engineering into the Forth and Tay region to address challenges in the areas of design and manufacture of fixed and floating wind systems, the development of a workforce, and the delivery of large offshore energy infrastructure projects. The Lead Civic Partner Forth & Tay Offshore (FTO) is a place-based supply chain cluster, established to drive the growth and implementation of offshore renewable energy on the east coast of Scotland. It's vision for 2030 is for the region to address the timely opportunity to become home to a thriving, comprehensive, internationally competitive offshore energy supply chain serving local, national and international projects. This proposal has been co-designed with FTO via a rigorous consultation process, to identify the needs where the region can benefit most from the expertise of the university partners, and where partners outside the consortium can be involved to augment this expertise further. This PBIAA aims to establish the partnership mechanism, then accelerate and grow the impact of academic research into the cluster, particularly in the areas of offshore and geotechnical engineering, manufacturing, operations and maintenance as well as the environmental and social aspects of offshore wind. It has a number of objectives (see Table 1) and activities (see Table 2)

22/10/25