Professor Mel Austen explains how the University of Plymouth’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Management of Marine Resources aims to equip future researchers and practitioners with transdisciplinary skills crucial for tackling challenges in blue growth, the blue economy, and offshore renewable energy development.

The Celtic Sea provides a huge opportunity related to the deployment of offshore wind and renewable energy to meet UK Government targets of generating 4.5 GW of energy by 2035, and 12 GW by 2045.

The University is in a unique position in that we have a full ecosystem supporting all aspects of deployment of new and novel maritime technology. As a significant enabler for the roll-out of Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW), we:

- optimise the hydrodynamic design of Offshore Renewable Structures, for performance and survivability;

- lead on advanced, high-tech autonomous ocean data collection;

- enhance and safeguard operations with our state-of-the-art simulators and cyber resilience test-beds;

- fundamentally understand how operations will interact with the ocean environment through our leading marine science research.

Enabled by significant investment in state-of-the-art facilities and our leadership of the national Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy Hub, we are at the forefront of offshore renewable energy research and innovation.

https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/celtic-sea