Innovation Calls

The Offshore Wind R&I Programme will sponsor innovative projects to help the supply chain bring new solutions to market, build operational capacity and scale up activities.

Our innovation calls have been designed to support companies to explore ways to overcome the technical challenges of offshore wind development, embedding economic benefits in the North of Scotland.

We aim to give you the tools you need to support the build out of offshore wind projects throughout Scotland, the UK and further afield.

We’re looking for innovation projects offering solutions to key challenges areas. The first call is looking for solutions that address at least one of the following challenges:

We’re looking for innovation projects offering solutions to key challenges areas.

The proposed project must provide a clear and justifiable benefit to the West of Orkney Windfarm, but may also have wider benefits across the offshore wind sector in the North of Scotland and beyond. We encourage proposals from companies and research institutions in the local community and further afield.

Project sponsorship should help leverage additional public and private investment into these projects, to maximise their potential impact on the West of Orkney Windfarm and wider industry.

Projects should be up to two years’ duration. It is not the intention of the R&I Programme to own any intellectual property (IP) from the ideas submitted or the projects supported.

For full overview of the application process and the R&I Programme, download our Scope and Guidance.

Scope and Guidance

Key impact criteria

• UK / Scottish benefit
• CAPEX / OPEX impact
• Impact on production / capacity factor
• Improvement to safety
• Risk to assets
• Technology readiness level (TRL)
• Improvements to supply chain preparedness
• Competition
• Market size

The West of Orkney Windfarm are funding the R&I Programme up to £1 million. A maximum of £300k is available from the R&I Programme for the first innovation call however additional funding may be made available to those with the potential to have the biggest impact on the wind farm.

Candidates must detail the budget required for project completion and source of external funds that have already been secured. Funding intensity will range from 10% to 100% and is at the discretion of the Programme Governance Group. Funding intensity towards each project will be based upon:

• maturity of the project
• quality of the application
• relevance to the West of Orkney Windfarm

See Scope and Guidance for full details.

Scope and Guidance

Each application will undergo preliminary screening. From experience, EMEC expects submissions to the programme to be at varying levels of maturity and credibility. If progressing to detailed project proposal stage of the R&I Programme, EMEC will offer support to develop your proposal and collate required evidence. This may be via a physical or online workshop.

Depending on the requirements and merits of the proposed innovation, EMEC may offer support to leverage grant funding and public support.

This may include in-house support to scope out an idea and/or develop a funding application or facilitating research into the potential of the idea and the associated costs and benefits.

EMEC operates consented areas of sea-space for demonstrating offshore technologies, tools and techniques, as well as onshore facilities for energy system demonstrations. Access to these facilities to demonstrate innovations may awarded where relevant.

Find out more about EMEC’s test and demonstration facilities.

If the innovation proves to be a game-changer in the offshore wind sector, there is a huge client base (including the West of Orkney Windfarm and other ScotWind and INTOG lease areas) who may be interested in your product and service.