As part of a EUR 40 million grant awarded by the EU to the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), around EUR 3 million has been committed for environmental research and monitoring.
A number of organisations, including Marine Scotland Science, will have an active role in steering the allocation of that funding, through EOWDC’s Scientific Research & Monitoring Panel, to those areas most in need of further research, based on their collective expertise and knowledge.
The Panel have defined the environmental topic areas of most interest and Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm Limited (AOWFL), the project company, are interested in hearing from applicants who have proposals for environmental research and development projects to be funded as part of the Scientific Research and Monitoring Programme.
The application process, which will be in two stages, is now open to Expressions of Interest (EoI’s) and all interested parties should complete the online EoI form. The closing date for EoIs is 2 September and successful parties will be notified and requested to provide a detailed proposal following the close.
Last month , Vattenfall decided to invest more than SEK 3 billion (approx. EUR 317 million) in the EOWDC, which will comprise 11 turbines with a total capacity of 92.4MW. Along with generating electricity, EOWDC will also be a centre for testing and developing new technologies for offshore wind power.