2013 - University College Cork

THE IRISH MARITIME AND
ENERGY RESOURCE CLUSTER
MARINE RESEARCH INITIATIVES AT UCC
The Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster (IMERC) initiative comes about at the dawn of a
new era for maritime Ireland, stimulated by the growing realisation of the economic opportunities
around maritime and energy resources. This awakening is evidenced by a number of complementary,
strategic national initiatives. These include Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth, Smart Ocean and
the work of inter-governmental Marine Co-ordination Group, as well as Ireland’s submissions to
the EU Integrated Maritime Policy and associated Atlantic Strategy.
The IMERC core partners of University College Cork (UCC), Cork Institute of Technology (CIT)
and the Irish Naval Service (INS) are combining resources to respond to this maritime and energy
economic opportunity. The IMERC vision is to become a research and commercial cluster
of world standing, by realising Ireland’s potential in the global, maritime and energy markets of
tomorrow. IMERC will be an engine for new ideas through research and many of these ideas will
translate into sustainable innovative enterprises of the future.
Together, this tripartite alliance will deliver a new research campus in Ringaskiddy, Cork located
alongside the National Maritime College of Ireland and the INS headquarters in Haulbowline. It
will feature UCC’s new Beaufort Building, which will house the largest marine renewable energy
research group in the world (funded by the Higher Education Authority, the Department of Communications,
Energy and Natural Resources, Bord Gáis Éireann and the Glucksman Foundation).
The Beaufort Laboratory will be a new home for three well-established UCC research groups; the
Coastal & Marine Research Centre (CMRC), the Hydraulics & Maritime Research Centre (HMRC)
and the Sustainable Energy Research Group (SERG). These groups will work together in the new
€14 million custom-built Beaufort Laboratory, currently under development in Ringaskiddy and
due for completion in 2014. It will include the national ocean energy test-tank facility, which will
support device development from national and international industry and research groups.
The UCC Beaufort Laboratory, as integral part of the greater IMERC campus, will contribute to
the critical mass of expertise on site. The knowledge within the cluster provides a unique mix of
academic, defence, industrial and professional elements focused on transforming traditional institutional
approaches to problem solving.
This expertise will be brought to bear on job creation in IMERC’s four strategic pillars of Marine Energy;
Maritime Security and Safety; Shipping, Logistics and Transport; and Marine Recreation.
The IMERC campus will cater for industry partners through the provision of co-located industry
suites, incubation units, networking and brokering programmes, innovation partnerships and
joint ventures. An industry-centred approach will be used to develop an ecosystem of innovation
that will yield intellectual property, high potential start-up companies and jobs in Ireland’s Smart
Economy.
IMERC has already gained recognition at many levels through the signature of memoranda of
understanding with international institutions as well as becoming the first ever Maritime Project
to win An Taoiseach’s Public Service Excellence Award.