2013 - University College Cork

MARINE RENEWABLES INFRASTRUCTURE
NETWORK (MARINET)
Research Centre/Department/School:
Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre (HMRC)
Contact PI: Prof. Tony Lewis (t.lewis@ucc.ie)
Researchers: Prof. Tony Lewis, Dr. Ray Alcorn, Mark Healy, Brian Holmes.
Start Year: 2011 – End Year: 2015
Funding Body: European Community Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7), Grant Agreement No 262552
Funding: €9 million
Collaborating Partners: HMRC is the Coordinator of this
network initiative of 29 partners with 42 specialist test facilities
spread across 11 EU countries and 1 FP7-partner country (Brazil).
The two Irish partners are UCC-HMRC and the Sustainable
Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
Web: www.fp7-marinet.eu
Research Projects Listing
Marine renewable energy systems – wave energy and tidal stream converters as well as offshorewind
turbines – are mostly at the pre-commercial stage of development. These systems require
research and testing to be undertaken at a series of scales along the path to commercialisation.
MARINET is an infrastructure initiative comprising a network of research centres and organisations
that are working together to accelerate the development and commercial deployment of
these technologies. The initiative aims to streamline and facilitate testing by offering periods of
free-of-charge access to world-class test facilities and by developing joint approaches to testing
standards, research and industry networking & training.
Companies and research groups can avail of periods of free-of-charge access to cross-border facilities
to test devices or sub-systems at any scale or to access environmental data. In total, over 700
weeks of access is available to an estimated 300 projects and 800 external users, with at least four
calls for access applications over the 4-year initiative.
MARINET partners are working together in parallel to implement common testing standards in
order to streamline the development process, conduct coordinated research to improve testing
capabilities and facilitate industry networking & training in the form of user workshops, staff
exchange and free-of-charge training courses in order to provide opportunities for collaboration,
joint ventures and expertise development.
KEY PUBLICATIONS & OUTPUTS
A new marine renewable energy test infrastructure network to coordinate current and future research
direction, free-of-charge public access to test facilities, publications of test systems and
instrumentation best practices, research to improve test infrastructures and techniques, industry
networking & training events.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
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