This call is to fund research proposals in Marine Wave Energy.
Approximately £4.5 million (80% FEC) is available to support 4-5 grant proposals, each up to £1 million.
Proposals should be for 36 months’ duration. Proposals should fall mainly under the EPSRC remit but may include integrated social and environmental aspects surrounding the use of Wave Energy Converters.
There is currently considerable experience in the Marine Wave Energy sector from the deployment of various Wave Energy Converter (WEC) prototypes, but there are still significant obstacles around technology and affordability.
The Wave Energy Roadmap commissioned through the Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy Hub concludes that targeted research and innovation will play an important role in the Wave Energy journey to commercialisation. As a result, EPSRC is looking to fund proposals, particularly in the key areas highlighted by the roadmap:
- novel designs for niche applications
- survivability and reliability of devices in the marine environment
- power take off and control systems
- modelling, forecasting and evaluation of wave energy resource
- new materials for Wave Energy Converters.
This call will take a portfolio approach to ensure a variety of the above areas are funded. Projects will be expected to network over the lifetime of the grants.
For more information on the Marine Wave research area, see our website.
Proposals relating to Tidal Energy are excluded from this call.
Please note the Intent to Submit form, available below the Resources box on this call page, must be completed on Smart Survey and submitted by 16:00 on 14 July 2020 by all those who wish to submit a Full Proposal to this call.
Call opens for Intent to Submit stage: 2 June 2020
Intent to Submit stage closes: 14 July 2020 at 16:00 hours
Full Proposal stage closes: 23 September 2020 at 16:00 hours
How to apply
Mandatory Intent to submit stage followed by Full Proposal.
Assessment process
Following the submission of an Intent to Submit, full proposals will undergo postal peer review followed by a prioritisation panel, resulting in a rank ordered list. To achieve a portfolio approach, EPSRC will put each group of proposals into separate lists at the panel, based on their area of research. Each list at the panel meeting will be rank ordered and the scoring will be tensioned across all proposals. Based on the rank ordered lists a funding decision will be made by EPSRC.
Full proposals can only be submitted by applicants that have submitted an Intent to Submit by the deadline. The Intent to Submit is not assessed. Proposals which do not have sufficiently supportive reviews from the postal peer review process to be competitive at panel will be rejected.