A project to create a network of excellence that will dynamize a pool of specialized research professionals and trainees in support of emerging offshore wind industry in Portugal has secured funding under the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Programme.
The TWIND project is coordinated by the Portugal-based WavEC Offshore Renewables and gathers three other internationally recognized research entities: Spain’s Tecnalia Research & Innovation, the UK’s Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, and Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands.
The project was launched in July 2019 and it will have a duration of three years, with a total budget of EUR 796,000.
The project aims to raise the research profile of WavEC as an institution from a so-called Widening Country (Portugal), as well as the research profile of its staff, in the specific field of offshore wind energy, enhancing at the same time the scientific and technological capacity of all the institutions involved.
It aims to do so by coordinating efforts and enhancing excellence and innovation capacity through the exchange of knowledge with the above-mentioned counterparts at the EU level. The combined capabilities of the partners will set the grounds to exploit existing research results and invest in developing further knowledge.
The networking and knowledge exchange initiatives are expected to stimulate research activities and the development of highly qualified services that will significantly impact the economy and the society, thus benefitting not only WavEC and the partner organisations, but Portugal at large. These initiatives will further dynamize field activities in the Portuguese offshore test sites with impact at the regional level.