OCEANERA-NET

OCEANERA-NET

Ocean Energy European Research Area Network

OCEANERA-NET is a European network of national and regional funders and managers of European R&I programs in the field of ocean energy. Ocean energy includes the production of renewable electricity from wave and tidal energy, salinity gradients and the conversion of ocean thermal energy.

OCEANERA-NET was a European project funded by the European Commission that began in December 2013 and lasted four years. This project was coordinated by Scottish Enterprise, the Regional Economic Development Agency for the Lowlands, Scotland. The OCEANERA-NET consortium included 15 partners from 8 European countries (Belgium, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Sweden) open to opportunities for collaboration with other European and non-European countries to respond to common challenges.

The aim of OCEANERA-NET was to coordinate funding programs between European countries and regions to support research and innovation in the ocean energy sector. OCEANERA-NET was one of several initiatives to help address the R&I challenges concerning the role that ocean energy can play in contributing to the future goals of renewable energy, economic growth and job creation. OCEANERA-NET worked alongside the Joint Ocean Energy Program of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), the Technology Platform and the Ocean Energy Forum to develop a common vision and a coordinated action plan.

The consortium agreed on a roadmap of tasks to achieve the implementation of joint activities, such as joint Calls for transnational collaborative R&I projects. OCEANERA-NET launched two joint Calls , in October 2014 and February 2016.