Final Report Summary - MERIKA (Marine Energy Research Innovation and Knowledge Accelerator)
Executive Summary:
The aim of MERIKA has been to enable the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), located in the North of Scotland, to realise its ambition to become a European marine renewable energy Research and Innovation Hub. To achieve this, MERIKA has delivered a combination of capacity improvements and capability enhancements, combined with a resource and research exchange programme with leading European research institutions, supported by a programme of marine renewable energy related networking, knowledge exchange and industry engagement activities. The component parts of this have been;
1. People and skills; the recruitment of new researchers, drawn from different disciplines, reflecting both the range of development challenges faced by the emerging marine energy sector, and the need for multi-disciplinary research groups to address complex development issues. Recruitment was supported by a coaching initiative to upskill existing and new staff on H2020 and related programmes, as well as training modules on project research skills, grant management and European networking.
2. Infrastructure and equipment; investment in improved physical capacity at key locations, so creating the conditions for research projects and technical operations, that are fundamental in establishing a marine renewable energy research and innovation hub.
3. Researcher exchanges; bi-lateral researcher exchanges with seven leading EU research institutions (mobility partners) that have variously; developed research skills, fostered research co-operation and knowledge exchange, raised awareness and disseminated the activities of marine renewable energy related work at UHI.
4. Networking and knowledge exchange; engagement with academic and industry groups, as well as government and other institutional stakeholders, involved in the policy development around marine renewable energy. Including participation at conferences, seminars and symposiums addressing marine renewable energy science and industry research questions, and joining/building research consortia with scientific and industrial partners.
5. Innovation; a series of innovation support initiatives to channel marine renewable energy science and industry relationships. In particular, an enhanced IP and commercialisation policy framework, incorporating an Energy Innovation Support Office (EISO), to realise potential industrial and academic research and innovation collaborations beyond MERIKA.
As a result, the university has a healthy pipeline of marine renewable energy research and collaboration activities, supported by solid governance models, strong international links, and state of the art infrastructure, representing the most extensive package of marine renewable energy initiatives engaged in by the UHI partnership.
The breadth of these initiatives has meant that the institution has been able to retain and integrate 79% of the MERIKA scientist cohort into post-MERIKA research positions, so ensuring that the marine renewable energy research strategy focus at UHI is sustained and enhanced.
Project Context and Objectives:
The FP7 “Research Potential” (REGPOT) Programme aims to unlock and develop existing or emerging research excellence in the EU’s Convergence and Outermost regions.
This makes the programme well suited to realising the research opportunities of The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), an institution located in the Highlands and Islands (H&I’s) of Scotland, a peripheral region too much of Europe, remote and rural, with challenges building and maintaining links in to the wider EU research community and other stakeholders.
The H&I’s is home to abundant natural energy resources, in particular marine renewable energy derived from the waves, tides and offshore wind of the coastal waters. There are however many research challenges and development questions that need to be addressed before marine renewable energy can be seen as a viable energy source.
UHI aspires to play an active role in meeting these challenges, however regional isolation and distance to the mainstream European research and innovation communities makes this difficult, which in turn impacts the research agenda at the university and wider sector development across the region.
The Marine Energy Research Innovation and Knowledge Accelerator (MERIKA) project was set up to help address these deficits, with investments and initiatives aimed at accelerating links with EU research institutions and wider stakeholders, to consolidate and improve UHI’s research profile and international position, by establishing a European marine renewable energy research and innovation hub.
The marine energy research focus of MERIKA aligns the strategic REGPOT aim to unlock regional potential, as well as the economic development priorities established for the H&I’s by the local regional development agency – Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). It is their stated ambition to support the development of a sustainable renewable energy industry across the H&I’s, and MERIKA contributes to the knowledge economy dynamic within this; where academia, government and industry work together, driving economic development through innovation. In turn, this also “reinforces” the position of UHI as a locally based university, rooted in the research opportunities of its natural environment and communities, but with a national and international research reach.
Finally, it also aligns with the EU’s Energy Union strategy. In particular, the priorities of the Research, Innovation and Competitiveness policy area, and how it is looking at accelerating the transformation of Europe’s energy system, as articulated in the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) approach.
The overall goal of the MERIKA project has been to turn UHI into a hub for marine renewable energy research; attracting research teams, establishing scientific collaborations, and building links with industry players that raise the research profile of the university. To achieve this a series of specific project objectives were set;
1. Increase the knowledge generation potential of UHI research in marine renewable energy by hiring a multi-disciplinary cohort of researchers, linking different research strands.
2. Establish and/or consolidate linkages and cooperation with EU and international research organisations, and step up UHI’s ability to contribute to the international research agenda on marine renewable energy.
3. Increase UHI’s capacity to manage relations and partnerships with the marine renewable energy industry and other sector stakeholders, building on the results of its research activities and developing them in a sustainable manner.
4. Align with UHI’s long-term research strategy and improve the overall positioning of UHI within the European and international scientific community.
5. Implement a comprehensive mobility plan (researcher exchange) promoting secondments of researchers from UHI to key European research organisations.
6. Undertake a programme for infrastructure (equipment) upgrade, improving the physical capacity at key UHI marine renewable energy research locations.
7. Deliver a programme to improve UHI’s capacity for international research partnerships, research project collaboration and management of research and innovation projects.
8. Deliver a networking programme to ensure regular participation, visibility and exposure to further research cooperation of UHI researchers at European and international marine renewable energy events (conferences, workshops, consultations etc).
Project Results:
MERIKA has delivered a wide range of project results tied to the objectives set out above. The project capacity improvements and capability enhancements, supported by a range of different networking initiatives, have seen the emergence of more multi-disciplinary research group(s) at UHI, realising in the following set of project results.
1. The knowledge generation potential of UHI has been increased with the recruitment of fourteen scientists and three support staff through the MERIKA project. They have come from a range of discipline backgrounds that include; Marine Biology and Ecology, Engineering (civil and mechanical), Coastal and Marine Resource Management, Mathematical Physics, Ecological Economics and Computer Science.
The research interests that have emerged from these discipline backgrounds reflects the different development challenges faced by the emerging marine renewable energy sector, and have provided UHI with breadth in its skills base to engage across a number of issues. They include; numerical modelling of coastal processes, marine spatial planning, wave climate and wave processes, the economics of marine and coastal resources, renewable energy and community engagement, ecological impacts of marine renewable energy devices and arrays, renewable energy policy and marine governance, the social and cultural impacts of renewable energy.
Recruiting scientists from a range of backgrounds into the H&I’s region “where the resource is” has been a significant achievement of the project. It has enhanced diversity across the university and enabled UHI to partake in innovative research and industry collaborations.
Eleven of these scientists and two support staff have remained with UHI beyond the end of the MERIKA to work on other initiatives relating to the marine renewable energy research themes of resource and risk, as well as environmental and socio-economic impacts pertaining to the deployment of marine renewable energy devices and arrays. This reflects an effective staff integration programme, with scientists deployed on research projects emerging from the MERIKA imprint that are consistent with the universities strategic research themes.
2. Links have been established with a number of EU and international research organisations, with UHI currently collaborating on ten funded projects/proposal submissions, as well as a series of EU foundation environmental research projects that draw on the wider skills and research interests of our science cohort. These projects/proposals are contained and tracked in a sustainability database and reflect interactions with a range of research organisations, addressing a number of H2020 Societal Challenges across different funding call topics that include; Cultural Co-operation, INTERREG VA, Low Carbon Energy, Atlantic Area, Coastal-Rural Interactions and Blue Growth.
MERIKA scientists have also contributed to the wider research agenda through a range of forums and assemblies that have included; the Ocean Energy Forum (OEF), Offshore Renewables Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP), World Ocean Council (WOC) and European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE).
3. MERIKA has participated in sixteen targeted marine renewable energy events that have positioned UHI within the sector and promoted its research capability. Examples include; Scottish Renewables Marine Energy series, Ocean Energy Europe (OEE), International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE) and the European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC).
At the same time, MERIKA led a series of innovation support initiatives at UHI to channel marine renewable energy science and industry relationships. The development at UHI of a business engagement strategy, and enhancements to the IP and Commercialisation policy, have been important building blocks in this regard. They have helped to frame industry relations and foster partnerships, resulting in UHI scientists being more engaged in the challenges of an emerging industry, which in turn has led to a series of collaborative initiatives and innovation agreements (two) with industry.
The creation of an Energy Innovation Support Office (EISO) to co-ordinate industry engagement and collaboration across UHI is a key output of this work, and an important component of the innovation model. It provides, for the first time, a focal point for the management and delivery of research opportunities, with dedicated resources employed to pursue; Collaborative business R&D, Commercial Research and Knowledge Exchange opportunities. This means leading the commercialisation process, identifying and pursuing funding options e.g. research grants, investors, and communicating/training the policies and guidelines associated with the innovation model.
4. UHI’s long-term research strategy is grounded in the natural, cultural, social and economic assets of the H&I’s region. MERIKA’s focus on marine renewable energy is contributing to this research strategy primarily through the Marine and Environmental Science and Engineering research theme – one of four core research themes at UHI. The project does also extend into another of the research themes (Society, Identity, Landscape and Knowledge) by incorporating social science topics to addressing the development challenges of marine renewable energy e.g. ecosystem services, resilient communities, policy and governance.
This feeds back into the long-term research strategy by linking natural and social sciences at UHI to provide a holistic perspective to sector development challenges that will directly affect the H&I’s region.
This alignment with the UHI research strategy ensures that MERIKA derived research science will contribute to the UK Research Excellence Framework – the primary mechanism used to assess (and rank) the impact of research at UK higher education institutions. This is important in terms of post-MERIKA sustainability as the Research Excellence Framework is a benchmark indicator of research activity that can drive future investment and establish/build reputations.
The MERIKA coaching and networking activities have “upskilled” the UHI research community and support staff to engage effectively with EC Innovation and Research development processes, as well as influencers and decision-makers in EU research programmes. A package of training modules were delivered focusing specifically on gaps in H2020 knowledge at UHI, and identifying and consolidating European Research Area networking opportunities. This was supported by a networking events schedule aimed at improving the overall position of UHI within the European and International science community.
Two MERIKA supported initiatives that illustrate the effectiveness of these coaching and networking outcomes are;
- the EU INTERREG VA “Bryden Centre for Advanced Marine and Bio-energy Research”; a €9.3m 5yr cross-border PhD research programme, funding 34 PhD students and post-doctoral roles to address industry informed renewable energy research challenges
- the UHI Marine Renewable Energy Research Day held at the EU Parliament, Brussels; a major UHI dissemination event, derived from networking activities, that attracted 259 delegate registrations, of which 22% were from the international scientific community
5. MERIKA has delivered a comprehensive mobility programme (bi-lateral researcher exchanges) with seven leading European research institutes. Known as the “mobility partners” they are; Technical University Hamburg (Germany), National University Galway (Ireland), Wave Energy Centre (Portugal), Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway), Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (Germany), University of Nordland (Norway).
Over the course of the mobility programme, 56 researcher exchange visits were undertaken between UHI and the mobility partners, with mobility partners visiting UHI marine renewable energy research locations and vice versa. This equated to a total of 599 visitor days. The primary focus for these visits has been to foster research co-operation and knowledge exchange through activities such as research work and associated data exchanges, joint networking events and presentations (including papers) sharing research interests and insights, workshops/symposia to explore collaborative research opportunities based on mutual research interests.
The mobility visits have also been an opportunity to develop researcher skills and techniques, train and learn on how to use equipment (particularly new MERIKA derived kit), promote professional networks and support career development, raise awareness and disseminate marine renewable energy related work across the UHI partnership.
The links and relationships that have developed with mobility partners out of the mobility programme have led to a number of collaborative research funding proposal submissions to the H2020 and INTERREG programmes e.g. H2020 Blue Growth and Cultural Co-operation calls and the Atlantic Area calls. There has also been collaboration with mobility partners on industry projects and government consultations, as well as some collaborative research and conference papers.
6. An infrastructure (equipment) upgrade has been completed through the MERIKA project to improve the physical capacity at the three strategic UHI marine renewable energy locations. It has ensured that UHI are able to carry out research work and technical operations, fundamental to UHI’s wider development plans of establishing a marine energy research and innovation hub. Without the infrastructure upgrade, it would have been difficult for UHI to deliver on its broader capacity building activities, and realise any of the research collaborations that flow from that.
A technical audit was completed early in the project lifecycle (2014) to confirm the existing equipment portfolio and identify new equipment requirements. The new requirements were established by recognising equipment gaps at the three UHI locations, understanding the marine renewable energy research plans of each location, and considering the opportunities afforded by advances in technology. They were also aligned with UHI’s research themes, MERIKA staff skills and research interests, and the perceived emerging needs of the marine renewable energy sector.
Equipment upgrade highlights include; detection systems (radar and sonar), sensor and measurement systems (underwater noise, wind and wave characterisation), tracking systems (fish and seabirds), oceanographic control systems, survey equipment (unmanned aerial vehicle), laboratory equipment and enhanced computing capability.
The equipment has been, and is being, used in a range of applications and settings. They include; tidal energy resource assessment and the effects of tidal turbines on water flow, the impact of marine renewable energy devices on ecology (seabirds, marine mammals and migrating salmon) and biofouling risk for marine renewables. The equipment has also realised the establishment of a unique Wave Radar Station on the Isle of Lewis to capture and measure North Atlantic wave data.
The upgraded infrastructure has enhanced the position of UHI as a collaborative research partner on funding proposals, with UHI equipment capability included in marine renewable energy related submissions to various H2020 Blue Growth and Low Carbon calls.
Total spend on new equipment over the lifetime of the project has been around €828k.
7. A programme to improve UHI’s capacity for international research partnerships, research project collaborations and the management of research and innovation projects has been completed. The additional science resources brought in through MERIKA allowed UHI to look strategically at how we connect with the marine renewable energy research community; matching skills and capabilities to emerging sector development issues, identifying groups, collaborators and forums involved in addressing such issues, then getting our scientists directly involved with them.
Five different categories of international research partnerships and project collaborators have been identified; Conferences and Congresses, Research Working Groups, Consultative Bodies, Research Clusters, Competitive Programmes.
Through MERIKA, UHI has participated in a series of conferences and congresses. They included hosting the Environmental Interactions of Marine Renewable Energy Technologies (EIMR) conference series, papers and posters at the International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE), papers at the European Wave and Tidal Conference (EWTEC), and holding a symposium on the environmental interactions of marine renewables at the International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC).
UHI has contributed subject matter expertise and knowledge to a whole series of research working groups looking at marine renewable energy related issues. They include; the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS), IEA Ocean Energy Systems (OES), World Ocean Council (WOC), European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) and Wave Energy Scotland (WES).
UHI has lobbied to joined consultative bodies active in marine renewable energy. The university is a member of Ocean Energy Europe (OEE), contributing to the Ocean Energy Forum (TP Ocean) strategic roadmap, and is a member of Offshore Renewable Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP) network, collaborating with the secretariat on a number of programme initiatives. Other targeted bodies operate on a subscription model basis that proved to be prohibitive for UHI e.g. the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA). In such cases, contacts and links have been made on a bi-lateral basis with individual members.
Research clusters that UHI are involved in include the Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) and INTERREG VA Bryden Centre PhD programme. Competitive programmes, through which UHI has been engaged, include SUPERGEN (the Marine Energy Research Consortium), the Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (CENSIS), and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (ORE).
Research and innovation projects have been co-ordinated and managed primarily by the Project Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Manager (PKEIM), with MERIKA scientists leading research project input based on their own specialisms. Whilst this has operated effectively within the context of the project, there was a wider strategic imperative within UHI to deliver a more structured approach to project collaboration. To this end, MERIKA undertook a stakeholder consultation that led to an action plan for establishing industry links, the central recommendation of which was the need to create an Innovation and Industry Engagement Office at UHI.
The creation of an Energy Innovation Support Office (EISO) at UHI to manage energy research and innovation projects is a key output of this, and an important component of the UHI innovation model. It provides, for the first time, a focal point for the management of collaborative business R&D, commercial research, research projects and knowledge exchange opportunities.
8. Building networks and fostering research links across the European and international marine renewable energy sector has been a key project activity of MERIKA. The project has delivered a comprehensive networking programme of events, conferences, workshops, symposiums, initiatives etc. to ensure that MERIKA staff deepen links, foster relationships and liaise with potential collaborators and international research partners.
The networking programme delivered by MERIKA was structured around a series of five themes. Each of these themes, though related, contained distinct elements and characteristics that helped define it in terms of the networking objective and outcome. The themes were;
- Knowledge exchange; networking activities that brought together groups and communities to exchange ideas, evidence and expertise – where knowledge exchange represented a flow of information that facilitated mutual learning.
- Developing skills; networking activities that developed or enhanced professional skills and knowledge - through attendance/participation in workshop sessions, or through observation and instruction derived from conference presentations, posters etc.
- Fostering co-operation; Networking activities that promoted or enacted co-operation. Activities of this nature included briefings, meetings, workshops, presentations and exploring prospects for collaborative projects e.g. funding and research opportunities, as well as advisory reports, opinions and recommendations for technology development.
- Promoting networks; Networking activities focused on network groups – communities/alliances established around common interest(s) that use their links, knowledge and solidarity to promote a programme or set of priorities. They were typically, though not exclusively, formed around a technology, science or project theme, policy agenda, industry cluster, community/social/geography group, or funding network.
- Raising awareness and dissemination; Networking activities that focused on raising awareness of MERIKA and marine renewable energy related activities at UHI. This also included raising awareness of wider marine renewable energy initiatives that could benefit the institution, its partners and the Highlands and Islands region. Typically, this involved communicating through presentations, distributing/displaying literature, exhibitions, and conferences, hosting workshops and chairing discussion sessions.
A total of 62 networking events were undertaken through the MERIKA project.
They were spread across the range of networking themes, with the most effort applied to events promoting networks. This reflects a particular focus placed on engaging with network groups (communities/alliances established around common interest(s)), that use their links, knowledge and solidarity to promote a programme or set of priorities. It also reflected the targeting of networks tied to the emerging marine renewable energy sector, and the range of different science disciplines can contribute to addressing sector development challenges.
As a result, UHI scientists are now much more directly engaged in addressing the challenges of an emerging industry sector; contributing information, expertise, knowledge and opinions, as well as influencing solutions and pathways on the marine renewable energy development roadmap. This is evidenced through UHI contributions that help inform policy and the EC research agenda, as well as UHI involvement in a series of marine renewable energy related research funding collaborations.
Potential Impact:
Eleven scientists and two support staff have remained with UHI beyond MERIKA. The impact of this investment and retention of “high skill” science resources has been to;
- Provide a springboard for ongoing research funding to consolidate the marine renewable energy hub; MERIKA scientists have/are engaged in project funding initiatives to a value in excess of €43million, and there is a healthy pipeline of new research proposals and collaboration ideas in preparation. A particular success to highlight is the INTERREG VA award of €9.8m for The Bryden Centre PhD programme in Renewable Energy - expected to be “live” from September 2017
- Broaden UHI’s marine renewable energy Industry links and the potential for commercial income; MERIKA scientists have contributed to a series of influential industry forums that have helped inform commercial decision-making. They include; “Ocean Energy Strategic Roadmap” led by Ocean Energy Europe (OEE), and the “look forward; an Ocean Energy Environmental Research Strategy for the UK”, developed by the UK Offshore Renewables Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP). The investment in science resources, combined with a project Work Package focus on business and industrial relations, has led to a number of (new) commercial engagements with project developers for the provision of consultancy services to address specific challenges.
- Consolidate marine renewable energy as a research strength at UHI that can contribute to the next Research Excellence Framework (REF); REF is a key measure of research quality and impact, and informs the long-term research strategy of UHI. In time, these research strengths can be embedded in the university’s curriculum, deepening the research and innovation hub offering of UHI.
- Boost local employment and the economy; All the science resources are located at remote UHI locations across the H&I’s. These are fragile, often isolated communities, and the locating of high skill UHI employees represents both a contribution to the local economy, and an investment in the local infrastructure.
UHI is currently enacting an extensive and wide-ranging PhD studentship programme, funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and Scottish Funding Council (SFC), as part of Developing Scotland’s Workforce in Scotland 2014-2020, European Structural and Investment Fund Programme (ESIF). The retention of a core marine renewable energy science cohort at UHI will impact this investment initiative by ensuring that science disciplines linked with marine renewable energy will be a beneficiary of this programme.
The impact of the equipment upgrade has been to attract scientists to join the UHI marine renewable energy research community. A number of the scientists recruited to UHI through the MERIKA project commented that the opportunity to work using technology leading equipment was a key consideration to them joining. This impact is expected to continue with future scientist recruitments to new programmes and initiatives.
In addition, the opportunity to work with an institution that has technology that can contribute to research outcomes is an incentive to external research institutions and consortia to pursue potential collaborations with UHI. Already there have been equipment sets included in research proposal submissions e.g. in resource and risk assessment analysis for wave and tidal energy projects.
The MERIKA capacity has enabled UHI to establish important new research competencies and physical infrastructure. In particular, the project has realised the creation of the Centre for Society and the Sea (science.sams.ac.uk/lmc) a unit specialising in the emerging social-ecological field of inquiry. The impact of this has been to expand the UHI research portfolio into new progressive fields of analysis emerging around global environmental challenges. It also links social sciences to the broad range of marine natural sciences, enabling UHI to present multi-disciplinary research groups to address complex development issues.
An enhanced Innovation model at UHI, supported by an improved commercialisation policy framework, and incorporating a new Energy Innovation Support Office (EISO) function, will have the potential impact of delivering more industry collaboration across UHI. By providing a focal point for the management of collaborative business R&D, commercial research and knowledge exchange opportunities, UHI is creating the means to both grow its funded research pipeline and deliver new (alternative) industry derived revenue streams.
MERIKA dissemination activities have greatly contributed to raising the research and innovation profile of UHI in the field of marine renewable energy. The MERIKA website analytics, extent and range of event participation, as well as media coverage, have affirmed the university’s new research capacity, and the opportunity to sustain a research and innovation hub that flows from this.
The dissemination activities undertaken to achieve this have included;
- Marketing material; a range of project promotional tools were printed. They included a range of branded leaflets, brochures etc. to advertise the aims and deliverables of MERIKA. In addition there was a MERIKA video and presentation templates to project consistent messages
- Website and social media; the MERIKA project website (www.merikafp7.eu) has been an essential tool for dissemination. It has signposted project/staff information, news and events information, publications from MERIKA scientists and hosted project marketing material. Twitter has also proven to be an effective dissemination tool, and within the project life cycle we have used it extensively. Through to March 2017 the @merikafp7 twitter account had counted 1,248 tweets, with 629 followers. This dissemination channel has been enhanced further by the individual twitter accounts of MERIKA scientists, and vice-versa.
- Dissemination events; the MERIKA project has directly organised five dissemination events (three breakfast event series at the annual Scottish Renewables Marine Conference, EIMR 2016 and the UHI Marine Renewable Energy Research Day in Brussels). MERIKA staff have also delivered oral presentations or posters, or chaired and facilitated sessions at 73 national and international events. Details on these dissemination events can be accessed through Template A1 linked to this Final Project Report.
- Articles; the MERIKA project has featured in a number of articles published in specialised and popular online and printed press.
- Research publications; MERIKA scientists have published a range of scientific papers across publications that include; Energy Research and Social Science, Ecosystem Services, Ocean Engineering, Energies and Renewable Energy. Details on these research publications can be accessed through Template A1 linked to this Final Project Report.
UHI is in a position to exploit the results of these potential impacts by realising industrial and academic research and innovation collaborations that will maintain the research and innovation hub. This is enabled by enhanced governance models, supported by strong international links, state of the art infrastructure, and a retained MERIKA science cohort that will ensure marine renewable energy continues to be a strategic research theme at UHI.
The overall impact of MERIKA has been to raise the profile of UHI across the mainstream European Research Area, and position the university as a credible institution within the marine renewable energy community; an institution actively engaged in addressing key research and innovation questions, participating in the flow of knowledge and information across different academic and industry players, consulting with government(s) and other institutional stakeholders.
List of Websites:
www.merikafp7.eu
Project Contacts;
- Damian Collins, Project Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Manager (PKEIM), damian.collins@uhi.ac.uk
- Morgane Artacho, Project Administration Officer, morgane.artacho@uhi.ac.uk
The aim of MERIKA has been to enable the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), located in the North of Scotland, to realise its ambition to become a European marine renewable energy Research and Innovation Hub. To achieve this, MERIKA has delivered a combination of capacity improvements and capability enhancements, combined with a resource and research exchange programme with leading European research institutions, supported by a programme of marine renewable energy related networking, knowledge exchange and industry engagement activities. The component parts of this have been;
1. People and skills; the recruitment of new researchers, drawn from different disciplines, reflecting both the range of development challenges faced by the emerging marine energy sector, and the need for multi-disciplinary research groups to address complex development issues. Recruitment was supported by a coaching initiative to upskill existing and new staff on H2020 and related programmes, as well as training modules on project research skills, grant management and European networking.
2. Infrastructure and equipment; investment in improved physical capacity at key locations, so creating the conditions for research projects and technical operations, that are fundamental in establishing a marine renewable energy research and innovation hub.
3. Researcher exchanges; bi-lateral researcher exchanges with seven leading EU research institutions (mobility partners) that have variously; developed research skills, fostered research co-operation and knowledge exchange, raised awareness and disseminated the activities of marine renewable energy related work at UHI.
4. Networking and knowledge exchange; engagement with academic and industry groups, as well as government and other institutional stakeholders, involved in the policy development around marine renewable energy. Including participation at conferences, seminars and symposiums addressing marine renewable energy science and industry research questions, and joining/building research consortia with scientific and industrial partners.
5. Innovation; a series of innovation support initiatives to channel marine renewable energy science and industry relationships. In particular, an enhanced IP and commercialisation policy framework, incorporating an Energy Innovation Support Office (EISO), to realise potential industrial and academic research and innovation collaborations beyond MERIKA.
As a result, the university has a healthy pipeline of marine renewable energy research and collaboration activities, supported by solid governance models, strong international links, and state of the art infrastructure, representing the most extensive package of marine renewable energy initiatives engaged in by the UHI partnership.
The breadth of these initiatives has meant that the institution has been able to retain and integrate 79% of the MERIKA scientist cohort into post-MERIKA research positions, so ensuring that the marine renewable energy research strategy focus at UHI is sustained and enhanced.
Project Context and Objectives:
The FP7 “Research Potential” (REGPOT) Programme aims to unlock and develop existing or emerging research excellence in the EU’s Convergence and Outermost regions.
This makes the programme well suited to realising the research opportunities of The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), an institution located in the Highlands and Islands (H&I’s) of Scotland, a peripheral region too much of Europe, remote and rural, with challenges building and maintaining links in to the wider EU research community and other stakeholders.
The H&I’s is home to abundant natural energy resources, in particular marine renewable energy derived from the waves, tides and offshore wind of the coastal waters. There are however many research challenges and development questions that need to be addressed before marine renewable energy can be seen as a viable energy source.
UHI aspires to play an active role in meeting these challenges, however regional isolation and distance to the mainstream European research and innovation communities makes this difficult, which in turn impacts the research agenda at the university and wider sector development across the region.
The Marine Energy Research Innovation and Knowledge Accelerator (MERIKA) project was set up to help address these deficits, with investments and initiatives aimed at accelerating links with EU research institutions and wider stakeholders, to consolidate and improve UHI’s research profile and international position, by establishing a European marine renewable energy research and innovation hub.
The marine energy research focus of MERIKA aligns the strategic REGPOT aim to unlock regional potential, as well as the economic development priorities established for the H&I’s by the local regional development agency – Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). It is their stated ambition to support the development of a sustainable renewable energy industry across the H&I’s, and MERIKA contributes to the knowledge economy dynamic within this; where academia, government and industry work together, driving economic development through innovation. In turn, this also “reinforces” the position of UHI as a locally based university, rooted in the research opportunities of its natural environment and communities, but with a national and international research reach.
Finally, it also aligns with the EU’s Energy Union strategy. In particular, the priorities of the Research, Innovation and Competitiveness policy area, and how it is looking at accelerating the transformation of Europe’s energy system, as articulated in the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) approach.
The overall goal of the MERIKA project has been to turn UHI into a hub for marine renewable energy research; attracting research teams, establishing scientific collaborations, and building links with industry players that raise the research profile of the university. To achieve this a series of specific project objectives were set;
1. Increase the knowledge generation potential of UHI research in marine renewable energy by hiring a multi-disciplinary cohort of researchers, linking different research strands.
2. Establish and/or consolidate linkages and cooperation with EU and international research organisations, and step up UHI’s ability to contribute to the international research agenda on marine renewable energy.
3. Increase UHI’s capacity to manage relations and partnerships with the marine renewable energy industry and other sector stakeholders, building on the results of its research activities and developing them in a sustainable manner.
4. Align with UHI’s long-term research strategy and improve the overall positioning of UHI within the European and international scientific community.
5. Implement a comprehensive mobility plan (researcher exchange) promoting secondments of researchers from UHI to key European research organisations.
6. Undertake a programme for infrastructure (equipment) upgrade, improving the physical capacity at key UHI marine renewable energy research locations.
7. Deliver a programme to improve UHI’s capacity for international research partnerships, research project collaboration and management of research and innovation projects.
8. Deliver a networking programme to ensure regular participation, visibility and exposure to further research cooperation of UHI researchers at European and international marine renewable energy events (conferences, workshops, consultations etc).
Project Results:
MERIKA has delivered a wide range of project results tied to the objectives set out above. The project capacity improvements and capability enhancements, supported by a range of different networking initiatives, have seen the emergence of more multi-disciplinary research group(s) at UHI, realising in the following set of project results.
1. The knowledge generation potential of UHI has been increased with the recruitment of fourteen scientists and three support staff through the MERIKA project. They have come from a range of discipline backgrounds that include; Marine Biology and Ecology, Engineering (civil and mechanical), Coastal and Marine Resource Management, Mathematical Physics, Ecological Economics and Computer Science.
The research interests that have emerged from these discipline backgrounds reflects the different development challenges faced by the emerging marine renewable energy sector, and have provided UHI with breadth in its skills base to engage across a number of issues. They include; numerical modelling of coastal processes, marine spatial planning, wave climate and wave processes, the economics of marine and coastal resources, renewable energy and community engagement, ecological impacts of marine renewable energy devices and arrays, renewable energy policy and marine governance, the social and cultural impacts of renewable energy.
Recruiting scientists from a range of backgrounds into the H&I’s region “where the resource is” has been a significant achievement of the project. It has enhanced diversity across the university and enabled UHI to partake in innovative research and industry collaborations.
Eleven of these scientists and two support staff have remained with UHI beyond the end of the MERIKA to work on other initiatives relating to the marine renewable energy research themes of resource and risk, as well as environmental and socio-economic impacts pertaining to the deployment of marine renewable energy devices and arrays. This reflects an effective staff integration programme, with scientists deployed on research projects emerging from the MERIKA imprint that are consistent with the universities strategic research themes.
2. Links have been established with a number of EU and international research organisations, with UHI currently collaborating on ten funded projects/proposal submissions, as well as a series of EU foundation environmental research projects that draw on the wider skills and research interests of our science cohort. These projects/proposals are contained and tracked in a sustainability database and reflect interactions with a range of research organisations, addressing a number of H2020 Societal Challenges across different funding call topics that include; Cultural Co-operation, INTERREG VA, Low Carbon Energy, Atlantic Area, Coastal-Rural Interactions and Blue Growth.
MERIKA scientists have also contributed to the wider research agenda through a range of forums and assemblies that have included; the Ocean Energy Forum (OEF), Offshore Renewables Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP), World Ocean Council (WOC) and European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE).
3. MERIKA has participated in sixteen targeted marine renewable energy events that have positioned UHI within the sector and promoted its research capability. Examples include; Scottish Renewables Marine Energy series, Ocean Energy Europe (OEE), International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE) and the European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC).
At the same time, MERIKA led a series of innovation support initiatives at UHI to channel marine renewable energy science and industry relationships. The development at UHI of a business engagement strategy, and enhancements to the IP and Commercialisation policy, have been important building blocks in this regard. They have helped to frame industry relations and foster partnerships, resulting in UHI scientists being more engaged in the challenges of an emerging industry, which in turn has led to a series of collaborative initiatives and innovation agreements (two) with industry.
The creation of an Energy Innovation Support Office (EISO) to co-ordinate industry engagement and collaboration across UHI is a key output of this work, and an important component of the innovation model. It provides, for the first time, a focal point for the management and delivery of research opportunities, with dedicated resources employed to pursue; Collaborative business R&D, Commercial Research and Knowledge Exchange opportunities. This means leading the commercialisation process, identifying and pursuing funding options e.g. research grants, investors, and communicating/training the policies and guidelines associated with the innovation model.
4. UHI’s long-term research strategy is grounded in the natural, cultural, social and economic assets of the H&I’s region. MERIKA’s focus on marine renewable energy is contributing to this research strategy primarily through the Marine and Environmental Science and Engineering research theme – one of four core research themes at UHI. The project does also extend into another of the research themes (Society, Identity, Landscape and Knowledge) by incorporating social science topics to addressing the development challenges of marine renewable energy e.g. ecosystem services, resilient communities, policy and governance.
This feeds back into the long-term research strategy by linking natural and social sciences at UHI to provide a holistic perspective to sector development challenges that will directly affect the H&I’s region.
This alignment with the UHI research strategy ensures that MERIKA derived research science will contribute to the UK Research Excellence Framework – the primary mechanism used to assess (and rank) the impact of research at UK higher education institutions. This is important in terms of post-MERIKA sustainability as the Research Excellence Framework is a benchmark indicator of research activity that can drive future investment and establish/build reputations.
The MERIKA coaching and networking activities have “upskilled” the UHI research community and support staff to engage effectively with EC Innovation and Research development processes, as well as influencers and decision-makers in EU research programmes. A package of training modules were delivered focusing specifically on gaps in H2020 knowledge at UHI, and identifying and consolidating European Research Area networking opportunities. This was supported by a networking events schedule aimed at improving the overall position of UHI within the European and International science community.
Two MERIKA supported initiatives that illustrate the effectiveness of these coaching and networking outcomes are;
- the EU INTERREG VA “Bryden Centre for Advanced Marine and Bio-energy Research”; a €9.3m 5yr cross-border PhD research programme, funding 34 PhD students and post-doctoral roles to address industry informed renewable energy research challenges
- the UHI Marine Renewable Energy Research Day held at the EU Parliament, Brussels; a major UHI dissemination event, derived from networking activities, that attracted 259 delegate registrations, of which 22% were from the international scientific community
5. MERIKA has delivered a comprehensive mobility programme (bi-lateral researcher exchanges) with seven leading European research institutes. Known as the “mobility partners” they are; Technical University Hamburg (Germany), National University Galway (Ireland), Wave Energy Centre (Portugal), Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway), Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (Germany), University of Nordland (Norway).
Over the course of the mobility programme, 56 researcher exchange visits were undertaken between UHI and the mobility partners, with mobility partners visiting UHI marine renewable energy research locations and vice versa. This equated to a total of 599 visitor days. The primary focus for these visits has been to foster research co-operation and knowledge exchange through activities such as research work and associated data exchanges, joint networking events and presentations (including papers) sharing research interests and insights, workshops/symposia to explore collaborative research opportunities based on mutual research interests.
The mobility visits have also been an opportunity to develop researcher skills and techniques, train and learn on how to use equipment (particularly new MERIKA derived kit), promote professional networks and support career development, raise awareness and disseminate marine renewable energy related work across the UHI partnership.
The links and relationships that have developed with mobility partners out of the mobility programme have led to a number of collaborative research funding proposal submissions to the H2020 and INTERREG programmes e.g. H2020 Blue Growth and Cultural Co-operation calls and the Atlantic Area calls. There has also been collaboration with mobility partners on industry projects and government consultations, as well as some collaborative research and conference papers.
6. An infrastructure (equipment) upgrade has been completed through the MERIKA project to improve the physical capacity at the three strategic UHI marine renewable energy locations. It has ensured that UHI are able to carry out research work and technical operations, fundamental to UHI’s wider development plans of establishing a marine energy research and innovation hub. Without the infrastructure upgrade, it would have been difficult for UHI to deliver on its broader capacity building activities, and realise any of the research collaborations that flow from that.
A technical audit was completed early in the project lifecycle (2014) to confirm the existing equipment portfolio and identify new equipment requirements. The new requirements were established by recognising equipment gaps at the three UHI locations, understanding the marine renewable energy research plans of each location, and considering the opportunities afforded by advances in technology. They were also aligned with UHI’s research themes, MERIKA staff skills and research interests, and the perceived emerging needs of the marine renewable energy sector.
Equipment upgrade highlights include; detection systems (radar and sonar), sensor and measurement systems (underwater noise, wind and wave characterisation), tracking systems (fish and seabirds), oceanographic control systems, survey equipment (unmanned aerial vehicle), laboratory equipment and enhanced computing capability.
The equipment has been, and is being, used in a range of applications and settings. They include; tidal energy resource assessment and the effects of tidal turbines on water flow, the impact of marine renewable energy devices on ecology (seabirds, marine mammals and migrating salmon) and biofouling risk for marine renewables. The equipment has also realised the establishment of a unique Wave Radar Station on the Isle of Lewis to capture and measure North Atlantic wave data.
The upgraded infrastructure has enhanced the position of UHI as a collaborative research partner on funding proposals, with UHI equipment capability included in marine renewable energy related submissions to various H2020 Blue Growth and Low Carbon calls.
Total spend on new equipment over the lifetime of the project has been around €828k.
7. A programme to improve UHI’s capacity for international research partnerships, research project collaborations and the management of research and innovation projects has been completed. The additional science resources brought in through MERIKA allowed UHI to look strategically at how we connect with the marine renewable energy research community; matching skills and capabilities to emerging sector development issues, identifying groups, collaborators and forums involved in addressing such issues, then getting our scientists directly involved with them.
Five different categories of international research partnerships and project collaborators have been identified; Conferences and Congresses, Research Working Groups, Consultative Bodies, Research Clusters, Competitive Programmes.
Through MERIKA, UHI has participated in a series of conferences and congresses. They included hosting the Environmental Interactions of Marine Renewable Energy Technologies (EIMR) conference series, papers and posters at the International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE), papers at the European Wave and Tidal Conference (EWTEC), and holding a symposium on the environmental interactions of marine renewables at the International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC).
UHI has contributed subject matter expertise and knowledge to a whole series of research working groups looking at marine renewable energy related issues. They include; the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS), IEA Ocean Energy Systems (OES), World Ocean Council (WOC), European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) and Wave Energy Scotland (WES).
UHI has lobbied to joined consultative bodies active in marine renewable energy. The university is a member of Ocean Energy Europe (OEE), contributing to the Ocean Energy Forum (TP Ocean) strategic roadmap, and is a member of Offshore Renewable Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP) network, collaborating with the secretariat on a number of programme initiatives. Other targeted bodies operate on a subscription model basis that proved to be prohibitive for UHI e.g. the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA). In such cases, contacts and links have been made on a bi-lateral basis with individual members.
Research clusters that UHI are involved in include the Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) and INTERREG VA Bryden Centre PhD programme. Competitive programmes, through which UHI has been engaged, include SUPERGEN (the Marine Energy Research Consortium), the Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (CENSIS), and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (ORE).
Research and innovation projects have been co-ordinated and managed primarily by the Project Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Manager (PKEIM), with MERIKA scientists leading research project input based on their own specialisms. Whilst this has operated effectively within the context of the project, there was a wider strategic imperative within UHI to deliver a more structured approach to project collaboration. To this end, MERIKA undertook a stakeholder consultation that led to an action plan for establishing industry links, the central recommendation of which was the need to create an Innovation and Industry Engagement Office at UHI.
The creation of an Energy Innovation Support Office (EISO) at UHI to manage energy research and innovation projects is a key output of this, and an important component of the UHI innovation model. It provides, for the first time, a focal point for the management of collaborative business R&D, commercial research, research projects and knowledge exchange opportunities.
8. Building networks and fostering research links across the European and international marine renewable energy sector has been a key project activity of MERIKA. The project has delivered a comprehensive networking programme of events, conferences, workshops, symposiums, initiatives etc. to ensure that MERIKA staff deepen links, foster relationships and liaise with potential collaborators and international research partners.
The networking programme delivered by MERIKA was structured around a series of five themes. Each of these themes, though related, contained distinct elements and characteristics that helped define it in terms of the networking objective and outcome. The themes were;
- Knowledge exchange; networking activities that brought together groups and communities to exchange ideas, evidence and expertise – where knowledge exchange represented a flow of information that facilitated mutual learning.
- Developing skills; networking activities that developed or enhanced professional skills and knowledge - through attendance/participation in workshop sessions, or through observation and instruction derived from conference presentations, posters etc.
- Fostering co-operation; Networking activities that promoted or enacted co-operation. Activities of this nature included briefings, meetings, workshops, presentations and exploring prospects for collaborative projects e.g. funding and research opportunities, as well as advisory reports, opinions and recommendations for technology development.
- Promoting networks; Networking activities focused on network groups – communities/alliances established around common interest(s) that use their links, knowledge and solidarity to promote a programme or set of priorities. They were typically, though not exclusively, formed around a technology, science or project theme, policy agenda, industry cluster, community/social/geography group, or funding network.
- Raising awareness and dissemination; Networking activities that focused on raising awareness of MERIKA and marine renewable energy related activities at UHI. This also included raising awareness of wider marine renewable energy initiatives that could benefit the institution, its partners and the Highlands and Islands region. Typically, this involved communicating through presentations, distributing/displaying literature, exhibitions, and conferences, hosting workshops and chairing discussion sessions.
A total of 62 networking events were undertaken through the MERIKA project.
They were spread across the range of networking themes, with the most effort applied to events promoting networks. This reflects a particular focus placed on engaging with network groups (communities/alliances established around common interest(s)), that use their links, knowledge and solidarity to promote a programme or set of priorities. It also reflected the targeting of networks tied to the emerging marine renewable energy sector, and the range of different science disciplines can contribute to addressing sector development challenges.
As a result, UHI scientists are now much more directly engaged in addressing the challenges of an emerging industry sector; contributing information, expertise, knowledge and opinions, as well as influencing solutions and pathways on the marine renewable energy development roadmap. This is evidenced through UHI contributions that help inform policy and the EC research agenda, as well as UHI involvement in a series of marine renewable energy related research funding collaborations.
Potential Impact:
Eleven scientists and two support staff have remained with UHI beyond MERIKA. The impact of this investment and retention of “high skill” science resources has been to;
- Provide a springboard for ongoing research funding to consolidate the marine renewable energy hub; MERIKA scientists have/are engaged in project funding initiatives to a value in excess of €43million, and there is a healthy pipeline of new research proposals and collaboration ideas in preparation. A particular success to highlight is the INTERREG VA award of €9.8m for The Bryden Centre PhD programme in Renewable Energy - expected to be “live” from September 2017
- Broaden UHI’s marine renewable energy Industry links and the potential for commercial income; MERIKA scientists have contributed to a series of influential industry forums that have helped inform commercial decision-making. They include; “Ocean Energy Strategic Roadmap” led by Ocean Energy Europe (OEE), and the “look forward; an Ocean Energy Environmental Research Strategy for the UK”, developed by the UK Offshore Renewables Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP). The investment in science resources, combined with a project Work Package focus on business and industrial relations, has led to a number of (new) commercial engagements with project developers for the provision of consultancy services to address specific challenges.
- Consolidate marine renewable energy as a research strength at UHI that can contribute to the next Research Excellence Framework (REF); REF is a key measure of research quality and impact, and informs the long-term research strategy of UHI. In time, these research strengths can be embedded in the university’s curriculum, deepening the research and innovation hub offering of UHI.
- Boost local employment and the economy; All the science resources are located at remote UHI locations across the H&I’s. These are fragile, often isolated communities, and the locating of high skill UHI employees represents both a contribution to the local economy, and an investment in the local infrastructure.
UHI is currently enacting an extensive and wide-ranging PhD studentship programme, funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and Scottish Funding Council (SFC), as part of Developing Scotland’s Workforce in Scotland 2014-2020, European Structural and Investment Fund Programme (ESIF). The retention of a core marine renewable energy science cohort at UHI will impact this investment initiative by ensuring that science disciplines linked with marine renewable energy will be a beneficiary of this programme.
The impact of the equipment upgrade has been to attract scientists to join the UHI marine renewable energy research community. A number of the scientists recruited to UHI through the MERIKA project commented that the opportunity to work using technology leading equipment was a key consideration to them joining. This impact is expected to continue with future scientist recruitments to new programmes and initiatives.
In addition, the opportunity to work with an institution that has technology that can contribute to research outcomes is an incentive to external research institutions and consortia to pursue potential collaborations with UHI. Already there have been equipment sets included in research proposal submissions e.g. in resource and risk assessment analysis for wave and tidal energy projects.
The MERIKA capacity has enabled UHI to establish important new research competencies and physical infrastructure. In particular, the project has realised the creation of the Centre for Society and the Sea (science.sams.ac.uk/lmc) a unit specialising in the emerging social-ecological field of inquiry. The impact of this has been to expand the UHI research portfolio into new progressive fields of analysis emerging around global environmental challenges. It also links social sciences to the broad range of marine natural sciences, enabling UHI to present multi-disciplinary research groups to address complex development issues.
An enhanced Innovation model at UHI, supported by an improved commercialisation policy framework, and incorporating a new Energy Innovation Support Office (EISO) function, will have the potential impact of delivering more industry collaboration across UHI. By providing a focal point for the management of collaborative business R&D, commercial research and knowledge exchange opportunities, UHI is creating the means to both grow its funded research pipeline and deliver new (alternative) industry derived revenue streams.
MERIKA dissemination activities have greatly contributed to raising the research and innovation profile of UHI in the field of marine renewable energy. The MERIKA website analytics, extent and range of event participation, as well as media coverage, have affirmed the university’s new research capacity, and the opportunity to sustain a research and innovation hub that flows from this.
The dissemination activities undertaken to achieve this have included;
- Marketing material; a range of project promotional tools were printed. They included a range of branded leaflets, brochures etc. to advertise the aims and deliverables of MERIKA. In addition there was a MERIKA video and presentation templates to project consistent messages
- Website and social media; the MERIKA project website (www.merikafp7.eu) has been an essential tool for dissemination. It has signposted project/staff information, news and events information, publications from MERIKA scientists and hosted project marketing material. Twitter has also proven to be an effective dissemination tool, and within the project life cycle we have used it extensively. Through to March 2017 the @merikafp7 twitter account had counted 1,248 tweets, with 629 followers. This dissemination channel has been enhanced further by the individual twitter accounts of MERIKA scientists, and vice-versa.
- Dissemination events; the MERIKA project has directly organised five dissemination events (three breakfast event series at the annual Scottish Renewables Marine Conference, EIMR 2016 and the UHI Marine Renewable Energy Research Day in Brussels). MERIKA staff have also delivered oral presentations or posters, or chaired and facilitated sessions at 73 national and international events. Details on these dissemination events can be accessed through Template A1 linked to this Final Project Report.
- Articles; the MERIKA project has featured in a number of articles published in specialised and popular online and printed press.
- Research publications; MERIKA scientists have published a range of scientific papers across publications that include; Energy Research and Social Science, Ecosystem Services, Ocean Engineering, Energies and Renewable Energy. Details on these research publications can be accessed through Template A1 linked to this Final Project Report.
UHI is in a position to exploit the results of these potential impacts by realising industrial and academic research and innovation collaborations that will maintain the research and innovation hub. This is enabled by enhanced governance models, supported by strong international links, state of the art infrastructure, and a retained MERIKA science cohort that will ensure marine renewable energy continues to be a strategic research theme at UHI.
The overall impact of MERIKA has been to raise the profile of UHI across the mainstream European Research Area, and position the university as a credible institution within the marine renewable energy community; an institution actively engaged in addressing key research and innovation questions, participating in the flow of knowledge and information across different academic and industry players, consulting with government(s) and other institutional stakeholders.
List of Websites:
www.merikafp7.eu
Project Contacts;
- Damian Collins, Project Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Manager (PKEIM), damian.collins@uhi.ac.uk
- Morgane Artacho, Project Administration Officer, morgane.artacho@uhi.ac.uk
