Innovative Technologies And Solutions To Improve Wave And Tidal Energy Systems

Project results are expected to contribute to all following expected outcomes:

• Advance in the realisation of the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan’s research and innovation priorities and targets for ocean energy;
• Energy producers and consumers benefit from increased performance of wave and tidal energy technologies with the focus on efficiency and flexibility, reduced cost, improved reliability and sustainability, operation and maintenance, robustness and security during all stages of the lifetime of an ocean energy farm from installation, operation and maintenance to decommissioning;
• Efficient and effective support to ocean energy research and innovation through alignment and cooperation among different actors, avoiding fragmentation of efforts providing effectively a significant developmental boost of wave and tidal energy technologies.
• Increased contribution of ocean energy to the energy system, with minimal impacts on health and the environment (notably biodiversity) and at the lowest possible cost.

The action contributes to address the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan’s research and innovation priorities^[1] and targets^[1] for ocean energy focussing on wave and tidal energy development. It will take into account the input defined in this context by the Implementation Working Group on ocean energy (IWG ocean), the European Technology and Innovation Platform on ocean energy (ETIP Ocean)^[3] and the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) joint programme on ocean energy^[4].

The overarching objective is the development and demonstration of cost-effective wave and tidal energy systems that can survive in a harsh ocean or sea environment with minimal impacts on health and the environment and biodiversity. The challenge is open to proposals seeking to steer wave and tidal energy development for different type of resources in an effective way at a European level and to bring these technologies to the market. In this action the following can be considered:

• The development and demonstration in controlled environment of innovative wave energy devices.
• The development and demonstration in controlled environment of innovative next generation tidal energy devices
• The development and demonstration of new sustainable materials in ocean energy converters, moorings and foundations whilst ensuring structural integrity, durability and circularity can be considered.
• The development and demonstration of sustainable tailored mooring and connection of electrical or other power transmission systems (cable system, electrical equipment, ....) for wave and tidal energy devices. Advance combined mooring and electrical connectors or hydraulic power transmission to reduce component cost and number of connection operations, included in systems for sharing an anchor between devices in arrays. Develop novel systems for safe and quick connection/disconnection that do not require large vessels and/or diving teams.
• The instrumentation for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance of ocean energy devices and structures. Apply recent advances in condition and structural health monitoring from other sectors to ocean energy. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ocean energy technology development.
• Advanced manufacturing of ocean energy devices and structures and auxiliary equipment considering reduced energy, manufacturing costs and materials consumption, high production throughput and optimization of logistics.
• Development of technologies and solutions for the installation, maintenance and decommissioning of wave and tidal energy devices.

The validation and demonstration of new ocean energy technologies should be done in a controlled environment meaning that this is done under monitored and reproducible conditions, using for instance, test rigs and test tanks, semi-enclosed basins, or dedicated real-sea demonstration sites with instrumented monitoring infrastructure.

Structure, breakdown of activities and budget allocation

The action consists of activities directly implemented by the consortium and activities implemented through financial support to third parties. The latter can include cooperation with the activities undertaken by the beneficiaries of the EU grant and may complement them. The R&I activities are divided into three challenges:

1. Breakthrough challenge
2. Validation challenge
3. Demonstration challenge

The breakthrough and the validation challenge can be carried out both through activities directly implemented by the core consortium and through FSTP activities. The demonstration challenge will solely be implemented by the core consortium.

The breakthrough challenge entails actions to develop new solutions, tools and new knowledge to increase the competitiveness of the ocean energy sector and on the acceleration of ocean energy deployment at scale. The aim is that the innovative technologies have been at least validated towards the end of the project.

The validation challenge entail actions to validate technologies, tools and innovative solutions both in a laboratory and in a relevant environment which have been developed in the project or have been developed previously or separately in other European and national projects. FSTP can be used for new illustrative application use-cases demonstrating well defined added value to end users.

In the demonstration challenge the consortium is expected to carry out demonstration activities (up to TRL 7) in line with the priorities set by the SET Plan ocean energy R&I priorities and targets and accelerate the take up of innovation by the industry. The demonstration activities will be selected using the stage gate approach developed by the IEA OES task 12^[5].

Activities directly implemented by the core consortium

The activities of the core consortium are expected to include direct research and innovation activities in any of the areas listed in scope and in any of the challenges (breakthrough, validation, demonstration). The core consortium will be responsible for the management of the whole project, including the actions carried out through financial support to third parties (management of the FSTP calls, management of the FSTP projects).

It is expected that the budget dedicated to the project management will not exceed 7% of the EU funding.

The project is expected to carry out at least three demonstration activities. The focus of each demonstration activity should be clearly different from each other. The project is expected to include a clear go/no go milestone for each demonstration activity before entering the deployment phase. Before this go/no-go milestone, the project has to show evidence of having in place i) all needed permits for deployment, ii) complete, detailed and realistic engineering plans compliant with the applicable standards, and iv) a complete business and implementation plan. The proposal is expected to present a clear and convincing pathway to obtain necessary permits for the demonstration activities and allow for appropriate timelines to achieve these, while demonstrating how it will get a financial close for each demonstration activity. For this the use of other EU/national/regional support mechanisms can be considered.

The total maximum amount of EU funding for the activities in the demonstration challenge is expected to be 24 million Euros.

Activities implemented through Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP)

A share of the EU funding will be implemented through financial support to third parties and used to engage research organizations, academia, start-ups, scale-ups, SME’s, industries and other entities and to enable use-cases that are not yet identified in the proposal stage.

The use of financial support to third parties should allow a faster implementation of research and innovation activities, and to respond to disruptive developments, attracting different stakeholders and innovators. A tiered approach to address complex R&I challenges should be adopted via FSTP calls, meaning that projects with a relatively short duration should be supported (e.g. 12-18 months). A given action supported by FSTP can be implemented by one third party or a by a (small) consortium of entities. Subsequent FSTP calls can be used to give further support to successful projects initiatives. The calls should be planned carefully and ensure that successful R&I work can continue without major interruption.

For the FSTP calls that are related to the breakthrough challenge and the validation challenge, the following considerations should be taken into account:

• Breakthrough challenge: The proposal should foresee consecutive FSTP calls for the development of breakthrough technologies and innovative solutions in support of demonstrating and upscaling wave and tidal energy considering the full supply chain. Up to 3 million EU requested contribution should be used to set up this ‘Breakthrough technologies’ challenge for third parties. The challenge should aim at attracting new partners (academia, SMEs, scale ups) and solutions.
• Validation challenge: The proposal should foresee consecutive FSTP calls for the validation of innovative technologies/solutions developed in the breakthrough challenge or from earlier R&I projects. Up to 6 million EUR EU funding is expected to be used for subsequent FSTP calls. FSTP will be used to engage other entities not earlier identified.

The first FSTP call for the breakthrough challenge should be published in the first year of the project. The FSTP call for the validation challenge should be published in a later stage of the project enabling the use of the results of the breakthrough challenge and/or the core R&I activities.

The activities carried out through FSTP calls can pertain to any of the research and innovation areas listed in scope. The applicants must clearly describe in their proposal the objectives and the expected results of the FSTP call.

For the FSTP calls, the consortium is expected to take into account the provisions on ‘financial support to third parties’ set out in Annex B of the General Annexes and incorporate them into the proposal. The consortium should consider specifically elements within the FSTP schemes to address broad EU geographical balance.

The FSTP calls should be open to any public or private entities, including SMEs.

Applicants are advised to consult the European Commission’s guidance on FSTP activities^[6]

Governance of the project

The action will require a strong internal governance and strong procedures. In the project proposal, the consortium will have to describe all challenges/actions for the whole duration of the project, including the activities to be carried out directly by the core consortium and the ones carried out through financial support to third parties (FSTP). It will have to set out how and the calls for proposals to be funded through financial support to third parties (FSTP) are organised and how the evaluation of these proposals is carried out. The core project consortium needs to define the selection criteria and the process and criteria of organisations, for which financial support may be granted, ensuring compliance with the FSTP rules under Horizon Europe. The proposal should describe clearly the methodology to implement the various steps of the FSTP calls, define the specifications of the stages of the competitions, timelines, targets, KPIs and a solid evaluation methodology including evaluation criteria. The consortium is also responsible for ensuring high visibility of the FSTP calls.

The core consortium is expected to demonstrate proven experience in sound financial management of large projects, including public procurement and/or calls and grants to support third parties, in particular for the beneficiaries that will manage the FSTP calls.

The project must, for all the research and innovation activities, including the FSTP actions, embed mechanisms to assess and demonstrate progress following the stage gate metrics developed by Task 12 of the IEA Ocean Energy System Technology Collaboration Platform (with qualitative and quantitative KPIs, benchmarking and progress monitoring and share communicable results with the European R&D community. The evaluation framework has already been introduced by the Europewave PCP action.

The project should report the progress of all its R&I activities according to these mechanisms and KPIs with an annual deliverable and milestone for the project execution according to plan.

The consortium will have to present a comprehensive risk and mitigation plan. In this plan special attention should be paid to the risk that the chosen demonstration actions will not reach a go-decision.

Besides defining and tracking progress of technology-specific KPIs in the technology areas specifically covered, the project should monitor and report on the contribution towards the high-level SET Plan KPIs defined by the SET Plan community in the ocean energy sector. ^[7] These annual reviews will be defined as milestones of the project and, as such, they will be subject to the approval of the granting authority.

The project sets up an Advisory Board, composed of experts in ocean energy systems’ research and innovation, representing public and private entities that are independent from the beneficiaries of the project. A representation of the SET Plan Implementation Working Group (IWG) on Ocean Energy, the Clean Energy Transition Cofund Partnership (CET Partnership) related initiative, and of the European Commission should be as well part of the Advisory Board. The Advisory Board advised the project to ensure coherence and alignment with the SET plan activities. The consortium will ensure that the advice of the Advisory Board is appropriately taken into account in the project’s implementation. This will be monitored by the granting authority.

The consortium should define measures to maximise the impact of the successful project and for that will contribute to the relevant Knowledge Community and Impact Network of the Clean Energy Transition Partnership and share communicable results with the European R&D community.

For activities in line with relevant initiatives under the International Energy Agency Technology Collaboration Programme on Ocean Energy Systems (IEA TCP OES)^[8], proposals should envisage liaising with these initiatives to consider possible synergies, cooperation and mutual sharing of knowledge.

Proposals are encouraged to consider, where relevant, services offered by European research infrastructures¹¹⁰, especially the Marinerg-i distributed infrastructure specialising in sea applications., as well as related projects offering access research infrastructures in the ocean energy applications, such as RISEnergy (https://risenergy-project.eu)^[9].

Duration

The estimated project duration is around 5 years.

[1] See for instance: Ocean Energy - European Commission and Homepage - Oceanset

[2] See for instance: Ocean Energy - European Commission and Homepage - Oceanset

[3] ETIP | Home

[4] See for instance: https://www.etipocean.eu/knowledge_hub/1738/

[5] OES | Performance Metrics

[6] European Commission (2025), Good practices for implementing financial support to third parties (FSTP) in EU grants.

[7] Ocean Energy - European Commission

[8] OES | Ocean Energy Systems - an IEA Technology Collaboration Programme

[9] https://risenergy-project.eu