Ocean Innovation Catapult Granted

GCE Subsea has been instrumental in establishing the Ocean Innovation Catapult (OIC) that was granted by SIVA today at the SIVA conference. The OIC will be a national test, simulation and visualisation centre where world-class expertise and infrastructure is made available for the ocean industries.

The Norwegian ocean industries represents about 37 per cent of the national value creation. OECD estimates the ocean industries to double its value creation within 2030. The Ocean Innovation Catapult’s (OIC) goal is to realise faster sustainable blue growth through efficient prototyping and verification of new solutions for the ocean industries.

New Infrastructure Planned

The OIC consortium have available test infrastructure worth more than a billion NOK. SIVA announced about 40 million NOK in support to the first phase of the OIC through the Norwegian Catapult programme. The total OIC budget is about 84 million NOK. This funding will be used for new, joint infrastructure and competence development related to:

• additive manufacturing (3D printing) for both metals and composites
• recirculation Aquaculture Systems (RAS)
• digitalisation

SME and Crossover Focus

OIC will have a strong crossover focus and interaction between the ocean industries to assist especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to realise:

• efficiency of the petroleum sector
• sustainable growth in marine food production through new and environmentally friendly farming technology
• growth in marine renewable energy - floating ocean waves, tidal and wave power
• cost-effective methods for mapping and recovery of new marine resources such as marine minerals, bioprospecting and geothermal energy

Strong Consortium

OIC is a consortium consisting of Bergen Teknologioverføring (BTO), GCE Subsea, NCE Seafood Innovation Cluster, Prototech, Stiftelsen Industrilaboratoriet (ILAB), University of Bergen (UiB), DNV GL and Marineholmen Forskningspark. OIC is collaborating with a wide range of national and international leading companies, research institutes and test centres.

OIC’s main location will be at Marineholmen Innovation district in Bergen, with collaboration and availability for the global ocean innovation community.