Supporting New Innovation Centres

GCE Ocean Technology has supported four of the Centre for Research-based innovation applications submitted last week.

The Centre for Research-based Innovation (SFI) programme had its fourth call for proposals with application deadline 25 September 2019.

The Research Council of Norway (RCN) received 100 draft applications this spring. RCN has indicated that at least 10 new centres will be funded, with startup at the end of next year.

The overall objective of the programme is to enhance the business sectors ability to innovate and create value with increased focus on long-term research. RCN has indicated higher focus on innovation and commercialisation of research results.

Our Cluster have Taken an Active Role

GCE Ocean Technology has taken an active role in developing and supporting several of the centre applications submitted.

– The different centres will complement and strengthen our work and strategy in the cluster, says Jon O. Hellevang in GCE Ocean Technology. Moreover, the centres will establish active long-term collaboration between industry and academia and produce excellent research in collaboration with international networks. Furthermore, they will enhance the internationalisation of the Norwegian business sector, provide research training, knowledge and technology transfers between R&D and user partners, says Hellevang.

Deep Sea Innovation

The goal of the Centre for Deep Sea Innovation is to increase deep sea exploration efficiency with a factor of 10 and reduce the associated CO2 footprint by a similar factor. Main application areas are; marine mineral mapping, infrastructure integrity inspection and environmental monitoring.

The centre builds on the strong deep sea research environment at the University of Bergen with status as Centre of Excellence (SFF) from 2007-2017, followed by the current K.G. Jebsen Centre for Deep Sea Research where the primary focus is improving autonomy of underwater vehicles. The centre will also focus on sensor, communication and data processing technologies supporting collaborative autonomy under water.

Smart Ocean

SFI Smart Ocean’s vision is the realisation of a generic, autonomous and flexible wireless multi-parameter marine observation system, for reliable management of a productive and healthy ocean. This centre builds on the long-lasting cluster focus within environmental monitoring and integrated monitoring. Its main application is environment, structure and marine life and it should be noted that the user partners are very different from the Centre for Deep Sea Innovation.

Ocean Business and Seafood

GCE Ocean Technology has also been active in supporting BI Norwegian Business School in establishing a Centre for Ocean Business (OBZ). This centre focuses on innovation and commercialisation within the ocean economy. The centre combines academia, industry, investors and government. OBZ builds on our collaboration from the MIT-REAP programme and later scale-up programmes.

GCE Ocean Technology will also contribute in the open innovation arenas together with the iFishENT proposal, targeting digitalisation of the aquaculture industry. This builds on our collaborative project “Subsea Meets Aquaculture” with NCE Seafood Innovation Cluster, and will strengthen our interaction towards this market.