Abstract
SuperGen Marine Phase One
The first phase of the SuperGen Marine Energy Research Consortium commenced in October 2003 following the award of £2.6 million under the EPSRC's SUPERGEN Programme. The award funded research into marine renewable energy conversion and delivery. The consortium undertook collaborative research with the intention of achieving a step change in the development of generic marine energy technologies. The academic partners within the phase one consortium were: The University of Edinburgh, The Robert Gordon University, Heriot Watt University, Lancaster University and the University of Strathclyde. The industrial collaborators included more than 20 national and international marine energy and electricity supply companies. More detail about phase one can be found in the SuperGen Phase 1 pages.
SuperGen Marine Phase Two
The success of phase one of the SuperGen Marine Energy Research Consortium is evident in the 133 publications listed in the Monograph published at the end of the programme (available to download from the Reports page). This success led to the creation of the second phase SuperGen Marine Research Consortium, a 4 year, £5.5 million project which commenced in October 2007. Five core academic institutions are involved in the second consortium - The University of Edinburgh, Heriot Watt University, Lancaster University, Queens University Belfast and the University of Strathclyde - along with a number of affiliate institutions being awarded PhD studentship funds. The overall aim, while still generic, has evolved and is now directed towards increasing understanding of the device-sea interactions of energy converters from model-scale in the laboratory to full size in the open sea. Phase two formally completed in October 2011, releasing a second monograph which lists over two hundred journal and conference papers published by the consortium throughout the four years. Also highlighted were the achievements of more than thirty PhD students that were trained within the core and associate universities. More detail about phase two can be found in the SuperGen Phase 2 pages.
SuperGen UK Centre for Marine Energy Research (UKCMER)
The successes of SuperGen Marine phase two once again led to the award of a new research phase, commencing in October 2011, with SuperGen Marine being renamed the SuperGen UK Centre for Marine Energy Research (UKCMER). SuperGen UKCMER will broaden the level of collaboration within SuperGen to recognise the growing interest in marine renewable energy research by operating with a structure of four core institutions in addition to a further seven associate universities. The research remit of UKCMER is more flexible than the first two phases of SuperGen and seeks to engage developers, industry, academia and other stakeholders to conduct fundamental and applied research that accelerates deployment of marine renewable energy. Greater emphasis will be placed on the networking and roadmapping capabilities within the consortium whilst maintaining the excellent record of SuperGen Marine for doctoral student training. More detail about UKCMER can be found on the SuperGen UKCMER page.