Three projects under the H2020 priority Blue Growth: unlocking the potential of seas and oceans will receive nearly €14.5 million EU funding to develop tools for the exploration of the underwater world, as well as to advance the Blue Growth economy.
BRIDGES, a four year-long project bringing together research partners from 9 countries, will improve the unique European underwater glider SeaExplorer to adapt it to more diverse operations deeper in water. The glider, a rocket-shaped vehicle, is navigating autonomously in the ocean to collect a variety of data and report back to the ground station. The project’s team will use nearly €8 million EU funding to increase the glider’s sensing capacity and pilot its use for environmental monitoring, in oil and gas industry, as well as the deep sea mining industry.
DexROV will receive over €4.5 million EU funds to develop a robot for underwater operations in various industries, such as the oil extraction. The project’s multinational team from 6 countries will improve the currently available technologies to allow manning the robot from onshore location at a large distance. During the project the robot will be tested in real-time simulation environment and then tried out in real life conditions.
MARIBE, a nearly €2 million worth project, will be devoted to identifying the most promising business models in the Blue Growth economy (offshore wind, deep sea mining, aquaculture, offshore logistics etc.), and there possible combinations. The project’s team will also come up with toolkits and guidelines for stakeholders and investment community.
The projects were selected in the calls for project proposals. INEA will monitor their implementation throughout the whole project life-cycle. These calls support the European long term strategy for sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors.