The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) and Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) have released a $14.5 million funding opportunity to support foundational research at higher education institutions related to marine renewable energies.
The call is aimed at domestic institutions of higher education, including minority-serving institutions, as part of an effort to address challenges facing marine and ocean renewable energy industries and spur innovation and development.
The opportunity will provide funding for foundational research and development (R&D) activities to advance marine energy and offshore wind technologies with the goal of more widely deploying renewable energy sources.
The opportunity will fund projects across four topic areas.
The first topic area, with up to $5 million available, is reserved for projects that generate publicly available data and test platforms that will help identify cost reductions and performance improvement pathways for the advancement of marine energy devices.
Up to $1.5 million has been allocated for projects that advance potential synergies between offshore wind and/or marine energy and aquaculture development, as part of a joint effort between WPTO and WETO.
The third topic will support undergraduate senior design and/or research projects in marine energy with up to $2 million.
With up to $6 million in reserved funding, the last topic has been left as an ‘open topic area’ where applicants can propose activities that address the needs of the marine energy industry not covered in other topic areas.
Up to 33 awards between $200,000 and $1 million are anticipated under the call.
Applicants must submit a concept paper February 20, to be eligible to submit a full application, which is due on April 22, 2024.
According to the U.S. DOE, the selected applicants will be notified in September 2024.
