Flexible Funding - Supergen ORE Hub - Fifth Call for Proposals

Key Research Challenge Themes

Many industry roadmaps have been developed for ORE. These roadmaps are generally on a sectoral basis (for offshore wind and marine, with wave and tidal often considered together). To develop the area strategy for the Supergen ORE Hub and its associated programme of Core and Flexible Fund supported research, research themes and challenges are summarised in the Supergen ORE Hub Research Landscape and accessible via the web tool. The challenges and themes have been synthesised from consultation across the sector and in collaboration with related roadmapping and prioritisation exercises:

This Flexible Funding Call has three stages:

Stage 1 – Expressions of Interest (EOI)

• The first stage is a call for Expressions of Interest (deadline for submissions 2nd September 2024 @ 1700 BST). Expressions of Interest (EOI) are to be submitted electronically via completion of an online EOI form which can be accessed HERE. (on submission of your EOI you will receive a thank you message and a confirmation email. If no email is received please contact SupergenORE.Flexi@plymouth.ac.uk asap to confirm receipt of your EOI proposal)
• EOIs received will be shortlisted to proceed to the second stage, which will be an invitation to submit a full proposal.

Stage 2 – Full proposals

• Full proposals received (deadline for submissions 28th October 2024 @ 1700 hrs GMT) will go through a double-blind peer review process

Stage 3 – Review Panel

• Peer reviewed proposals will then be submitted to a review panel, drawing on the Hub Co-Directors, Industry Advisory Board, EPSRC, FoW CoE and WES. Peer reviewed proposals at this stage will be shortlisted by the panel and ranked. Final award decisions will be made using the resulting panel ranked order by the Hub Director, Co-Directors and EPSRC.

Additional partner support:

In this call for Flexible Funding proposals we have additional contributions from the Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence (FoW CoE) and Wave Energy Scotland (WES). We are asking applicants to the Flexible Fund to select only one option per project proposal from the list below, to indicate which form of proposal they wish to put forward to the Supergen ORE Hub. You will be able to select one of these three options at the Expression of Interest (EOI) stage of this call. Expressions of Interest (EOI) are to be submitted electronically via completion of an online EOI form. A hyperlink to the EOI form is provided within the full call document and in the previous section.

• Option 1 - EPSRC standard academic scheme (as per the scope in section 5 of the full call document): Up to £100k funded by EPSRC (at 80% FEC for HEI) with industry involvement and matching cash/in kind contributions expected

• Option 2 - EPSRC/FoW CoE scheme
• For projects in FoW CoE priority areas. Proposals within this scheme can access up to £50k funded by EPSRC (at 80% FEC for HEI) and be supplemented by up to £40k of match funding by the FoW CoE for industrial partners in proposal consortiums, which will go directly to the Industry partner and must be matched on a one-to-one basis by industry partner funding. See full details in the call document. £40k is the maximum request for any one proposal. Further guidance regarding FoW CoE match funding can be found HERE in the Call Document.

• Option 3 - EPSRC/WES Scheme

• For projects in WES priority areas. Proposals within this scheme can access up to £50k funded by EPSRC (at 80% FEC for HEI) and be supplemented by up to £50k of match funding by WES. See full details in the call document. Further guidance can be found HERE in the Call Document.

Terms and conditions

• Terms and conditions of standard UKRI FEC grant awards apply.
• In addition, all successful projects must engage with the Supergen ORE Hub and should describe in their application how they plan to do this.
• All project outputs and engagement should be branded as Supergen ORE Hub. Brand materials and guidance will be provided to successful applicants.
• Where proposals are accessing additional partner schemes, project outputs and engagement should also be branded with the relevant partner logo, i.e. ORE Catapult/WES, as relevant. Brand materials and guidance will be provided to successful applicants.

Point of contact

General queries

Please note that all queries regarding the Supergen ORE Hub Flexible Fund must be directed via email in order to maintain a clear audit trail for reporting purposes where required, and will be answered publicly via the FAQ area on the Supergen ORE Hub website.

Please use the following information for queries:

• Email: SupergenORE.Flexi@plymouth.ac.uk
• Subject line: “Supergen ORE Hub Flexible Funding Call Round 5 – Queries”

Please check the FAQ section of the website in advance of sending any queries, as your question may have already been answered.