Innovation Challenge – tracking underwater species behaviour and movements in and around tidal stream turbines

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) are sponsoring this challenge which is looking to track underwater species behaviour and movements in and around tidal stream turbines.

Whilst very few collisions have ever been recorded between underwater species (birds, mammals or fish) and tidal turbine blades, not enough is known about these interactions.

As a result, the Marine Energy Engineering Centre of Excellence (MEECE) has created an innovation challenge to track underwater species behaviour and movements in and around tidal stream turbines. This challenge is two-fold – they need to gather data more efficiently, and they need to gather better data to understand the species’ behaviour.

The MEECE team are looking for solutions from a range of technology areas that would involve innovations in some of the following areas including:

• Sensors and electronic devices
• Data and image processing
• Robotics and autonomous systems

Deadlines for applications are 11th August 2021. To find out more click here.