EOIs will be reviewed internally by the core consortium and treated confidentially. If the project is successful, the organisations involved would be invited to sign an agreement to join the consortium which would outline the approach to handling sensitive data. Given the number of organisations and discrete projects that will be involved in OceanBoost, we will ensure there are necessary protections in place for organisations and their IP. In addition, no AI will be used during the evaluation process.

If there are distinct technical solutions or innovations which apply to more than one of the demonstration challenge topic areas, it would be better to submit these as multiple, targeted EOI which can each clearly evidence their associated impacts and opportunities.

If the system has an inter-linked nature meaning that elements cannot be simply considered in isolation. The selected topic area should be the one that is the primary focus, but in cases such as this, it is possible to also incidentally address development priorities from other topics that are inherently linked.

We encourage academic institutions to participate as partners within a broader project consortium rather than submit standalone applications. The focus of the programme is not on assembling individual capabilities, but on demonstrating an innovative solution. Proposals should therefore present a clear, integrated innovation with all partners contributing to its delivery and validation.

The intention of the PTO and control systems topic is to provide an opportunity to gain further operational experience with existing PTO solutions and control strategies to maximise the impact of prior investments by the EU and to maximise the learning available from existing, large-scale infrastructure. A system whose fundamental architecture is established but unproven or unvalidated is unlikely to be at a suitable stage of readiness for this topic.

The TRL requirement is taken directly from the Horizon Europe call text, which states “In the demonstration challenge the consortium is expected to carry out demonstration activities (up to TRL 7)…”. Achieving TRL 5 would not be considered sufficient for the demonstration challenges.

We would also appreciate guidance on the level of own contribution, financial capacity and cost documentation expected at the EOI stage.

The EU will fund 70% of eligible costs for private organisations, with the balance needs through co-financing. Additionally, there is scope to combine OceanBoost funding with complementary national, private or other European financing to deliver a more ambitious demonstration project. Review of the EOIs will consider the risk associated with achieving financial close of each project, and any barriers to passing its go/no-go review during implementation.

Applicants to the EOI would be expected to identify and approach their own partners to deliver their proposed project. If the OceanBoost partners are well-placed to contribute to this proposal, this may be considered following the review of the EOIs and during the subsequent incorporation of the demo challenge proposal into the OceanBoost project.

Applicability of solutions is key ambition of the OceanBoost project, and is driven by the intention to support impactful work which can collectively improve the sector for the betterment of all, rather than one or two particular solutions. It is for you to identify the opportunities to apply the technical solutions you may propose into OceanBoost more widely without compromising your IP.

Scale is a fairly subjective thing, with “full scale” always likely to be different in absolute terms from one organisation to the next. There is no minimum scale per se for a technical solution to be eligible for participation in OceanBoost. We would be interested in all solutions which can address the identified priority areas for the demonstration challenge topics, and which have applicability beyond a single device type or architecture.

 It is worth reiterating that our ambition for the demonstration activities is to focus on advancing the balance of plant and enabling subsystem elements, rather than “full” wave or tidal energy converters. The demo projects could be used as part of a wider delivery plan, but the level of risk associated with interfaces or dependencies to other projects that deliver the balance of the demonstration system would be taken into account when reviewing the EOI.

Yes. Environmental assessment, monitoring, and regulatory expertise may play an important role in supporting the demonstration of innovative wave and tidal energy solutions, particularly where permitting, deployment, operational activities, or environmental compliance are relevant. However, these capabilities are not a standalone focus of the programme and are most effectively included as part of a broader project led by a technology developer or demonstration partner. Their role should be clearly linked to enabling the successful demonstration, validation, and deployment of the innovation.

Any organisation eligible for EU funding is able to participate within the OceanBoost consortium. This broadly means an organisation that is a recognised legal entity (such as a company, university, public body, or NGO) established in an EU member state or an associated country – a list of the associated countries is given here: Association to Horizon Europe – Research and innovation

The USA is currently not an associated country. This means any US-registered organisations would have to self-fund their participation, which may introduce risks to project delivery. As such, OceanBoost have opted to limit eligibility for this EOI to organisations who are able to claim EU funding.

It may be possible to provide background IP and technical support in collaboration with an eligible partner who then undertakes the development activities within the project. This would be dependent on there being no requirement for the non-eligible entity to raise additional funds or identify future funding opportunities to support this participation. 

The focus of OceanBoost is to deliver technology solutions and subsystems that ideally have wide applicability and can benefit many developers across the wave and tidal sectors. One or more overall system technology developers can be involved in each proposal to the Expression of Interest (EOI), as appropriate. As a result, we do not have one specific tidal technology developer that the consortium is working with.

We have identified a number of enabling technical priorities that we believe have the greatest opportunity for impact to the wave and tidal sectors within the timescale and budget of this programme, and these are where we would like the Demonstration Challenge proposals in the EOI to focus upon. It is implicit that the solutions proposed should be applicable to tidal stream and/or wave energy technologies. If you (PROPEL AND POWER) believe you have a solution that is at a suitable stage of development to enter into the Demonstration Challenge, and which addresses the development priorities within the defined demonstration topics in the EOI supporting information, then please consider submitting an EOI. Following review, organisations on successful EOI proposals will be invited to join the OceanBoost consortium.