The Portuguese Government has approved the Industrial Strategy for Ocean Renewable Energies (EI-ERO) with the aim of developing the country’s offshore wind potential. According to EI-ERO, offshore renewable energies have the potential to supply 25% of the electricity consumed annually in Portugal and create a new export chain in these new technologies. The government envisages that potential exports in this field could increase up to ten times the current employment in the active sectors, with the greatest potential for exports seen in the development of the floating wind technology. The overall objective of TWIND is to create a network of excellence that will dynamize a pool of specialized research professionals and trainers in the domain of offshore wind energy to support an emerging industry in Portugal in a field with a very strong anticipated growth and no dedicated existing training curriculum. WavEC will be the pivot research institution of the low performing Member State (Portugal) coordinating efforts with internationally-leading counterparts at the EU level (Spain, UK and The Netherlands) and enhancing its excellence and innovation capacity through the exchange of knowledge with these leading research organizations. The combining capabilities of partners will open the grounds to exploit existing research results and invest in developing more knowledge. These objectives will be fulfilled through a set of strategic activities well-structured throughout the project including specific training programmes on thematic topics, short-term scientific meetings, long-term staff visits, networking meetings, attendance to relevant conferences in the field, knowledge transfer workshops with stakeholders and an annual event. The networking activities and exchange of knowledge will stimulate research activities and highly qualified services that impact the economy and the society, thus benefitting not only WavEC and the partner organisations, but in general Portugal.

STEP4WIND aims at increasing the commercial readiness level of floating offshore wind energy through technological innovations across the supply chain. Floating wind turbines (FOWTs) could be a game changer to further decrease the cost of offshore wind energy and unlock new markets. Wind turbines placed on a floating support and moored to the seabed can harness energy in areas with much higher wind speeds, at a reduced installation cost. It also gives the opportunity to countries with deep water to enter the offshore wind industry. The SET-Plan stresses that Europe needs to move fast in deploying FOWTs. It also highlights the urgency to widen the basic knowledge of early-stage researchers (ESRs) towards the design of FOWTs and match it with industrial needs. This European Industrial Doctorate programme will achieve this by delivering 10 doctoral degrees jointly supervised by the public and private sectors. The ESRs will be supervised by 3 universities with a track-record in wind energy research and 5 companies leading the deployment of floating wind farms and heavily involved in policy-making bodies. A mentoring scheme will be tailored to the needs of each ESR, with the involvement of several female senior staff. Scientifically, STEP4WIND will develop floating-specific tools, methods and infrastructures to tackle the technological and economical challenges of FOWTs, from design to deployment, operation and scaling up. The innovations from each ESR will be systematically integrated in a common multi-disciplinary design and optimisation tool to assess their impact on cost, risk and the environment. STEP4WIND will also deliver guidelines for large farm deployments, with a clear roadmap to commercialisation. The results will be disseminated openly in a series of innovative ways, including an online game and a design competition. STEP4WIND will also take part in large outreach initiatives, such as the TORQUE2020 outreach events organised by the Coordinator in May 2020.