Doctorate continues to help offshore energy grow in UK
The large-scale deployment of offshore renewable energy is being supported by an ever-growing engineering training scheme.
Offshore renewable energy (ORE) is key to the UK achieving its net zero carbon energy objectives while delivering secure, environmentally friendly, reliable, and affordable energy. This requires a continuing drive to design, build, install, operate, and maintain energy-generating machines in a hostile marine environment.
Success creates green jobs at all levels in coastal communities across the UK and generates significant economic impact. The ORE sector, which includes OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), supply chain companies, engineering consultancies, utility companies, project developers, catapults, classification societies, and test centres, ranging from SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) to multinationals, creates a massive demand for highly trained scientists and engineers with a broad skill base.
The Industrial CDT (Centre for Doctoral Training) for Offshore Renewable Energy (IDCORE) seeks to meet this demand by training the next generation of chief engineers, CTOs (chief technology officers) and innovators for a rapidly evolving sector. It awards an EngD, a professional doctorate in engineering, developed in the 1990s as a practical research degree focusing on tangible industry outcomes.
Operating since 2011, IDCORE was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in 2024 to train a further 50 scientists and engineers. Our projects support: the development of new energy conversion technologies, optimal installation, logistics & maintenance, power-to-X, floating wind platforms, testing & certification, sustainability & circularity, commercial risk, and much more.
Dong Chen, SSEN Transmission, says: “Availability of resources is one of the key challenges we face as we seek to deliver net zero. In particular, the UK is short of power systems expertise, especially engineers with knowledge of renewables.
“Undergraduate programmes are not currently addressing this need. IDCORE, on the other hand, is delivering a very effective response. Not only is our engagement with them delivering short-term benefits for our research programme, it is also helping us to build both capability and capacity.”
Positive student experiences
IDCORE’s projects are driven by the curiosity of industrial sponsors and students. Students are embedded with sponsors and given needs-driven projects addressing some of the most challenging areas. This drives a two-way flow of expertise between industry and academia, leading to innovative solutions and significant industrial impact.
Fred Gibbs, a current student, states: “Being part of IDCORE has been almost too good to be true. The first year of the programme was one of the best years of my life, and now, working for QED Naval, I am in a place I want to be, doing what I want to do. The work is challenging but the project is really well defined, and I know that the outcome will make a difference to the company and potentially the tidal sector.”
Another student, Leigh Baxter, adds: “The experience I have gained while working with Quoceant and their clients has been invaluable. It has provided unrivalled practical knowledge of what does and doesn't work, and access to industry know-how that you just wouldn't get in a traditional PhD. It’s great to be working in a small company with such a range of knowledge and skills working so closely together.”
The sector needs diverse professionals with a wide range of technical, and transferable skills. To this end, we recruit science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students with some straight from university and others from industry. Our training celebrates this diversity, seeking to develop a tightly knit cohort of highly skilled graduates.
Co-created with industry, students, and alumni, it prepares students for both industry-based research projects and careers at the forefront of industry. Teaching covers not only electrical, mechanical and ocean engineering but also policy, economics, marine biology, societal issues and consenting. We develop well rounded students with broad technical skills who understand the language used by regulators and investors.
“IDCORE is a unique partnership between academia and industry. It brings the academic rigour that we need but within an industrial context, responsive to a very different set of drivers. For me personally, it provided the opportunity to acquire formal engineering skills and helped me to make the transition I was looking for from oil and gas to the renewables industry. My cohort formed some incredibly strong connections – we worked well together and supported one another; indeed, we are still in weekly contact,” concludes former IDCORE research engineer, Dr Mairi Dorward.
“My current job is a culmination of experience obtained across my whole career. Having been part of IDCORE, I am well connected to an extensive network including, for example, academics working on climate models and engineers working on data science. Access to this network enhances our offering at Xodus.”
Since 2011, IDCORE has built strong links across the sector and trained over 100 research engineers. We have just announced a further ten industrial projects, to start in June 2025, with sponsors including EDF, Wood, The National HVDC Centre, Frazer-Nash Consultancy, Proteus Marine Renewables and The Crown Estate. The recruitment of students to join the programme next September is almost complete.
Discover more about IDCORE.
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Professor David Ingram PhD, PGCE, CSci, CMarSci, FIMarEST is Director of the EPSRC Industrial CDT for Offshore Renewable Energy (IDCORE).
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of the Institute.
Image: IDCORE visiting Nigg to see the marshalling area for Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm’s jacket foundations; credit: IDCORE.
