The cumulative effects of offshore wind on the marine environment alongside other human activities is the focus of a new initiative in the UK.
The Ecological Consequences of Offshore Wind (ECOWind) research programme aims to help deliver policy-ready solutions that aim to enable offshore wind and thriving marine ecosystems to coexist and to promote environmental restoration.
ECOWind scientific advisory group chair Colin Moffat said: “The expansion of offshore wind is essential, but we have to ensure it is carried out with the marine environment in mind.
“ECOWind aims to fill some of the biggest gaps in our knowledge to help inform this process as efficiently as possible – by ensuring that the research undertaken is genuinely useful and usable for policy, regulation and management.”
ECOWind is currently assessing a shortlist of seven projects, after a ‘call for applications’, inviting UK research institutes to submit proposals to investigate the cumulative impacts of offshore wind on marine biodiversity.
Ultimately, three projects will be selected and provided with a total of £7m of funding by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and The Crown Estate.
ECOWind’s research findings will be periodically published on the ECOWind website and will be developed alongside marine policy makers and managers to ensure that outputs are used to inform governance and management.
The projects will work closely together to ensure their outputs are aligned, and will ultimately contribute to an ecosystem-level assessment of the cumulative impacts of offshore wind on the marine environment.
ECOWind is part of the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change Programme (OWEC), led by The Crown Estate in partnership with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
OWEC programme manager Mandy King said: “We are excited to see ECOWind take shape into a truly pioneering programme of work.
“By bringing together industry, government, and some of the brightest brains in the academic community, we will be connecting science and policy at every step of the way to make sure that the research generated is as effective as possible.”