£12m to help quicken pace of innovation in wave and tidal technologies

10 February 2010Innovative businesses are being invited by the Government-backed Technology Strategy Board to compete for up to £12m of investment during 2010 to help develop the wave and tidal technologies of the future. Two new collaborative R&D competitions from the board are designed to support innovation that will lead to the cost effective exploitation of UK and global wave and tidal stream resources. The first £9m call includes an investment of up to £2m from the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA), which is also developing the Wave Hub project off the coast of Cornwall. The competition opens in March and focuses on driving down the cost of energy and improving the reliability of wave and tidal stream energy devices.It is designed to complement a second £3m call due to open in September that focuses on supporting the deployment of pre-commercial full scale devices installed and operating in the sea. The call will focus on monitoring the performance of devices and ensuring that they are reliable and can be installed and maintained effectively. This is specifically aimed at businesses that are already working towards full scale deployment of their technology.Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, said: ...