Harnessing Ireland’s Potential as a European and Global Centre for Ocean ICT
The Marine Institute’s National Marine Technology Programme facilitates a range of research and development activities in the area of sensor development, data management and information systems. This programme aims to broker national and international relationships between technology developers in industry and academic centres of excellence for application driven technology development in marine ICT.
A key initiative of the Advanced Technology Programme is the SmartOcean (ICT for the Sea) Strategy. Launched in 2010, the strategy seeks to harness Ireland’s natural marine resources and specialist expertise in Marine Science and ICT to establish Ireland as a leader in the development of high value products and services for the global marine sector. This includes the delivery of next generation technology products and services for marine sectors including aquaculture, environmental monitoring, shipping and security and marine renewable energy.
SmartOcean Vision 2020
By 2020 Ireland will be a recognized leader in the development, testing, commercialization and delivery to market of the next generation of innovative technologies addressing evolving global markets in marine renewable energy, environmental monitoring and water technologies.
There are currently over 50 indigenous and multinational companies based in Ireland engaged in the development and provision of High Tech Marine products and services to the Global Marine Sector. These include the provision of remote sensing systems, data management and visualisation tools, modelling, simulation, forecasting and engineering design supporting operational management. A number of companies have also developed products and services based on patented research from National Centres of Research Excellence. This is an exciting and new niche opportunity for Ireland building on the strengths of our successful ICT cluster.
Latest News
The Marine Institute will host an industry orientated workshop on July 5th-6th 2011. The workshop, entitled 'Driving new business opportunities at the interface between ICT and the Sea,’ will highlight new commercial and innovation opportunities emerging from Ireland’s Hi Tech Marine Products and Service sector. The workshop will explore market-led opportunities for the development and deployment of distributed sensing, communication and information technologies in global markets including Offshore Energy, Marine Environment, Transport and Security. The agenda (pdf, 236kb) is available to download or visit the website for further details about the workshop.