SmartBay Galway is a national research infrastructure project. It comprises of a network of buoys, seafloor cables and other infrastructure, supporting a range of sensors, information systems, telemetry and other communication technologies. Together they provide the basis for in-situ, real time oceanographic monitoring.
SmartBay Brochure (pdf)
Vision
The vision is to provide a marine based research, test and demonstration platform which will encourage leading edge researchers and industry consortia to collaborate together on important commercial and environmental research to develop new products and services to tap into the global market for environmental technologies. The objective is to advance opportunities associated with marine resource development and to enhance our ability to monitor and manage our marine resources. The strategic objectives are aligned with the National Strategy for Science and Technology and Sea Change.
Background
Since 2005, the Marine Institute has worked in partnership with key agencies (EPA, EI and IDA) and industry (SME’s and multinationals) to develop a national marine Technology R&D Programme. The Marine Insitute and the EPA funded a cluster of technology research projects under the National Development Plan 2000-2006. These, together with increasing international interest in establishing coastal and ocean observatories, led to the concept of SmartBay. In 2007, the Marine Institute undertook an assessment of potential locations for SmartBay along the West coast of Ireland. This resulted in the selection of Galway Bay.
Throughout 2007 and 2008, significant effort went into building new national research capacity through the Beaufort Sensors Award and the Clarity CSET.
SmartBay Pilot Project
The Marine Institute has successfully established the SmartBay Pilot Project. This includes the deployment of a range of instrumentation, including environmental monitoring buoys, wave monitoring instrumentation and a flow gauge on the River Corrib. Technical research projects are being undertaken as part of the SmartBay Pilot. These are in the areas of data management, telemetry, climate change research and hydrodynamic modelling. The SmartBay video clip gives an overview of the SmartBay Pilot Project and how this data will be used.
Future implementation
The future development of the SmartBay project will lead to the establishment of cabled hub infrastructure in Galway bay and the establishment of test and demonstration facility for new technologies.