Harnessing Ireland's Potential as a European and Global Centre for Ocean Technology

A major international workshop – “Towards a New Horizon - Harnessing Ireland’s Potential as a European and Global Centre for Ocean Technology” – aimed at creating jobs and revenue through the development of a “Smart Ocean Cluster” of industries, universities and State bodies will take place at the Marine Institute, Oranmore, Co. Galway on Monday and Tuesday 22nd and 23rd March.

This groundbreaking event will be opened by Minister Tony Killeen T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Food and feature a keynote address by Ms. Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the newly-appointed European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science.

This workshop will be of interest to companies with core technology capabilities and expertise in the areas of smart materials, smart sensors, communications, data management, visualisation and forecast tools.  Technologies such as these will be harnessed for development of a range of intelligent decision-based management tools with applications across a number of existing marine related sectors including shipping, logistics and security and in emerging markets including marine renewable energy systems, environmental monitoring and water management systems. 

The workshop is to target emerging global opportunities and challenges in the marine and environmental sector, create strategic national alliances, address emerging markets, investigate possibilities for an integrated suite of incentives and inspire and test new models that will allow public bodies, universities and industry to collaborate on marine innovation projects. 

A draft National Strategy for the development of an Ocean Technology Innovation Cluster will be launched for consultation at the event. The vision is that, by the year 2020, Ireland will be recognised as a global leader in the development, test and commercialisation of the next-generation of innovative ocean technologies. 

To achieve these goals, the workshop brings together a unique gathering of world-class speakers from industry, the national and international research communities, national and European government.

Click here to download a PDF of the Workshop Programme.

The final deadline for workshop registration is 4.00pm on Thursday the 18th March.

For more information please contact Rebecca.Corless@marine.ie