Memorandum submitted by the Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research Council
INTRODUCTION
The mission of the Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is to support basic strategic
and applied research and related postgraduate training in the
engineering and physical sciences. In allocating those funds,
it is required to pay due attention to meeting the needs of the
users of research and training in industry, commerce, government
and the service sector and to underpin the quality of life of
the UK's citizens. The EPSRC budget for 2000-02 is £420 million.
EPSRC allocates funds for research and training
through Programmes covering the core physical sciences (Mathematics,
Physics and Chemistry); generic technologies (Materials and Information
Technology & Computer Science) and Engineering (General Engineering,
Innovative Manufacturing and Infrastructure & Environment).
A team of Programme Managers within EPSRC is responsible for managing
the grant budget of those Programmes as determined by the EPSRC
Council. The total annual investment in the three Engineering
Programmes in 2000-02 will be approximately £110 million.
Research into new and renewable energy technology,
which includes wave and tidal energy, forms an important part
of the portfolio of research targeted at improving quality of
life in the UK through improvements to sustainability in energy
generation. Wave and tidal power research is only one element
of that portfolio which also includes research on photovoltaics,
fuel cells, wind power, biomass and other technology approaches
such as the hydrogen economy. Current investment in academic research
projects in Wave & Tidal Energy is just in excess of £1.1
million.
RESEARCH GRANTS
IN WAVE
AND TIDAL
ENERGY
EPSRC's primary mechanism to support research
projects in UK universities is through research grants. The EPSRC
has encouraged academic research in all forms of renewable energy
through both the "Responsive Mode" where the subject
of the research is driven primarily by the applicant, or through
the "Managed Mode" where applications are invited by
EPSRC in specific priority areas. In both mechanisms, all applications
are subjected to Peer Review by a combination of referees selected
from the EPSRC "College" of referees and at least one
referee suggested by the applicant. Projects are then selected
for funding from a priority order identified by an invited Panel
of experts based on the referees' report and a written response
to those comments from the applicant.
Since 1994 renewable energy has been an identified
priority within the EPSRC Programme primarily due to the increasing
importance of the field within the context of the drive to improve
the sustainability of energy generation within the UK. As a result,
renewable energy research has received support through both the
responsive and managed mode. The EPSRC has in particular supported
different aspects of renewable energy through a number of Managed
Programmes. A key feature of the Managed Mode is that priority
areas can benefit from a ring-fenced budget and generally higher
success rates that is the case in the response mode. A second
feature of Managed Programmes is that the research objectives
are multidisciplinary and this is reflected by the fact that the
budget for managed programmes is generally allocated from a number
of EPSRC Programme areas. The multidisciplinary nature of renewable
energy research means that funding for the area has been provided
by the Engineering, Materials, Chemistry and Physics Programmes
within the EPSRC. The Managed Programmes in renewable energy since
1995 are as follows:
— Fuel Cells—1994 to 1997
— Photovoltaics—1995 to 1998
— Energy Storage & Recovery—1997
to 1998
— Renewable & New Energy Technologies
(RNET)—1999 to present
The current portfolio of renewable energy projects
by grant value, as indicated in the chart below, reflects this
past history of funding priorities.
A major priority of the current RNET Programme
is to consolidate renewable energy research within one major Programme—annual
funding for RNET was around £4 million in 2000-01. A further
aim was to broaden the base of funding to include all aspects
of renewable energy, including wave and tidal energy. A total
of 18 Wave Energy projects were received in 2000-01 in the RNET
Programme resulting in 10 awards at a success rate of 55 per cent.
The chart above shows total year-by-year commitment
across all topics in renewable energy.
The attached annexes summarise information from
the EPSRC grants database. Annex 1 gives a summary of active grants
as at January 2001 across all supported topics in renewable energy.
Annex 2 gives more specific details of those projects that are
directly related to Wave Energy. This information is gathered
from the entire portfolio and hence will include grants funded
through both managed and responsive grant mechanisms as outlined
above.
THE CURRENT
PORTFOLIO AND
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
The research funded in wave energy falls into
a number of areas of generation technology. However, beyond proof
of concept designs and simple prototyping, the scale and cost
of wave energy devices is beyond the scope of EPSRC's remit. However,
a close liaison is maintained with colleagues in the DTI to ensure
EPSRC activities complement those funded through the DTI New and
Renewable Energy Technology Programme, which can provide funding
for full-scale prototype and demonstrator projects.
A primary focus of the EPSRC funded projects
is on the design and development of devices to harness power from
waves in an efficient and reliable way. A number of groups around
the UK combine this information with studies to predict and model
the sea surface at a given point and time. EPSRC also supports
related research on wave forecasting which is not shown in these
data. In addition to the current projects, three wave energy grants
have recently been completed in this area. The final assessment
of these projects indicates that past funding has been effective
in contributing to the advancement of the technology.
The EPSRC recognises the importance and impact
of renewable energy research in the UK. It is currently restructuring
its research programme in sustainable energy generation with the
intention of encouraging the submission of more adventurous, multidisciplinary
research projects, improving academic links with the users of
the research and facilitating the development of a critical mass
of researchers in this important field. This will include a consultation
with the academic community to assess the success of the current
programmes and establish new research themes to be incorporated
into a new programme. A consultation meeting will take place with
colleagues from both academia and industry on 29 June 2001.
Key inputs to that meeting will be a review
of the quality and impact of the projects funded to date as well
as input from a number of sources including the Energy Foresight
Panel and EPSRC's own recent Energy Sector Evaluation. It is anticipated
that EPSRC support for sustainable energy research will rise to
in excess of £6 million in 2001-02 with greater emphasis
being given to large research consortia tackling key research
issues in collaboration with the users of that research in industry
and commerce.
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