Queen's University Marine Research Group

The Supergen ORE Hub awarded 8 projects across UK institutes, providing funding for Early Career Researcher directed at offshore wind, wave, or tidal energy research. Two research fellows, Dr Pal Schmitt and Dr Lilian Lieber, from Queen's University Belfast were successful and you can find summaries of their proposed research below. Congratulations!

Pal: https://supergen-ore.net/projects/smartwave
Lilian: https://supergen-ore.net/projects/robust-approach-to-assess-bio-physical-interactions-tidal

https://supergen-ore.net/news-and-events/round-4-ecr-research-awards

Early Career Researcher projects awarded £29,000 from the Supergen ORE Hub - Supergen ORE We provide research leadership to connect academia, industry, policy and public stakeholders, inspire innovation and maximise societal value in offshore wind, wave and tidal energy.

LOCAL NEWS UPDATE: You may have noticed the blue container off the ferry terminal has been removed - below you'll find a statement from Flex Marine Power following their tidal energy campaign:

"Flex Marine Power is pleased to announce the conclusion of our 2020-21 Strangford Narrows campaign, during which we have carried out valuable trials of our 50kW FM-Swimmer machine. Full decommissioning activities have been successfully completed this month, and now the uplift of our onshore cabin marks the end of this campaign. We would like to thank all who have contributed to this project, in particular those involved at Queens University Belfast and our local supply chain. This Flex Marine Power project has been supported by InnovateUK; ongoing funding will now see us move on to develop our next generation machine as we continue to pursue our mission to enable coastal communities to thrive by harnessing the power of the sea."

JOB ALERT: Are you a engineer with research experience? Join with QUB as a Research Fellow on floating solar, see here 👇

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CGI503/research-fellow-case

"You may have found yourself at the shoreline, watching seabirds plunging into the sea and magically reappearing with a tiny fish in their beaks. But have you ever paused to wonder what makes them dive where they do?"

Continue reading here👇
https://theconversation.com/we-used-drones-to-track-the-feeding-habits-of-seabirds-new-research-160744

Less than 700 words, this makes for a wee coffee break read ☕️

We used drones to track the feeding habits of seabirds – new research We used drones to track the way terns forage around offshore energy structures.

SI ALERT: Dr. Madjid Karimirad (QUB) & Dr Amy Robertson (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA) are running a Special Issue on "Numerical Analysis, Field Testing and Experimental Assessment of Offshore Wind Turbines" 👇

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies/special_issues/Offshore_Wind_Turbines

The press release has been picked up by Phys.org 🌊 Makes for a nice tea break read 👇
https://phys.org/news/2021-04-drones-bird-eye-view-turbulent.html

Drones provide bird's eye view of how turbulent tidal flows affect seabird foraging habits The foraging behavior of seabirds is dramatically affected by turbulence caused by natural coastal features and manmade ocean structures, new research has shown.

🌊NEW PAPER: A bird's-eye view on turbulence 🌊
Using aerial drones, we tracked & highly turbulent flows in synchrony, thereby quantifying foraging associations with localised evolving turbulence (boils/upwellings & vortices) on so far unobtainable scales. Links to paper, video on youtube & the press release below! Enjoy and please share widely, many thanks! 🌊😍
link to paper:
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0592
link summarising research:
https://youtu.be/KqTMtsWHpJ8
:
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/news/drones-provide-birds-eye-view-of-how-turbulent-tidal-flows-affect-seabird-foraging-habits

CONFERENCE ALERT: The PRIMaRE conference (see link below)
ABSTARCT DEADLINE : Friday 30th April 2021

A forum for presenting and discussing the latest research & development in all areas related to Marine Renewable Energy. This year, the PRIMaRE conference will be held online, between the 29th and 30th June 2021, due to the restrictions caused by COVID-19, and will be run by Bangor University. The aim of the event is to cover a wide range of topics in marine renewable energy, including: technology, policy, environment, hydrodynamics, resource characterisation, materials, operation and management, etc.

PRIMaRE 8th PRIMaRE Conference The Partnership for Research in Marine Renewable Energy 8th PRIMaRE Conference, PRIMaRE: The Partnership for Research in Marine Renewable Energy

Another PhD opportunity with Queen's University, this time regarding wind energy: This project aims to develop a reliable framework that provides robust and cost-effective repowering decision support for offshore wind turbines. The project has the following objectives:

Comparing life extension, decommissioning and repowering considering sustainability, suitability and Levelized cost of energy (LCOE);

Decision Support Framework for Reliable and Cost-effective Repowering of Bottom-fixed Offshore Wind Farms at Queen’s University Belfast on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Decision Support Framework for Reliable and Cost-effective Repowering of Bottom-fixed Offshore Wind Farms at Queen’s University Belfast, listed on FindAPhD.com

Interested in marine engineering and the blue economy? This PhD project primarily focus on established crossflow turbine design and you will acquire expertise in marine energy technology, fluid mechanics, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and experimental data analysis.

Development of a Lift-Based Wave Energy Converter at Queen’s University Belfast on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Development of a Lift-Based Wave Energy Converter at Queen’s University Belfast, listed on FindAPhD.com

Missing fieldwork? So are we! :)
Today is 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
Here are some snaps from the past, showing our wee Xylem CTD (blue & yellow next to the black pelicase in the middle picture), an ADCP, an echosounder, a temperature sensor, a GPS...CTD=conductivity (to measure salinity), Temperature, Depth (well, pressure). CTDs come in a variety of sizes, you might have seen those big Rosettes before?
We all miss the days we used to go out to perform at-sea surveys:

Little memento to MRG research & beyond 👇