Building upon the successfully funded CMDC 4 project, Future FOW Installation Vessel (FFIV), this project will undertake the next design phase for ship, the Celtic Constructor. Specifically focusing on de-risking the concept as an economically efficient methanol powered vessel for deploying fibre rope mooring systems for floating offshore wind (FOW) farms. The UK is at the forefront of offshore wind expansion, a vital component of its clean energy transition. However, with ambitious targets to increase offshore wind capacity from 13.6 GW to 50 GW by 2050, and a project pipeline exceeding 100 GW, emissions from operation and maintenance vessels, which constituted 3.2% of domestic shipping emissions in 2022, could escalate significantly. Achieving these targets necessitates a step-change in offshore construction, from one of installations to large arrays. Aiming to do this and utilise clean shipping innovations requires a new vessel class with innovative features. While historical offshore wind development focused on fixed foundations, the future lies in floating foundations, unlocking deeper sites and stronger winds. The Celtic Constructor project directly addresses the need for specialised vessels in this evolving landscape. This project will look to remove the uncertainties within the previously developed concept design, by iterating on the stability, hydrodynamics and techno-economic aspects of the design, to produce a more detailed design suitable for ship owners and yards to consider for building. This will be done in regular conjunction with an already established stakeholder network to ensure all elements of the design are fit for purpose. This includes working with rope manufacturers to consider factors such as rope tensioning, spooling, and deployment methodologies to minimise operational time and maximise safety. The project benefits from a strong UK SME team with extensive experience in offshore operations, naval architecture, marine engineering, and FOW technology. This expertise ensures a practical and robust design outcome. By further exploring the reduced hull resistance and increased storage capacity for fibre rope handling of the proposed design, it is expected that this project will yield a design for a vessel that is both a) capable of reducing the overall initial carbon footprint of installed FOW arrays, and b) attractive to ship owners and developers for further investment and commissioning a vessel build. The project will engage with UK shipbuilders to ensure it is capable of building in the UK, thereby solidifying the UK's leadership in floating offshore wind technology deployment.

The health of our oceans and the critical, life sustaining functions they provide are under threat from climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Whilst our ocean observation capability has increased dramatically over the past decade, UNESCO’s State of the Ocean Report 2024 (StOR) advises that our ‘… quantitative description of the ocean is drastically incomplete and, as a result, current knowledge is insufficient to effectively inform solutions to the multiple ocean crises that humanity is now facing.’ The yawning gap between the data we currently collect and the data we need exists in both the spatial and temporal domain. Filling this gap requires an order of magnitude increase in our ocean observation capability and the use of a wide variety of technologies including, satellites, surface and sub-surface vessels and data buoys. Tope’s ‘Kamakiri’ project will develop a low-cost, rapidly deployable ocean data buoy, building on an existing pre-commercial Mk1 prototype that provides an end-to-end demonstration of the technology from sensor to web-based user interface. The buoy makes use of on-board ‘edge-processing’ to maximise energy and data bandwidth efficiency and provide pre-processed, actionable insights to the end user alongside raw data where required. The Kamakiri buoy will initially be deployed and proven in shellfish aquaculture applications, but will in the longer term, also be developed for the needs of fin fish and seaweed aquaculture sectors, nearshore water quality monitoring and other data demands in the nearshore and coastal environment. The rapidly growing aquaculture sector provides huge opportunities to deliver sustainable, low-carbon sources of protein for human food along with a whole host of high value products for use in a wide variety of applications from bio stimulants and food additives to pharmaceuticals and sustainable alternatives to plastics. The Kamakiri project aims to work alongside the aquaculture sector to support and enhance its growth and productivity. The Kamakiri system will process an array of surface and sub-surface water quality, metocean and video data to provide end-users with actionable insights and alerts such as when to harvest, occurrence of storm damage, harmful algal bloom events and more. Tope will build relationships with researchers and commercial operators to ensure that the system uses the latest, proven techniques and delivers real-world value. The South West of the UK is an ideal location to develop this technology, drawing on expertise from the universities of Plymouth and Exeter; a small, but growing aquaculture community and a keen public interest in the health of our coastal environment.

The ElectroNautPredict feasibility project will explore developing an algorithm for accurate range prediction to support embedded hardware in battery-electric vessels.

The United Kingdom is at the forefront of offshore wind expansion, boasting a thriving industry that provides clean, dependable energy, generates environmentally friendly employment opportunities, and plays a crucial role in the nation's transition to clean energy. Greenhouse gas emissions from offshore wind farm operation and maintenance vessels constituted 3.2% of domestic shipping emissions (192 ktCO2e) in the UK in 2022\. With ambitious targets to develop the UK's offshore wind capacity from 13.6 GW (2023) to 50 GW by 2050 and with a UK project pipeline over 100 GW, this percentage could rise to over 23% or 1,380 ktCO2e per year as this pipeline is realised in a business-as-usual scenario. To reach the ambitious targets set out by the UK government, the offshore construction market will need to reach a serial production level not previously seen in offshore industries. This provides a huge opportunity to deliver clean shipping objectives by directly innovating a new vessel class, and its functional capabilities to meet this challenge. Historically, most offshore wind development has involved installing fixed foundations rigidly attached to the seabed. The next chapter of offshore wind development will move towards using floating foundations, unlocking deeper sites, and accessing stronger winds further from shore. This new technology field will involve mooring floating foundations to support the world's largest offshore wind turbines. The Future FOW (Floating Offshore Wind) Installation Vessel (FFIV) project is focused on assessing the feasibility of a new class of vessel, aimed at minimising greenhouse gas emissions during the construction and maintenance of the next generation of Offshore Wind farms. The project brings together a capable and experienced team of UK SMEs with direct end-user experience of the challenges of offshore operations in the oil and gas and offshore renewable energy sectors. Expertise within the team includes offshore operations planning and delivery, naval architecture and marine engineering, regulations governing the design of innovative vessels, FOW stakeholder mapping and analysis and marine research and development project management. The end product of the FFIV project will be an outline design of the next generation of offshore wind construction vessels, fully embracing the clean maritime objective and ready to be included in the national shipbuilding strategy, cementing the UK position in delivery of net zero 2050\.

MOFs for Reduction of Ship Emissions "MORSE" is a project lead by C-MAT Technologies in partnership with; University College London (UCL), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) including subsidiary - the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Tope Ocean. This pre-deployment trial based feasibility study will develop a cutting-edge, CO2 emission, flue gas filtration system for the maritime transport sector. At it's heart, the technology employs novel metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of porous/sponge-like materials which have significant versatility and performance gains over competing materials such as activated carbon filters. With large internal surface areas acting as sites for CO2 molecules absorption, MOFs possess some of highest gas capture capacities of any known material. MORSE will adapt this filtration technology with an already proven track record in onshore industrial applications with the aim of successfully overcoming the challenge of decarbonising the shipping sector. In order for the International Maritime Organisation and the UK government to meet their targets of 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 (compared to 2008 levels), technologies such as MORSE must be developed in order to reduce carbon emitted by hydrocarbon burning vessels which currently dominate marine transportation. With an average lifespan of 20-25 years, new and existing vessels burning hydrocarbons will still be sailing beyond the 2035 initial target and 2050 final carbon target. Unless these vessels are targeted for carbon reduction through new retrofit technology it remains commercially unviable for companies to scrap their fleets in favour of building new low and zero carbon alternatives. MORSE will play a key role in significantly reducing carbon emissions from shipping in vessels running on conventional fuels, and also in the future when ships are built or converted to run on new and innovative fuels such as green methanol and ammonia.