Scotland CAN DO Offshore Wind Innovation Feasibility Challenge Call – now closed
This fund was for companies developing innovative technology solutions that could address important challenges in Scotland's offshore wind sector. It's now closed, but you can still learn more about it on this page.
About the grant
The Can Do Offshore Wind Innovation Feasibility Challenge Call offered grant funding to support feasibility studies for products and services that can support Scotland's offshore wind sector.
It provided successful applicants with funding to conduct detailed design, technical, and commercial feasibility studies for innovative solutions that address the industry's most important challenges.
In this context, innovation could mean both improving existing products and services or developing entirely new ones.
What the grant is for
The CAN DO Offshore Wind Innovation Feasibility Call offers grant funding for the feasibility stage of commercial offshore wind projects.
This grant supports successful applicants to conduct new detailed design, technical, and/or commercial feasibility assessment for relevant products and services, over a period of three months.
The grant offered between £30,000 and £50,000 to fund up to 100% of the cost of a feasibility project. The amount of grant received is based on the actual cost of feasibility assessment to the company.
The offshore wind innovation challenge
The grant supports innovative solutions that address the most important innovation challenges identified by the industry. In particular, the products and services supported should help to drive the offshore wind sector and Scotland’s supply chain forward.
Here are the innovation areas that have been identified:
Installation
- Mooring systems connection
- Floating electrical systems connection
- Offshore floating assembly activities
Operations and maintenance (O&M)
- O&M strategy for dynamic floating conditions
- Balance of plant condition monitoring for floating wind
- Optimised O&M major component change strategies
- Robotics solutions for floating offshore wind
Electrical infrastructure
- Improvements in HVAC dynamic cables
- Improvements in HVDC dynamic cables
- Floating substations
- Single mooring and cable disconnection point system
Anchors
- Innovative anchor manufacturing methods
- Shared anchor solutions
- Novel anchoring solutions
Mooring lines
- Load reduction devices
- Mooring systems, including tensioning and quick connect systems
- Innovative mooring monitoring solutions
- New materials for mooring systems, including rope, chain, and other materials
Substructures
- Manufacturing of current floating wind concepts
- Manufacturing of disruptive floating wind concepts
- Design for whole lifecycle cost reduction
- Modular designs and reduced assembly times of steel substructures
Blades
- Next-generation composite materials
- Blade edge protection
- Circular economy – this refers to innovative thermal, mechanical, and chemical decommissioning processes
- Blade inspection
Towers
- Next generation tower design and materials
- Automation, welding, and manufacturing production lines
Companies that have received funding
We've awarded more than £1,000,000 to companies working to strengthen Scotland's offshore wind supply chain.
Each company will also have an opportunity to showcase their feasibility findings at an event being held in August 2025.
From 69 applications we have awarded grants to 22 successful applicants:
- SeaThor (Aberdeen) – Conducting a feasibility study for deploying CableSpring, a dynamic cable buoyancy module system
- Fennex Ltd (Aberdeen) – Developing AI-driven solutions to optimise offshore wind operations based on weather conditions
- Quoceant Ltd (Loanhead) – Designing of an innovative solution to provide direct mooring line termination and articulation into their high strength, Q-Connect M, mooring quick connector
- TTI Marine Renewables Ltd (Inverness) – An offshore engineering consultancy and mooring specialist based in Inverness, developing their "Integrated Strain Sensor" designed to monitor the through-life health of mooring ropes deployed in Offshore Floating Wind Arrays
- Blackfish Engineering Design Ltd (Aberdeen) – Enhancing floating offshore wind (FLOW) marine operations with the C-Dart quick mooring connecto.
- Build the Reef Ltd (Aberdeen) – Building subsea protection structures to implement Artificial Reef Subsea Cable & Anchorage Protection
- Napkin Innovation Limited (East Kilbride) – Replacing grout to cut the time and emissions associated with offshore installation
- Malin Marine Consultants Ltd (Glasgow) – Developing optimised drag anchors to be more efficient and effective while allowing a scalable manufacturing process suitable for additive manufacturing
- T12 Engineering Ltd (Edinburgh) – Developing an offshore mooring system
- Titan Energies Limited (Aberdeen) – Adapting proven oil and gas technology for offshore wind by redesigning drilling techniques and integrating them with existing wind mooring systems
- Wind Rider Caledonia Ltd (Edinburgh) – Studying the rotatable, self-aligning wind tower to reduce costs and enhance performance
- GEG Holdings Ltd (Edinburgh) – Repurposing tanker jetties for use as deep-water berths supporting floating offshore wind
- Trios Renewables (Glasgow) – Advancing state-of-the-art floating offshore wind technical and commercial models
- Frontier Robotics (Edinburgh) – Developing photorealistic 3D interactive models for subsea inspections using the latest computer vision reconstruction techniques
- Rovtech Solutions (Aberdeen) – Development of the VALORTM Tether Management System
- Ilosta Ltd (Glasgow) – Using physics-based AI to develop intelligent monitoring for offshore wind foundation
- Inductight Ltd (Oldmeldrum) – Developing an autonomous bolting and monitoring system using AR to complement AI and ML
- First Marine Solutions Limited (Aberdeen) – Exploring feasibility for a novel mooring integrity monitor for floating offshore wind platforms
- Fathom Group Limited (Aberdeen) – Validating technology adapted from fixed offshore wind to floating offshore wind, assessing performance against OpenFAST, the industry-standard simulation tool
- Encomara Limited (Aberdeen) – Conducting a technical and commercial feasibility assessment of SQUID adoption for the OSSIAN Offshore Wind Project
- Reblade Limited (Glasgow) – Supporting Phase 2 of their digital innovation tool that supports major offshore wind farm components. Reblade has been working with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (OREC) to complete the Phase prototype
- Airspection Limited (Glasgow) – Testing and demonstrating drone technology in preparation for a critical customer and regulatory trial with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)
Watch our webinar
While the fund has now closed, you can still watch our webinar, recorded on 17 December 2024.
The webinar explained more about the funding call, but also explored the innovative solutions that will shape Scotland’s offshore wind sector and supply chain.
Got a question?
This fund is now closed, but you can still get in touch for more information.
We're also keen to hear about other innovations that can help accelerate Scotland’s move towards a net zero emissions future and drive growth in Scotland’s offshore wind supply chain.