15 partners from 8 countries work together in the FLORES project to foster the Pact for Skills in the Offshore Renewable Energies. In this series of interviews, we'll introduce you to the excellent team that works on the FLORES project. Today is the turn of the Europan Marine Board!
- Company/Organization: European Marine Board
- Interviewee: Dr Paula Kellett, Science Officer
What does your company/organization do, in which areas do you normally work?
The European Marine Board (EMB) sits on the interface between marine science and policy, helping to ensure a smooth flow of information between marine science researchers and marine policymakers at the European and national levels. To do this, EMB produces policy-facing documents, organises events and participates in projects. The scope of topics covered is very broad and can be anything relating to marine science and the Ocean!Â
What is the role of your company/organization in the FLORES project?
We provide advice on the ORE training needs from a marine science and policy perspective, based on our recent publications on relevant topics. We also help to communicate about the project and its messages to its network of marine science and policy contacts.
Why being part of FLORES is valuable to your company/organization?
The FLORES partners are those who are best placed to help implement the training recommendations and needs which EMB has identified.
Being part of FLORES enables us to ensure that those recommendations are reaching the most relevant audience, and are being taken up, to best support the growing ORE sector.
Why do you think offshore renewable energies are important across Europe?
Europe needs to be able to meet its own energy demand to support its continual development, but the societal and environmental cost of meeting that demand through traditional fossil fuels is too great.
ORE, as a relatively untapped part of the wider suite of renewable energy options, offers the possibility to meet that demand at a more acceptable societal and environmental cost, if appropriately managed.
What are the main challenges we face to harness the power of our oceans?
One of the main challenges we face is to find alternatives to harness power from the Ocean in way that is sustainable and equitable for environment and society. This is challenge that cannot be addressed by one field (e.g. engineering, science, regulation) in isolation, which means we also need to be able to work in a transdisciplinary manner on this challenge.
What can we do among the different stakeholders to address those challenges?
We each need to reach out to other fields to start those conversations about how we work together to address these challenges.
We also need to train professionals in all related fields and at all career stages to be ready to engage in those transdisciplinary conversations.
How would you convince young people to go for a career or studies in the ORE sector, what’s in it for them?
The ORE sector has the potential to be as vast and diverse as the Ocean itself, and it can offer something for everyone.
The sector is not just about engineers designing and installing structures. In order to be able to grow ORE in a sustainable and equitable way, collaboration is needed across diverse expertise including marine science and engineering, social science, law, finance and policy.
