OceanACT – Building a European Centre for the Demonstration of Innovative Technologies from the Blue Economy in Portugal

The oceans have the capability to support the current transitions occurring within our societies, including the implementation of clean energy production and storage technologies and new paths for sustainable food production. These transitions are, nonetheless, many times dependent on innovative technologies which require long paths of technology maturation before they can fit the existing ecosystems and markets. One critical step for technology validation is the demonstration stage in real offshore conditions, which is necessary to validate the performance of the proposed technologies, as well as their reliability and economic viability. In this respect, Portugal has been the testbed of several ocean-based technologies, including the Windfloat device, and possesses the necessary infrastructures to implement and test further innovative concepts and designs. Still, these infrastructures are currently underutilized, which means more technology developers could be testing and implementing their technologies in the country. This paper presents the OceanACT initiative, which is being led by five partners, + ATLANTIC, CEIIA, Fórum Oceano, INESC TEC and WavEC, aiming to promote and manage the existing offshore testing infrastructures in the country. The vision and the strategic path for the initiative, as well as the available infrastructures, and its respective metocean conditions, are presented here. This initiative intends to attract new technology developers to the country, and consequently generate relevant socioeconomic benefits, such as the attraction of investment, the inclusion of the national industry into the supply chain of these innovative projects, and the creation of highly qualified jobs.