NiD4OCEAN - Renewables Grid Initiative

NiD4OCEAN is a 36-month project funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe programme.

The project will investigate the role of offshore renewable energy in biodiversity conservation and restoration through nature-inclusive designs (NiDs), going beyond the state-of-the-art, laying strong foundations for this emerging field.

To build a sustainable future where offshore renewables and ocean protection go hand in hand, this project is committed to advancing the field of NiDs, crafting a strong knowledge base for the emerging field of NiDs by mapping current solutions and creating new ones. Our ambition is to support the transition towards a sustainable blue economy, by providing science-based tailored solutions to industry, managers, and policymakers.

Nature-inclusive Designs

Nature-inclusive designs (NiDs) offer new possibilities to integrate biodiversity conservation and restoration within offshore renewables infrastructure. However, significant knowledge gaps remain regarding the use of NiDs across European seas. Addressing these gaps and clarifying what NiDs are, where they are most effective, and how to measure their performance is crucial for delivering robust, evidence-based scientific recommendations and decision-support tools.

Our transdisciplinary approach to synthetise knowledge on NiDs will foster the development and co-creation of novel concepts, as well as explore the transferability of existing solutions to different ecoregions.

What are the objectives?

Build a strong knowledge base for the emerging field of nature-inclusive designs by mapping current solutions and creating new ones for offshore renewable energy across European seas.

Explore the benefits and risks of these designs by developing tools to measure their impact on the environment, economy, and livelihood of coastal communities at various stages and scales.

Provide guidelines for choosing, implementing, and monitoring these designs with input from industry and policymakers, and tailor them to specific regions, ecosystems, and technologies.

Increase awareness about the importance of balancing biodiversity and decarbonisation through engagement and strategies aimed at all users of the sea.

Creating new designs

To promote and incentivise the development of compelling and innovative Nature-Inclusive Designs (NiDs), the NiD4OCEAN project will organise three Innovation Challenges. These are designed to identify new solutions to mitigate impacts and to enhance and restore nature at offshore wind and grid infrastructure. The challenges will engage university students, start-ups, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), aiming to attract leading innovators from across Europe to contribute their expertise in support of nature.

Who are the partners?

The project will be carried out by a consortium of 13 partners representing academic, environmental and industrial know-how from across Europe. It consists of Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Wageningen University & Research, Deltares, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Klaipeda University, Stichting De Noordzee,DNV, Equinor, Scottish Power Renewables, Science Crunchers, Akvaplan-niva and RGI.

What is RGI’s role?

Building on extensive experience, RGI is in charge on the one hand of outreach and networking, including identification of the events, associations and networks of relevance to the project. On the other hand, RGI leads stakeholder engagement with specific focus on replication and exploitation of the project results, particularly the public authorities and policy makers, the market participants and the academic and research community.