Setting an offshore wind innovation challenge: four things to fix before it goes out

At Pelergy we run the Innovation Exchange (iX) as delivery partner for Innovate UK Business Connect. Through the Offshore Wind Innovation Exchange (OWiX) we have brokered 27 industrial challenges and supported more than 500 companies, and the challenge brief shapes the proposals that come back.

An iX challenge starts with a challenge holder, a developer, operator, OEM or research centre, stating a problem. Companies from any sector then propose a solution. OWiX drew answers from oil and gas and healthcare as well as from offshore wind, and leveraged more than £1m of private R&D funding.

Four things we fix in a challenge brief

We scope every challenge with the holder before it is published. Four things go into the brief.

The team that owns the problem. Name the asset, operations or engineering team that will receive the result. A challenge owned by an innovation function alone has nobody to take a successful trial into procurement.

The decision the result should change. Examples include a go or no-go on a project, a place on a supplier shortlist, a change to a maintenance standard and a revision to a safety case. Applicants then design their evidence around that decision.

The operating conditions. List the vessel type, the site metocean conditions, the monitoring system already installed, the turbine platform and the certification route. A company from another sector can only design for conditions the brief tells it about, and those companies are the reason to run an open challenge.

The funded next step. State what the holder will fund if a solution works: a trial, a purchase order, a joint development project. Set the pass or fail metric at the same time.

A brief that fixes all four gives applicants a buyer, a decision, a deployment case and a route to contract. A brief that fixes two draws proposals that the holder then has to interpret.

How the brief worked on three challenges in 2023

In Q4 2023 we managed three iX challenges for ORE Catapult, Ocean Winds and G+. Each holder named its problem and the conditions before applicants submitted, and we managed each competition for the holder. We also designed the blueprint that embeds the iX process into Launch Academy's accelerator, translating sponsor challenges into briefs the accelerator's clean energy start-ups could work to.

Challenge holders can check the market before the brief goes out. The Wind Energy Technology Database records technology maturity and deployment history, including where a comparable technology has already been trialled and by whom.

Where the 2026 funding routes sit

Three routes are open to offshore wind innovation in 2026:

• UKRI has set out new funding routes for offshore wind innovation.
• Innovate UK Business Connect lists competitions under the Offshore Wind Innovation Programme.
• The Wind Innovation Hub, funded by Innovate UK and formed by ORE Catapult, NCC and NMIS, runs an Accelerating Innovations Programme.

Each route funds the solution side. A developer or operator that sets a well-scoped challenge gives those funded companies a named problem, a decision to aim at and a funded next step if the solution works.

If you hold a problem you would like the market to answer, we will scope the challenge brief with you and check the database for technology already trialled against it.

Image credit: Image: Wind Innovation Hub (https://www.windinnovationhub.com/), used with permission. Source: Image: Wind Innovation Hub (https://www.windinnovationhub.com/), used with permission.