PhairywinD

Our main aim is to establish a core community of 9 highly networked top researchers, able to tackle the current and future challenges in offshore wind energy, such that Belgian companies can adopt top notch worldwide innovation in a timely matter. The objectives of the PhairywinD project are threefold: research, training and mobility, but it is the link between these objectives that makes this project unique. All researchers will be deployed in one Belgian knowledge institution. They will perform their research there, under the supervision of their promoter. However, in contrast to regular doctoral research, the researchers will be embedded in a larger, cross sectoral structure: the innovative training network, where both technological and non-technological disciplines will be represented in order to guarantee a holistic approach towards the offshore wind challenges. This way our researchers will be aware of the larger framework and the general context of the sector in which their individual work fits. Their experience after their research period will also be hands-on, since they will interact with the offshore wind key industrial players, perform secondments in Belgian companies working in the offshore sector and they will visit many of them to see their core-business in real life. This way they are ready to support the sector with their academic research and their sectoral know-how, once the second zone of wind farms is starting its development, providing skills relevant for innovation and long-term employability in the Belgian offshore wind energy industry.