Latest News & Project Updates

Hello and welcome to the first edition of the STEP4WIND project newsletter!

STEP4WIND is a European Industrial Doctorate project, granted under the H2020 Marie-Curie Innovative Training Network initiative, that brings together leading academics and industry experts in the offshore wind industry and floating wind turbines.

The primary aim of the project is to address both technological and economic challenges related to the development of floating offshore wind farms. In particular, tackling matters on the design performance and the high costs of the production and operation approaches.

Coordinated by TU Delft, the project will run for four years (April 2020 – March 2024) and will deliver 10 PhD degrees in joint supervision and interdisciplinary training between the public and private sectors.

Find out what the STEP4WIND team have been up to in the first six months of the project below. 

1. STEP4WIND Team's Latest Dissemination Activities
2. Early Stage Researchers Join the STEP4WIND Team
3. An Update on the ITN Cross Training Opportunities

STEP4WIND Team's Latest Dissemination Activities

The STEP4WIND coordinator, Axelle Viré, was invited to talk about the project at two large international events during the first six months of the project. First, the project was presented at the largest event on floating offshore wind energy in the world: the Floating Offshore Wind Turbines 2020 conference. The talk was well-received and led to a number of discussions with new industrial partners.

Second, the experience with our joint academic-industry supervision structure was shared at the MSCA2020 conference held online on 29th September. In this context, Axelle Viré was part of a round table discussing supervision within Marie Sklodowska-Curie projects. The outcome of this event will serve as a basis to advise the European Commission on supervision guidelines in future projects.

On 30th September, Axelle Viré participated in a webinar organized by the TWIND consortium and presented STEP4WIND as an example of strong collaboration between the academic and industrial sectors.

Finally, STEP4WIND is part of five mini-symposia selected for the Wind Energy Science Conference 2021 to be held in Hannover in May 2021. Find out more in the link below.

Early Stage Researchers Join the STEP4WIND Team

TU Delft will co-host five early stage researchers (ESRs). An average of 50 applications were received for each position. The candidates were selected over the summer and started their project in the Autumn. In particular, we welcome:

• Likhitha Ramesh Reddy (ESR1, start 15 October in Delft)
• Ricardo Amara (ESR2, start 1 Nov in Delft)
• Deepali Singh (ESR3, start 1 Dec in Delft)
• Matteo Baudino Bessone (ESR4, start 1 Oct in Delft)
• Alejandro del Toro (ESR6, start 19 Oct in Galway)

The University College Cork received over 220 high quality applications from 43 countries for the three available ESR positions on the STEP4WIND project. A total of 17 candidates were invited for interviews which were held over the period of the 14th to the 25th of September. All offers have now been made and accepted and the candidates have commenced the institutional Postgraduate Application process. All three ESRs are due to commence work on the project in October/November 2020 but due to the current Covid-19 restrictions, this will be a remote start initially with candidates relocating to Ireland in early 2021.

An Update on ITN Cross Training Opportunities

STEP4WIND is liaising with three other Innovative Training Network (ITN) projects that were funded under the same call: FLOAWER, LIKE, and Train2Wind. The General and Training coordinators of these four ITNs meet every two months to discuss updates, identify possible synergies, and share knowledge and experience.

The first outcome of this initiative is the joint participation of these ITNs in mini-symposia for the Wind Energy Science Conference (WESC) 2021. Another example is the agreement to open the training events of each ITN to the early stage researchers (ESRs) of the other ITNs. Once all the ESRs from the four ITNs have started, the Coordinators will ensure that all these ESRs are well connected together. STEP4WIND is very glad to be part of this collaboration and look forward to joint activities in the future.