University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain
University College Cork (UCC), Ireland
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
École Centrale de Nantes (ECN), France

Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Renewable Energy in the Marine Environment (M.Sc.) - REMPLUS 2

Renewable energy plays a more and more important role. At a social level, renewable energy contributes to a more sustainable energy system, by providing a more independent power system and contributing to the reduction of global warming and climate change.

Offshore renewable energy has a vast potential, but they represent a major technological challenge. The harsh conditions offshore demand advanced specific knowledge in various scientific and technological fields, and specifically trained professionals are demanded by this industry.

The aim of the REM PLUS 2 master is to form specialists with the required skills to accomplish this technological challenge.

The Master provides the student with skills in assessment, analysis, simulation, development and exploitation of all available energy in the marine environment and in project development of safe, efficient and reliable marine energy generation plants, including operation and maintenance design and study of the integration of the plants in the electric system.

The Master program is fully presented in English and classes are presented by professors of University of the Basque Country (Spain), University College Cork (Ireland), Ecole Centrale de Nantes (France) and NTNU (Norway), and professionals from the supporting companies and institutes.

The master also offers the possibility to develop the Master´s thesis in one of the supporting entities and it offers a number of scholarships.


The Consortium Universities

University of the Basque Country

UPV/EHU employs over 7.000 people throughout 31 faculties and schools geographically distributed in three campuses with over 50.000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. It holds agreements with more than 400 international universities. Five departments are involved in this proposal together with three Associate Centers. UPV/EHU is involved in the lecturing of tracks A and B in semester 2 in modules 1, 2, 4 and 5.

UPV/EHU expertise is focused in the aerodynamics for marine applications including offshore wave energy assessment, electrical and electronic equipment and control principles. The connection and integration into the electricity grid is a field in which UPV/EHU has a long experience both teaching and researching. Associate center BCAM is focused in the mathematical formulation of CFD whereas TECNALIA has a large experience in operation and maintenance of marine devices and finally IH CANTABRIA is expert on environmental issues and deployment of marine devices counting with its own water tank.

University College Cork

Green Campus award. In 2013, it became the first third level institute to hold a Green Flag award, and in 2016 successfully renewed its Green Flag award. UCC has a strong track record in H2020; as of September 2017, UCC researchers secured 98 H2020 projects (32 as coordinator) representing a financial drawdown of €50.5M.The Environmental Research Institute (ERI) is a flagship research Institute at UCC that carries out interdisciplinary research in the broad Environmental, Marine and Energy area.

ERI has a total of 355 researchers (including 64 PIs and 65 postgraduate students). The ERI is the host institute for MaREI – the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine; researchers at MaREI work across the marine, renewable energy and marine renewable energy areas. Researchers in MaREI have over 20 years of experience leading and participating in European, International and national research projects. MaREI has led and continues to lead a number of EU projects; for example, the following H2020 projects: Marine Investment in the Blue Economy (MARIBE; 2014-16), Marine Renewable Infrastructure Network for Enhancing Technologies 2 (MARINET2; 2017-21), Marine Renewable Energy Research Infrastructure (Marinerg-I; 2017-19), and Multiple Use of Space for Island Clean Autonomy (MUSICA; 2020-24). UCC in involved in the lecturing of tracks A and B in semester 1 in modules 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Politecnico di Torino

Established in 1859, POLITO is the oldest technical University in Italy and one of the most prestigious public institutions in Italy for education and research in engineering, architecture and design. Ranking among the first forty technical universities in the world, it is globally recognized as a high-quality centre for education and research. At POLITO around 1.200 Professors and Researchers carry out research and provide education to around 39.000 students, of which around 7.000 international from more than 120 countries, on a wide catalogue of degree courses including 18 PhD courses and 36 MSc courses, of which 60% in English. POLITO is involved in the lecturing of track B in semester 3 in modules 3 and 4.

Its international education network features 1.000 agreements with EU and non-EU universities and international campuses in China and Uzbekistan. POLITO’s experience in European projects is in research as well as international mobility and cooperation in programmes such as Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, Erasmus Mundus, TEMPUS, EuropeAid. Throughout the years POLITO has proved to be one of the top Italian universities for volume of international collaborations and quality of the results achieved. POLITO is currently participating in 7 Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters and its coordinator of one of them. Moreover, POLITO was awarded an Erasmus Mundus Design Measure in 2023 and it’s currently participating in 2 other design measures. POLITO relies on a strong network of partners all around the world also thanks to the participation in prestigious international university networks such as CESAER, CLUSTER, Unimed and Magalhães. POLITO is on the leading edge of European higher education as a member of the European University Alliance Unite. The Department of Energy (DENERG, https://www.denerg.polito.it/) will be the Department mainly involved in the proposal. DENERG is the point of reference in Politecnico di Torino for the areas of knowledge concerned with energy and sustainable development. The Department has the aim of improving the existing energy technologies and promoting new ones, as well as contributing to the rational and informed use of energy resources.

École Centrale de Nantes

The main academic activity of Ecole Centrale de Nantes (ECN) is to train engineers for industry (three years of training with a level of master 2 for graduates). The training consists of high-level scientific and technical teaching. Ecole Centrale de Nantes has a total of 2150 students including 500 Masters or PhD students and 250 continuous training students. It holds agreements with more than 240 international universities. The research and teaching staff counts 150 persons. ECN is one of the five general engineering schools of the Ecoles Centrales Group (Paris, Lyon, Lille, Marseille and Nantes). This group has gained an international recognition with more than 1800 engineers graduated every year and more than 2000 researchers.

ECN expertise is focused on free surface hydrodynamics for marine renewable energy systems. This includes wave resource assessment and modelling of the interactions between wave and marine structures through the use of experimental and numerical approaches. The practical application to the design and the optimization of marine renewable energy systems is a field in which ECN has a long experience in both teaching and researching. The unique academic large scale facilities available at ECN: a towing tank (150m long) and a large ocean wave basin (50m length, 30m width and 5m depth with a multiflap wavemaker able to generate complex multidirectional waves) will contribute to the teaching programme of the master. These experimental facilities will also possibly host students for their master’s thesis.