Ocean Space Centre proposal
A conceptual study of a NOK 10 billion Ocean Space Centre was presented Monday to Trond Giske, Norway’s Minister of Trade and Industry.
The centre, which has been initially proposed for the Trondheim waterfront, would provide researchers the facilities needed to study an array of marine and maritime topics, from ship design to renewable energy production to fish farming of the future.
The preliminary study is available for download, but is currently only in Norwegian.
No decisions as yet
Giske, who was clearly enthusiastic about the project in a press conference in Trondheim Monday, underscored the importance of maintaining Norway’s competitive edge in ocean technology, engineering and biology.
NTNU Rector Torbjørn Digernes said such a centre would enable researchers to “develop the knowledge that’s needed to contribute to solving the global challenges the world faces.”
“We are embarking on an exciting process that will determine whether it will be possible to establish an alliance among the public sector, industry and national and international research interests that can build and operate laboratories like the Ocean Space Centre”, Digernes said.
The concept will be presented to the NTNU Board of Directors to determine what role NTNU should play in developing the concept further.
The centre would be a natural successor to the Hydrodynamic Laboratories at Tyholt, where researchers from NTNU and MARINTEK currently study and test the design of ships, ocean structures and propellers. The laboratories include a cavitation lab, a 50 m by 80 m ocean basin lab, and a 260 m long towing tank. However, as currently envisioned, the Ocean Space Centre would expand the scope of testing facilities in one unified centre to include state-of the-art marine biology laboratories.
Source: NTNU
