Email News March 2012
Welcome to the March 2012 Marine South East email newsletter
If you would like to submit an article for consideration please email the text and a suitable image or logo to sarah@marinesoutheast.co.uk
Posted 2012-02-22 11:35:21
Manufacturing industry urged to bid for extra £1 Billion growth funding
The funding is part of the Regional Growth Fund and takes the total fund to £2.4 billion. It will be available to businesses and public / private partnerships with ambitions to create new jobs and make a significant impact on their local economy.
Marine business such as Princess Yachts in Plymouth and a boatbuilding college in Portsmouth have already been successful in securing some of the funding.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said:
"The Regional Growth Fund is already having a huge impact across the UK. So far there have been over 170 successful bids to the fund, leveraging around £7.5 billion of private sector investment and set to create and protect 330,000 jobs. I want to see more businesses that are confident they can create jobs and get Britain building and making things again, coming forward - making sure their hats are in the ring.
"Funding from rounds one and two has gone to some extraordinarily promising manufacturing projects. From Pirelli Tyres in Carlisle who'll use the money to develop a new range of carbon-cutting tyres; to a Portsmouth based company which hopes to use theirs to create a cutting edge boat building college."
For more information on the criteria of the fund and how to bid, please visit http://www.bis.gov.uk/rgf
The deadline for bids is 13 June 2012.
Posted 2012-02-23 12:20:25
National Oceanography Centre using reflected GPS signals to enhance sea-state measurement and forecasting
Scientists at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) are participating in the Technology Strategy Board 'WaveSentry' project to harness reflected signals from Global Navigation Satellites. Systems such as GPS will provide a new source of sea-state data for an improved information and forecasting service. The 'WaveSentry service will improve risk management for a wide range of marine operations in adverse conditions.
The NOC are working with partners in the private sector to develop and validate the methods needed (geophysical inversion) to retrieve geophysical information about sea state from measurements of satellite navigation signals reflected from the earth's surface, (GNSS-Reflectometry). GNSS-R was pioneered in 2005 by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) on its UK-Disaster Monitoring Satellite, and promises to dramatically increase the temporal and spatial resolution of ocean wave data available from satellites.
Within WaveSentry, the new sea-state observations derived from satellite GNSS-R data will be ingested into a new information and forecasting tool developed by HR Wallingford to provide improved wave information services to maritime operators. The WaveSentry project paves the way towards the operational exploitation of GNSS-R sea state data from the UK TechDemoSat-1 satellite due to be launched by SSTL in late 2012.
Using techniques developed by NOC, WaveSentry has the potential to offer an enhanced world-wide sea-state measurement and forecasting service.
WaveSentry Partners
* Seazone (HR Wallingford Ltd) (Lead partner)
* EMU Ltd
* Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
* The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
* Chelsea Technology Group Ltd
* Marine South East Ltd
Sub-contractor
* GeoData Institute, University of Southampton
Organisations from both industry and the knowledge base concerned with the provision or use of sea-state measurements and forecasting are invited to join the WaveSentry Knowledge Network.
To join please follow the link: http://www.groupspaces.com/wavesentrykn/join
Posted 2012-02-27 12:19:16
Offshore Wind Farm Supply Chain Opportunities for Local Businesses
Marine South East is to run a series of events between April and June to inform local businesses about opportunity that exist to supply products and services to Offshore Wind Farms.
Once the excitement of announcing a major investment in the form of an Offshore Wind Farm has died down the question that has to be asked is "Will this create jobs in the local area and what will it do for the local economy?"
In an attempt to answer this question Marine South East has been working to identify the opportunities for businesses based in the South East as a result of the wind farms which will be constructed off the South Coast.
Initially the research focused on the structure of the supply chain and identified the products and services used in both the construction and the operations/maintenance of a typical wind farm both onshore and offshore. This work revealed that more than 650 individual products and services are procured from turbines to portacabins.
The next phase will identify businesses in the South East that have existing or potential capacity to supply these products/services, ensure that they are kept informed about tender opportunities and are qualified to tender once the procurement process begins.
To achieve this Marine South East will be running a series of events between April and June to inform local businesses about the opportunity that exists. Participants at the initial events will be invited to attend a series of full day workshops to help ensure that they are qualified to tender.
Marine South East is also currently developing a web site which can be used by the wind farm developers to identify suppliers and where suppliers can identify the appropriate contractor/specifier for their products and services.
Opportunities for local businesses to attend "meet the buyer" events and present their company to Tier 1 contractors will be arranged at a future date.
The first three events will help potential suppliers to identify where their products and services fit in to the supply chain and to which contractor they should be speaking. Presentations will be made by an Offshore Wind Farm Developer and a procurement specialist.
We would urge anyone who is interested in supplying products or services to the offshore wind farm industry to register for one of these events as a matter of urgency. Places are limited and we expect considerable interest.
Confirmed dates and venues for the events will be sent out shortly however if you would like to register your interest in these events, please
Email: sarah@marinesoutheast.co.uk
or call 023 8011 1590
Posted 2012-02-27 12:11:27
Canadian Shipyard procurement visit, 20th March 2012, Southampton
From March 19-23 Nova Scotia Business Inc. is planning an outreach program to five UK cities to promote business and investment opportunities in Nova Scotia, Canada's thriving aerospace and defence sector. This is in direct relation to the October 2011 announcement by the Government of Canada in which Irving Shipbuilding Inc. (Halifax, Nova Scotia) was selected to build the combat vessel work package (21 vessels over the course of 20-30 years) for the Royal Canadian Navy as part of Canada's National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy.
This announcement, along with the guarantee of a sustained flow of work packages, potential foreign direct investment, business and partnership opportunities, will open up many interesting opportunities for UK companies in the marine and naval defence sectors in Canada.
The Southampton event has been planned for Tuesday 20th March 2012 taking place at 10.00am at Chilworth, Southampton.
Invitations will be limited to 2 delegates from each company, which will be sent out shortly. Attendance at the event is limited, so an early response would be appreciated. If you would like more information about these events, or to find out more about aerospace and defence opportunities in Nova Scotia visit http://www.nsbi.ca/defencens or contact:
Alan Forsey
Director, Defence, Security & Aerospace
Investment Attraction Division
Nova Scotia Business Inc.
+1 902 4248361
aforsey@nsbi.ca
or
Anthony Goode
CFN Consultants Atlantic
+1 902 4914279
+1 902 4023747
tgoode@cfncon.com
Posted 2012-02-20 17:42:25
Designing Demand Workshop, 21st March 2012, Southampton
The Designing Demand workshop (for manufacturing businesses only) will demonstrate, in a vivid and practical way, how design-led innovation must be part of the armoury of a manufacturing business in this challenging economic climate, to both add value and increase sales. It will challenge you to think about your business, where it is now, what your ambition is for its future and what has to change to take it there.
The aim of the workshop is to help you understand design and how it can help address one or more of your key business issues. These issues can be varied and could include:
* Revising or refreshing your brand and communications
* Updating your website to reflect both your business needs and your customers requirements
* Help understand your customer needs better
* Generate and deliver new ideas to market
* Redesigning current or develop new products
The output from the workshop will be to identify and plan an approach that you can use to progress your challenge - which may involve more support from the Design Associate through the Designing Demand programme
In order for the workshop to be a success and to enable the Design Associate to respond to your business needs, it is helpful to carry out some preparation in advance for use in the workshop.
Please consider the following questions:
* What's the biggest challenge your business is facing?
* Is there a particular issue you need to address to overcome this?
* What has been your previous experience of using design?
Be prepared to describe your:
* Vision or ambition for your business
* Five best/most important customers, and any new customers you want to target in the future
* Products and services
* Your culture and environment - what is it like to work at your company?
To help give some context for the Design Associate please also bring examples of your brand and communications as it stands today.
Date and Time: Wednesday 21 March - 8.45am to 12.30pm
Venue: The Royal Southampton Yacht Club
Please note that this workshop is only available to MANUFACTURING businesses; to book your place click on the link or go to:
http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/marenet
Posted 2012-02-23 16:48:27
Seawork 2012 22nd-24th May 2012, Southampton
Seawork 2012, Europe's only on-the-water exhibition for the commercial marine industry, will open on Tuesday 22 May for its 3-day run at ABP Port of Southampton. Pre-registration is now open online at http://www.seawork.com.
Seawork offers a unique display of all aspects of the commercial marine industryincluding the offshore renewable energy sector and its wide-reaching supply chain.
Seawork, is free to attend and is a great networking opportunity for leisure and commercial marine businesses wanting to diversify and take advantage of new business opportunities.
Now in its 15th year, Seawork 2012 will have a record number of vessels available for demonstration from the extended 300m on-site pontoons, plus 500 exhibitors in the halls and on the Quayside and a packed CPD-certified conference programme, including papers by the MoD, Maritime & Coastguard Agency, UK Trade & Investment Defence Security Organisation and Det Norske Veritas,.
Other special features of the exhibition include:
* Renewable Energy Pavilion and Showcase
* Ship Repair and Ship Building Pavilion
* Maritime Security Pavilion
* Innovations Showcase
* Small Business Enterprise Zone
* DiveWork
* Marine Civil Engineering Trail
* RIBwork trail
Pre-registration is now open on the Seawork website at http://www.seawork.com Follow the link from the home page to receive your unique barcode and badge number or click here http://www.exporeg.co.uk/visit/sites/mercator/seawork/12/vis/login.asp.
Posted 2012-02-22 11:30:53
Offshore Wind Farm Logistics Event - Reducing Cost through Optimisation 24th May 2012, Ostend
Reducing the cost of construction, operations and maintenance is a priority for all wind farm developers. This event will bring together developers, contractors, universities and logistics providers to examine the issues and consider how optimising logistics can contribute to reducing costs.
Presentations from developers and logistics experts will be followed by round table discussions to identify and prioritise the logistics challenges facing developers in the construction and operations/maintenance phases of an Offshore Wind Farm Development. These discussions will subsequently be used to enable the creation of a toolkit to help reduce the costs of logistics through optimisation.
This event will be held in Ostend on the 24th May 2012, is sponsored by the EU through the TIME project and will be free of charge for all delegates with lunch provided. Places are limited and developers, contractors, universities and logistics providers are encouraged to register early by clicking on the link or contacting:
Jin Sandhu
Marine South East
Tel: 02380 111590
e-mail: admin@marinesoutheast.co.uk
