About the Challenge
Ørsted, one of the world’s leading renewable energy companies, is seeking innovative digital solutions developed in other industries that can be adapted and applied to offshore wind operations & maintenance (O&M).
The challenge is a unique opportunity for companies to bridge or scale digital solutions to the offshore wind sector’s O&M needs. Moreover, the challenge will leverage Ørsted’s expertise and, in partnership with Digital Catapult and Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult in the UK, will provide a platform to mature innovative ventures.
In collaboration with:
Why this challenge matters?
The offshore wind industry is rapidly expanding, with more wind farms being built to support the global journey to net-zero. As the industry scales, the number of assets entering the O&M phase of their life cycle will increase significantly.
Innovative digital solutions will be crucial for enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and improving reliability. This challenge provides startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a unique opportunity to scale their solutions with the leading global offshore wind developer, driving sustainability and innovation in one of the fastest-growing sectors of the industry.
Focus areas
- Increasing predictive maintenance and reducing unplanned maintenance
- Example: Machine learning models for failure prediction
- Approaches to model and optimise operations and maintenance
- Example: Digital twins for turbine performance, portfolio management
- Logistics & resource optimisation to improve efficiency
- Example: AI-powered weather analytics, smart warehouse
- Increasing transparency and trust in maintenance and supply chains
- Example: Digital ledger-based maintenance records
- Automated inspection to enable additional insights from existing inspection methodologies
- Example: Automated inspection processing
- Assisting workers remotely and reducing the need for additional unnecessary site visits
- Example: Augmented reality assisted troubleshooting & employees training
Ørsted also encourages innovative ‘out-of-the-box’ proposals that may not fit within the predefined categories but still align with offshore wind O&M digitalisation goals.
Timeline
- September 2, 2025
- Official launch of the competition, with details on goals, eligibility, and how to apply. Participants can now register and submit their proposals.
- October 3, 2025
- Deadline for submissions. All proposals must be submitted by this date to be considered for the competition.
- October 24, 2025
- Top proposals are reviewed and shortlisted based on the evaluation criteria. Selected participants are notified and invited to proceed to the next phase of the competition.
- November 20, 2025
- Pitch Day | Shortlisted participants will attend an in-person event in London to present their proposals to a panel of judges. Winners announced shortly afterwards.
- January, 2026
- Programme delivery commences in the beginning of 2026.
Next steps
For more information on the challenge, click here to visit Ørsted’s webpage.
To learn more about the application process, applicability, evaluation criteria and start your application, visit the Digital Catapult’s website below.
