The Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP) is a business transformation programme established as part of the UK Offshore Wind Sector Deal. It is delivered by ORE Catapult to accelerate growth in the UK’s offshore wind supply chain. It supports projects and activities that improve competitiveness, build capacity, and encourage new entrants.

The programme is funded by Innovate UK and delivered by ORE Catapult on behalf of the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC). The OWGP has grown rapidly since it launched in 2019, with over £10m awarded to UK companies through grant funding and business transformation programmes.

Challenge

Economic analysis shows a global offshore wind market of £33bn a year by 2030 with UK exports worth £2.6bn per year and 27,000 jobs by 2030 – a three-fold increase on today’s level. The sector has also set itself a target of reaching 60% UK content for wind farms in our waters.

Solution

To help the offshore wind supply chain meet these targets, we must promote greater collaboration, increase business competitiveness, support greater innovation, attract new entrants and grow existing companies – and this is what OWGP aims to do.

OWGP accelerates growth in the UK offshore wind supply chain through two key ways:

 

Business transformation programmes

OWGP runs a suite of structured programmes to support companies at different stages of their journey in offshore wind, helping them to increase impact, productivity, and growth. These programmes are for companies operating in the offshore wind industry already, as well as those seeking to transition into the sector.

 

Grant funding

OWGP offers funding for transformative projects within high-growth UK companies to build new capacity. Development grants from £100k to £1m are on offer for projects delivering a step-change in company growth. There are also innovation grants which range from £25k to £100k. These smaller-scale grants are for game-changing projects that deliver new technologies, products, and services to the sector.

Results

So far, over £10m has been awarded to UK companies through grant funding and business transformation programmes. Over 160 programmes have been supported and more than 100 jobs in offshore wind have been created due to the work of OWGP.

Claire Canning, Programme Manager at ORE Catapult said:

“We’re here to help businesses who are uncertain about what the opportunity in offshore wind is and it’s our job to help provide access to support programmes, resources and funding that can help grow within the industry.

“We are really fortunate to gain valuable insight from supply chain companies on their barriers to growth within the sector that we can feed back to senior industry stakeholders and target our support accordingly.   

“We want to hear from any company that has the ambition to increase impact, productivity, and growth in offshore wind.”

Discover more about the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership by clicking here.