Oxford engineering researcher wins Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship

The Royal Academy of Engineering has awarded Research Fellowships to outstanding early-career researchers to help them establish independent research programmes and become future leaders in engineering. The fellowships provide funding for ambitious, five-year research programmes, giving recipients the freedom to advance fundamental research in their fields. Funded by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, the scheme supports engineering innovation with the potential to address major societal challenges and strengthen the UK’s research and innovation capability.

Among this year’s awardees is Dr Emma Edwards, who will investigate how the design of floating offshore wind platforms could make renewable energy cheaper and more efficient.

Around 80% of the UK’s offshore wind resources lie in waters too deep for conventional fixed-bottom foundations. Floating turbines could unlock these resources, but their platforms currently cost around four times as much as fixed-bottom foundations. Reducing these costs will be essential if floating wind is to expand at the scale needed to support the UK’s net-zero ambitions.

Dr Edwards’ research will examine how the shape and arrangement of floating structures influence their interaction with waves. By optimising these interactions, she aims to develop platforms that use less material, experience lower structural loads and deliver greater energy output.

“Floating wind is central to the UK’s Net-Zero strategy,” says Dr Edwards. “This fellowship will answer the question: how can floating wind platforms be optimised to deliver high power at low cost?”

One promising approach involves multi-body platforms, in which auxiliary structures help stabilise the main turbine platform by damping its movement in waves. These additional structures could also function as wave energy converters, capturing energy from the sea and helping to diversify electricity generation.

The project will combine theoretical and numerical modelling to identify optimal geometries, followed by assessments of practical constraints, including structural survivability and manufacturability. Working with industry partners, Dr Edwards aims to develop one or two viable designs that reduce platform mass while increasing energy yield, with a pathway towards prototyping.

The research could help address one of the key barriers to scaling up floating offshore wind: the cost of the structures needed to support turbines in deep water. Dr Edwards will also develop tools that can be shared openly and help train the next generation of engineers specialising in offshore renewable energy.

“What excites me most about this award is the opportunity to tackle a research challenge that brings together my previous expertise while addressing a problem I am deeply passionate about: making offshore renewable energy more viable and affordable,” she says.

The fellowship will support Dr Edwards’ ambition to establish a leading research programme in offshore renewable energy hydrodynamics. Alongside her research, she plans to expand her public engagement activities and encourage more people from under-represented groups to pursue careers in engineering. Dr Edwards has previously written about the engineering challenges of floating wind platforms in The Conversation: Six innovative ways to float skyscraper-sized wind turbines.