What is inore?

The International Network on Offshore Renewable Energy (INORE) is an association of postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and other professionals at early stages of their careers, working in the fields of offshore wind, wave, tidal and ocean thermal energy conversion. We call ourselves INOREans. INORE’s organization, administration, fundraising, etc. is done through the voluntary hard-work of dedicated INOREans elected by their peers to the steering committee.

INORE was founded by a small group of researchers in 2006 in order to solve problems through interdisciplinary collaboration. Today, INORE has more than 1000 members from over 70 countries, representing a network that spans a multitude of research fields, including technological, social, economic and environmental aspects. We carry the torch of our founders in our official mission: “the advancement of education and the proliferation of public knowledge in relation to Offshore Renewable Energy.”

Networking

There is no real network without activities and communication. INORE creates opportunities for informal arenas to better see the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead through discussion, evaluation, and dissemination.

Thus, through cross-pollination, early stage researchers and their research contribution become greater than the sum of their parts. INORE operate on three time-scales:

ANNUALLY

INORE’s main arena is the annual symposium. The INORE Symposium is an international event for early stage researchers to discuss their work and learn through each other’s experience. This event helps the launch of future sustainable collaborative research between the different participants. The Symposium is not only an academic arena. In order to facilitate networking and learning, the symposium also includes social activities and inspiring sessions with keynote speakers Industry leaders, leading researchers or government representatives.

MISSION

INORE is a non-profit organisation run by volunteers. INORE was created as a network to support early-stage researchers of offshore renewable energy within an international context. With over 1200 members from over 75 countries around the world, INORE aims to facilitate networking and knowledge transfer between young researchers. The organisation currently focuses on four main fields of knowledge: wave, tidal, offshore wind and OTEC.

“INORE’s mission is to bring together early-stage researchers (INOREans) from around the world and with a variety of backgrounds to share what they know, and learn from others working in offshore renewable energy. We do this by running activities that are for INOREans, designed by INOREAns, in a fun, welcoming and casual environment where your peers become your friends.”

In order to achieve its mission, INORE brings together an international and multi-disciplinary group of young researchers who are passionate about developing offshore renewable energy, booking the knowledge of early-stage researchers by helping them to meet and collaborate, independent of their experience, discipline or nationality.

INORE also proactively links early-stage researchers with relevant stakeholders (e.g. academia, supply chain, developers, etc.) in the field of Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) in order to extend links between parties to ensure a greater knowledge sharing community.

INORE’s vision is a world where INOREans have helped to shape ORE into the global energy mix, and where we continue to unite INOREans and inspire and empower them to do great research and follow their career dreams.

We are supported by our generous sponsors who share our vision to advance education and spread public knowledge of offshore renewable energy.

We’re all about the knowledge transfer and generally promoting collaborative research for the betterment of  offshore renewables, and we’re run by volunteers which is pretty cool. Learn about our governance in the document below.

Memorandum and Articles of Association

In February 2014 we decided to move our headquarters to UK (Plymouth) and approved a constitution, giving to INORE a formal status which we didn’t got before. Then, in February 2015 we became incorporated as a Limited by Guarantee Company with limited objects (i.e., A non-for-profit company which main aim is to became a charity in the mid-term).

HISTORY

INORE was founded in 2006, in Norway, by a group of PhD students from different European countries. Its initial purpose was to provide a forum on which young professionals and researchers working in the field of offshore renewable energy could gather and openly exchange their knowledge, experiences and ideas.

The idea of creating a network for young researchers who worked on offshore renewable energy was born in the “PhD Pool on Offshore Renewable Energy” existing of one Post Doc and three PhD students associated to the Norwegian Centre For Renewable Energy and financed by the Research Council of Norway.

The intention with the PhD Pool was to let researchers from different fields work together in order to create solutions which are difficult to achieve without the touch of interdisciplinary thinking. The PhD pool soon realised that the need for a bigger community to enable the discussions needed to obtain this goal. Inspired by the blooming industry and lack of real cooperation across country boarders the work to establish an interdisciplinary and international network was started.

One of the key ideas was to establish a truly international network. To ensure the international spirit an interim committee meeting with participants from four different countries was held near Trondheim 15-17th of April 2007. The meeting was attended by the three initiators from Norway and three new committee members who were selected after applications.

The objectives of the meeting were to establish targets, strategies and visions for the network. New committee members from three different countries with different background and knowledge were invited in order to make the network truly international from inception and to assure commitment in several countries from inception.

Eight years on, INORE has over 1,200 members from 75 countries of which more than 530 are

Associate members, known as INOREans. To achieve its objectives, INORE has been able to position itself thanks to a series of knowledge-sharing tools such as symposia, workshops, technological challenges, scholarships and via its own web page.