MERAMarine Energy Research Australia
Knowledge and Innovation in Australia’s Ocean Renewable Energy Sector
Collaborating with Australian and international ocean energy industry partners, academic researchers and government to facilitate innovative renewable energy technology and fieldwork activities.
Marine Energy Research Australia
Marine Energy Research Australia (MERA) was established as a new knowledge hub for the ocean energy community and received support from the Western Australian Government’s Royalties for Regions program. MERA provides world-class multi-disciplinary research that supports ocean renewable energy projects.
MERA headquarters are in the Great Southern Marine Research Facility (GSMRF) in Albany, southern Western Australia, and operates across the Albany and Perth campus locations of The University of Western Australia.
The operations of MERA have attracted a new wealth of marine expertise to the Great Southern and to GSMRF, offering research opportunities to staff and students.
We are bringing together decades of expertise in offshore engineering to advance renewable ocean energy to the point of commercial viability.
The UWA Oceans Institute hosts several industry and academic chairs, in fields of expertise relevant to MERA. This includes the Shell Chair, the Lloyd’s Register Chair, the Fugro Chair and the Ocean Engineering Chair. MERA leverages these relationships, bringing world-leading expertise to the development and support of research activities in ocean renewables.
The UWA Oceans Institute has also an established network of industry and academic relationships built within the ongoing research projects on wave energy funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Australian Research Council (ARC). These relationships currently include:
Blue Economy CRC, Curtin University, Dalian Maritime University, Delft University, Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), Oregon State University / PMEC, Technical University of Denmark, University of Adelaide, University of Manchester, and University of Oxford.
The vision for the GSMRF is to become a truly multi-disciplinary, cross-sector innovation space that fosters collaboration and co-working. The Wave Energy Research Centre already actively pursues a leading role in all areas of offshore renewable energy – encompassing offshore wind, tidal and wave energy – and applies its large local skill base to other regional issues. As part of the three main research programs, expertise in wave modelling, fluid mechanics and soil dynamics is also highly applicable to ports operations, aquaculture, coastal adaptation and many other activities in the Great Southern economy.
GSMRF hosts this expertise – a knowledge hub with potential for national and regional impact alike. Leveraging the facility for co-working space and marine field operations, new partnerships bring academic exchange and local upskilling to put Albany more prominently on the map for marine research and ocean renewable energy- including Academic, Industry, and Government.
The Great Southern Marine Research Facility is part of a professional network of experts in ocean engineering that includes research infrastructure across the Albany and Perth locations. GSMRF attracts professionals to the region and is a dedicated co-working space to create, maintain and grow collaborations to further benefit the region. The facility features offices and meeting rooms, as well as infrastructure for marine field operations. It is considered the homebase for access to the wave energy development site at Sandpatch, including access to all data that characterise this site (for instance, oceanographic and geophysical studies).
GSMRF further interfaces seamlessly with state-of-the-art research infrastructure in Perth such as the 50-metre wave flume and the 10-metre geotechnical beam centrifuge at the UWA Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre.
