National Subsea Centre and NOC Innovations partner to shape a stronger marine future

The National Subsea Centre (NSC), a centre of excellence for subsea research and technology development, today announced its newly formed partnership with NOC Innovations, a Southampton-based facility making cutting-edge marine research and tailor-made autonomous technology available to organisations around the globe.

The two centres will bring together specialist researchers, engineers and scientists to form a community dedicated to addressing marine-related issues that no single entity could tackle alone. Uniquely positioned both geographically and technologically, the NSC and NOC Innovations will draw on shared resources, insights and skills to help organisations make better decisions in the environments in which they operate.

With expertise spanning the fields of marine science, robotics, sensors and instrumentation, data science, artificial intelligence, imaging, object detection and classification, digital twins, simulation and remote sensing, the teams will work in unison to share research findings and deliver joint solutions that will help achieve sustainability and energy transition targets.

The commonalities between the two centres will help generate stronger funding proposals, research agendas aligned with industry needs and societal challenges and structured programmes for knowledge exchange such as seminars, workshops and training sessions.

In addition, the organisations will be better equipped to support new and existing industry partners through each centre’s state-of-the-art offering, including the use of the NOC ‘Innovation Centre’, a world-class facility boasting specialist engineering and testing facilities and the NSC’s warehouse, home to a Flowloop, Hyperspectral Imaging Lab, robotics area, Materials Lab , large workshop, yard space and Innovation Hub which can accommodate up to 75 people for a range of events.

Professor John McCall, NSC Director, said: “With a mission and values strongly aligned to our own, this partnership could not be a better fit for what we strive to achieve here at the NSC. The collaboration exemplifies our commitment to driving innovation and excellence in marine technology by leveraging our combined expertise and capabilities across a range of projects in the marine domain.”

Mark Hamson, NOC Innovation Centre Manager, adds: “On behalf of NOC Innovations, I am thrilled to partner with the National Subsea Centre (NSC). This collaboration promises to unify our expertise and resources, fostering a powerful synergy in subsea research and technology. This agreement will also support our members by granting access to our respective centres.”