EMEC restructure will ‘regrettably’ result in redundancies says director

A shake-up of the organisation at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) is set to result in some redundancies, its managing director has confirmed.

The news came this week in a statement issued by the Stromness-based renewables research centre, which explains that a lack of access to EU funding streams has led to the halt of many of EMEC projects. The company is now consulting with staff on a restructure.

Neil Kermode, EMEC’s managing director, said: “EMEC is a not-for-profit R&D [research and development] organisation and has adapted to changing market and funding landscapes several times over the last 20 years. More recently, we have participated in a wide range of EU programmes enabling us to build considerable capacity within the company to support innovation projects.

“Unfortunately, we no longer have access to some of these EU funding streams and many of those projects are coming to an end.

“At the same time, we are seeing a longer-term resurgence in government support for the marine energy sector and the wider net zero agenda in the UK. EMEC also has a strong pipeline of technology developers due to demonstrate in Orkney over the next decade and ambitious plans to expand its infrastructure to meet this growing demand.

“However, there is a gap between now and then and having explored various options following the UK withdrawal from the EU Interreg programme, we are now looking to reshape the organisation for a change in funding streams and regrettably this will result in some redundancies.

“We are consulting with our staff on the restructure and will ensure that they receive the support they need as we go through this process.

“The future shape of the organisation will focus on meeting the needs of industry, delivering pioneering R&D at our test sites in Orkney and internationally, and on being here to help marine energy and other low carbon technologies commercialise.”