About The project

What is UNITED?

UNITED is a research project co-financed by the European Union Horizon 2020 programme. The acronym UNITED stands for Multi-Use offshore platforms demoNstrators for boostIng cost-effecTive and Eco-friendly proDuction in sustainable marine activities.

The UNITED project was carried out between 2020 and 2023. It provided evidence for the viability of ocean multi-use through the development of five demonstration pilots in the real European marine environment. UNITED has:

Addressed current bottlenecks relating to the large-scale installation of ocean multi-use activities;
Demonstrated business synergies and benefits of ocean multi-use;
Provided a roadmap for deployment in future multi-use sites and potential scaling barriers to be addressed through best practices and lessons learnt.

UNITED enhanced the technology readiness levels of multi-use solutions, involving industrial actors and integrating knowledge, technologies and facilities. It also proposed business models to reduce operation costs and generate benefits to all sectors involved.

The success of the UNITED pilots has contributed to boost the capacity of the Blue Economy within European waters and to increase the efficiency and multi-functionality between traditionally competing interests in these sectors.

Key Facts

5 pillars

The UNITED activities included a review of the State-of-the-Art of ocean multi-use and the development of Roadmaps for five real-life demonstration pilots.

Find out how UNITED enhanced the viability of ocean multi-use and address current challenges across five key pillars:

Elaboration on the five pillars was followed by the Implementation Phase and the Assessment and Validation Phase.

5 pilots

The UNITED activities were based in five real-life ocean multi-use pilot sites, where different combinations of activities were already being carried out or were at the implementation stage:

German pilot – blue mussels, seaweed and offshore wind energy
Dutch pilot – offshore seaweed and floating solar energy
Belgian pilot – offshore wind, flat oyster aquaculture & restoration, & seaweed cultivation
Danish pilot – offshore wind and tourism
Greek pilot – aquaculture and tourism

5 Blue Economy sectors

The five UNITED pilot hosted different combinations of maritime activities belonging to a wide array of Blue Economy sectors:

Renewable energy – offshore wind farms and floating solar sytems
Aquaculture – Blue mussels, flat oysters and fisheries
Bio-resources – including seaweed
Tourism – including recreational and educational visits to wind turbines and diving
Maritime transport – including leisure boat tours and maritime traffic related to expanding marine wind parks

3 Regional Seas

The five UNITED pilots were located in three European seas, to best represent the diversity of operating conditions:

Baltic Sea
North Sea
Mediterranean Sea

The technologies researched and implemented by UNITED were tested near-shore before being applied offshore and thus included research of both the more subdued conditions near-shore as well as the more critical conditions offshore.

3 Technology Readiness Levels

The UNITED activities brought technology in the five pilots across three Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) with the aim of bringing the demonstration pilots to TRL7, showcasing the operations of ocean multi-use and co-location for 1-2 years:

TRL5: Technology validated in relevant environment
TRL6: Technology demonstrated in relevant environment
TRL7: System prototype demonstration in operational environment

3 Implementation Phases

UNITED elaborated on the five pillars offering solutions to each pilot, which then were implemented in three phases:

Pre-operational phase: activities related to systems, material development and pre-testing; capacity building for offshore deployment; and installation and prefabrication for real-life ocean multi-use deployment.
Operational phase: the ocean multi-use elements are assembled together on-site. All activities planned for the pilot sites, including technological developments, active site work and monitoring systems, will be realised at the pilots.
Post-operational phase: the features added during the previous phases are to be removed from the site (if applicable) in a decommissioning phase.

1 sister project

The acronym MUSICA stands for Multiple Use of Space for Island Clean Autonomy. The project will run from 2020 to 2025 and is currently developing a one-stop solution in a Multi-Use Platform, which will produce electricity and fresh water using renewable power from the wind and waves. Find out more on the MUSICA project website.

The viability of ocean multi-use solutions was promoted through the UNITED activities by:

Realising pilots from TRL5 to TRL7;
Improving health and safety of ocean multi-use solutions;
Reducing implementation costs and enhancing economic viability;
Raising societal awareness, involving local communities and securing social acceptance;
Improving skills and competencies of those working and being trained to work within the Blue Economy; and
Contributing to policy making in research, innovation and technology.

UNITED activities were articulated across a series of milestones and publications.

What is Ocean multi-use?

Ocean multi-use is the intentional shared use of marine resources in close geographic proximity by two or more maritime activities. It is an umbrella term that covers many combinations of maritime activities and represents a radical change from the concept of exclusive resource rights - to the inclusive sharing of marine resources and space by one or more activities. The degree of connectivity between different maritime uses can vary with respect to spatial, temporal, provisioning and functional dimensions – ranging from two uses merely sharing the ‘same’ maritime space (co-location), to shared platforms and other infrastructure. Therefore, Multi-Use is not limited to the joint use of installations, but also encompasses joint activities.