Specifications include, but are not limited to: In this RFP, the Consortium seeks proposals to address one of the following priority research topics identified by the Consortium’s Advisory Board to inform the planning and preconstruction phase of responsible offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine: Exploring approaches to fisheries coexistence with floating offshore wind; and Inventorying baseline data on socioeconomics of Maine fishing communities to help assess potential positive and negative impacts of floating offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine. Topic 1: Exploring approaches to fisheries coexistence with floating offshore wind ($250,000) – There is a widely-recognized need for “good practice technical guidance” on how to design offshore wind farms to facilitate co-existence, particularly with fisheries.[footnoteRef:2] There is still limited understanding of the specific administrative, regulatory, and legal barriers to co-existence between the offshore wind and fisheries sectors in existing and emerging markets.[footnoteRef:3] Finally, while there is an understanding of how to promote co-existence between the fisheries industry and fixed offshore wind development[footnoteRef:4], there are is more opportunity to examine the interaction between fishing activity and floating offshore wind structures.[footnoteRef:5],[footnoteRef:6] [2: Fishing within offshore wind farms in the North Sea: Stakeholder perspectives for multi-use from Scotland and Germany (sciencedirectassets.com)] [3: SEANSE Project Report - Planning Criteria for Offshore Wind Energy - North Sea Region Overview] [4: recommendations_for_positive_interactions_between_offshore_wind_farms_and_fisheries.pdf.pdf (strategies-marines.fr)] [5: Collaboration to trial safe fishing within floating wind farms - Equinor] [6: Social Acceptance of a Reduced-Footprint Synthetic Mooring System for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines in the Gulf of Maine (Technical Report) | OSTI.GOV]
