Sixteen laboratories were successful in this funding round, and MARINTEK was one of only three that won MNOK 50 or more. In a comment in connection with the funding results, the Research Council of Norway described MARINTEK as "a research infrastructure of particularly great importance for Norwegian research".
The Research Council's letter announcing the award describes it in terms of "required upgrading and developments", and a proportion of the developments involved can be regarded as a concrete start to the Ocean Space Centre, the future knowledge centre for ocean space technology. The award is the result of a thorough internal process within MARINTEK, and it was the subject of a comprehensive quality-assurance and evaluation process that took place ahead of the Research Council's decision.
MARINTEK is very pleased that a number of other NTNU and SINTEF projects were also successful in this funding round.
The press release from the Research Council of Norway states that: "With today's funding awards, the country will benefit from 16 new, modern and essential research infrastructures in the shape of laboratories, databases and equipment. These will provide the foundations for ground-breaking research, future value creation and attractive research and educational institutions."
This is a different funding award from the one that the Stoltenberg government incorporated in its National Budget proposal for 2014, which concerned further development of the Ocean Space Centre concept.
