EIMR Conference Series
The next conference will be in spring 2026.
Led by the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and Heriot Watt University (HW), Environmental Interactions of Marine Renewables (EIMR) is an international conference hosted at different sites across the Scottish Highlands and Islands region. The conferences explore the interactions of wave and tidal energy technologies with the environment.
The EIMR conference was last held 15-19 April 2024 in Kirkwall, Orkney. EIMR aims to serve as a major forum for global researchers and professionals to come together to present their latest research, results, and ideas and strengthen relations between the emerging marine renewables industry, research laboratories, and universities. Please use the links below to see information on the next or previous conferences.
As developments accelerate and fresh challenges emerge it has become clear there are gaps in our understanding, particularly around our knowledge of the interactions between these increasingly physical and ecologically complex devices and their environment. The extent of planned developments is extensive and there is limited resources and information available for certain topics (location and populations of species at sea, commercial fisheries and shipping, likelihood of collisions, etc). This presents the academic community with a unique opportunity to harness its significant capabilities to work alongside the ongoing technological development of marine renewables, and allow the generation of a shared, holistic view where potentially negative impacts may be balanced through wider benefits to the environment and society in terms of subtle changes to habitats and hydrodynamic interactions with coastal areas. Such a view would contribute to a growing academic evidence base that can support the emergent industry in the marine renewables arena.