‘WE ARE now only beginning to comprehend the opportunities the sea can offer us. It’s time we grabbed that opportunity with both hands . . .”

These were the words of Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Cork harbour late last month when he opened the Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster (IMERC), and embarked hours later on a stormy overnight passage to Dublin on the Naval Service patrol ship LE Róisín.

The last time a taoiseach undertook such a trip was when former Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrave spent time on board the LE Deirdre. Recalling the Naval Service's role in drug interdiction and fisheries protection at Haulbowline naval base earlier, Kenny quoted the clan motto of fellow Mayo native Grace O'Malley – terra marique potens(power by land and sea) – to underpin his new-found commitment to developing the marine sector.

Thanks to IMERC, Kenny’s aspirational speech had a very practical element. He was able to confirm the Cork-based national cluster had already secured its first US foreign direct investment commitment. US naval architecture firm Murray and Associates has begun recruiting for up to 10 posts in research, development and marketing, based in the National Maritime College of Ireland at Ringaskiddy.

Several more multinational clients are said to be “in negotiation”, and IMERC has established innovation partnerships with up to 30 other companies, primarily Irish. It intends to turn the sod on construction of a €14 million laboratory in early spring.

Headed by Dr Val Cummins, the new cluster has made considerable progress since it was profiled on these pages in August. The partnership, involving University College Cork, the Cork Institute of Technology and the Naval Service, has just published its strategy document, which was endorsed by Kenny during his visit.

The 2011-16 strategy focuses on the fact just 1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) comes from the maritime economy, in spite of Ireland having the EU’s third-largest sea area and the largest maritime area to land mass ratio in western Europe.

In the 1930s, the new Irish State took “radical measures” to address economic hardship, and “a similar degree of innovation, coupled with public sector transformation” is required now, according to IMERC’s blueprint. It aims to address the State’s failure to achieve the most from “global growth areas” such as shipping, logistics and transport, offshore hydrocarbons, maritime technology, maritime security and marine recreation.

By 2013, when Ireland holds the EU presidency, IMERC hopes to have completed construction of the world’s largest marine renewable energy research location, the Beaufort laboratory, which will employ up to 135 researchers. By 2016, it is promising 70 new research jobs and five new companies, along with at least two major multinational clients, on a developed campus in Cork harbour.

Two “strategic locations” will be targeted as part of the campus master plan, in association with the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), the first a site to the east of the maritime college currently owned by the Port of Cork, the second the former Irish Ispat steel company buildings on Haulbowline island.

The expanded IMERC campus will offer wave test tank facilities, the world’s largest suite of bridge simulators, engine room simulators, industry suites, a library, workshops and use of the naval dockyard, along with the maritime college’s sea survival pool. This “bundling” of facilities aims to attract small and medium enterprises and foreign direct investment clients.

International collaborations will be secured, through memoranda of understanding, with the Marine Institute and Memorial University in St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada; the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Centre in the US; and the National Brazilian Space Institute in Brazil. National collaborative partners include the Marine Institute in Galway, the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), all of which are represented on its board.

The main funders for the Cork marine campus are the Higher Education Authority, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Bord Gais and the Glucksman Foundation. UCC president Dr Michael Murphy has noted that research and commercial clusters are “increasingly appreciated as engines for economic growth from Europe to China”.

“IMERC puts Ireland on the map as a location for a maritime and energy cluster par excellence. It provides a one-stop-shop which focuses our attention on new and emerging opportunities,” he says.

The Taoiseach has paid tribute to Dr Murphy, and to his Cork Institute of Technology counterpart Brendan Murphy and Naval Service flag officer Commodore Mark Mellett for what he has described as a “brilliant effort” to pool the talents of researchers, teaching staff, and naval service personnel. This “development of an ecosystem of innovation, in the maritime sector” will mobilise the “best minds” to focus on “new research and economic opportunities for maritime Ireland”, said Kenny.