The underlying objective of the HARSH project is industrial research in the search for solutions to common problems faced by companies in the development of their products for energy applications in marine environments

The main objectives of the HARSH project are described below:

Strategic and Commercial:
• Identify and characterise common problems in components and systems in the offshore energy sector;
• Increase and consolidate the technological and commercial positioning of Basque companies in the energy sector in the marine environment;
• Become benchmark suppliers in the Oil & Gas and Renewable Energy market in offshore environments;
• Develop new high value-added products and responsibility, that ensures optimum mechanical properties and resistance to corrosion in extreme service conditions;
• Take advantage of the availability of the bimep infrastructure as an industrial research platform through validation tests carried out in a real environment;
• Cost Savings in the Oil & Gas and offshore wind power sectors through the development of high performance products that increase the useful life and reduce the need for maintenance.

Technical:
• Industrial research into the problem of the degradation of materials in the offshore environment, focused on obtaining new treatments applicable to components and systems that result in a new product suitable for use in hostile environments;
• Improve the management of O&M in hostile environments;
• Applied research into the optimisation of components, their production and logistics, focusing on the offshore market;
• Develop new high value-added products that present better mechanical performance against corrosion, and tribological performance in the marine environment, than current solutions;
• Design of new manufacturing processes to extend the range of products for use in the marine environment;
• Study and validation of products in bimep.

Training of human resources and scientific-technological dissemination:
• Contribute to the training of human resources specialised in the science and engineering of materials and their processes, and design of components for use in offshore energy;
• Contribute to the training of O&M personnel in offshore energy facilities, through the use of the HARSH LAB as a testing ground;
• Facilitate the transfer of results and applications to those companies that face similar design and manufacturing challenges and problems;
• Maintain permanent communication and interaction with European companies, agents and networks operating in the offshore energy markets, in order to foster the creation of alliances and collaboration initiatives;
• Contribute to the positioning of the Basque Country as a benchmark in the development and validation of products for the offshore environment, attracting technologists and potential users of this technology to the laboratory and to bimep.

Environmental Objectives:
• Develop components with greater resistance in extreme conditions which will avoid or minimise their potential degradation in service, with a significant negative environmental impact;
• Extension of the useful life of the products developed, with the consequent reduction in maintenance operations and costs of the affected facilities;
• Minimise the rejection of products due to non compliance with the requirements;
• Contribution to the reduction of anchored and floating marine wind power costs, which will lead to the increase in the production of renewable energy in the energy mix.