Labex ORACLE
The centre focuses on four multidisciplinary scientific challenges in line with the areas of expertise of its members.
- Efficiency: Quantifying and optimising the performance of offshore energy systems
- Reliability: Understanding and reducing the uncertainty and risk inherent in energy production in the marine environment
- Sustainability: Studying and improving the sustainability of offshore renewable energy
- Deployment: Evaluating and acting on the levers for deploying offshore renewable energy
Labex ORACLE will also be acting in the following areas:
- Education: Labex ORACLE’s mission is to provide students with cutting-edge, multidisciplinary education, responding to the latest scientific and cross-disciplinary needs, with a particular focus on developing transdisciplinary skills.
- Attractiveness: Attracting the best researchers to the ORACLE ecosystem and stimulating career development of ORACLE researchers will be one of our key priorities. Among other initiatives, an ambitious incoming and outgoing mobility programme has been set up to encourage collaboration between ORACLE researchers and internationally recognised institutions.
- Visibility: Research only has real value when its results are disseminated effectively to the scientific community and to industry. Labex ORACLE adheres to the principles of open science and has a comprehensive communication plan to disseminate its research results to various audiences. The results exploitation strategy is supported by the WEAMEC regional cluster, which is dedicated to marine renewable energies, and the S2E2 and PMBA competitiveness clusters.
Laboratories involved:
- CDMO – Centre for Maritime and Oceanic Law (UR 1165)
- CENS – Nantes Sociology Centre (UMR 6025)
- GeM – Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (UMR 6183)
- IREENA – Nantes-Atlantique Electrical Energy Research Institute (UR 4642)
- LEMNA – Nantes-Atlantique Economics and Management Laboratory (UR 4272)
- LETG – Littoral, Environment, Teledetection, Geomatics (UMR 6554)
- LHEEA – Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics & Atmospheric Environment (coordinator) (UMR 6598)
- LS2N – Nantes Digital Sciences Laboratory (UMR 6004)
- LTeN – Thermal Laboratory and Energy of Nantes (UMR 6607)
Contact
Sandrine AUBRUN,
Head of Labex ORACLE
Salvy BOURGUET,
Deputy Director of Labex ORACLE
Constantin ILASCA,
Project Manager, Labex ORACLE
Maé DECOLLOGNE,
Communications officer, Labex ORACLE
Labex ORACLE website
Labex ORACLE will support multidisciplinary research into the major challenges posed by the need for offshore renewable energies, such as offshore wind, marine renewable energies and hybrid production systems, to contribute significantly to the global supply of sustainable, safe and competitive energy (UN Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 12).
It also aligns with the European Commission’s recommendations regarding France’s 2023 national reform programme, which aims to reduce the country’s overall dependence on fossil fuels and accelerate the deployment of renewable energies within its borders. Additionally, it aligns with the regional innovation strategy for smart specialisation (RIS3 strategy), which identifies offshore renewable energies (ORE) as a key driver of the French energy revolution.
By building on the existing local expertise and visibility of the research laboratories involved, Labex ORACLE will become a significant driver of scientific excellence, leadership, openness and attractiveness in the offshore renewable energies sector.
Labex ORACLE will strengthen collaboration within the academic community and improve the organisation of research activities dedicated to offshore renewable energies at the Nantes site. This Labex will be the only one of its kind in France. It will showcase French scientific excellence and be part of an existing European network of similar structures.
Labex ORACLE has several objectives:
- Support multidisciplinary research into the major challenges posed by the need for offshore renewable energy sources to contribute significantly to the supply of sustainable, safe and competitive energy
- Focus our efforts on high-level, resolutely applied, multidisciplinary research
- Foster cutting-edge research activities in each discipline while stimulating cross-disciplinary exchange and innovation
- Increase the visibility, appeal and excellence of the Nantes site and support the French ORE industry in making cutting-edge technological advances
The Labex was built on the strengths of the ORACLE (Offshore Wind Research Accelerator CLustEr) scientific cluster, which was funded by the NExT I-SITE between 2021 and 2024.
This has enabled researchers from the Nantes academic site to collaborate on interdisciplinary master’s courses and communicate their results beyond Nantes by organising a multidisciplinary symposium on offshore wind power in 2023.
Recognising the need to secure funding for larger-scale research activities, the group set up the Labex project.
Labex ORACLE will become a full member of two European academic associations specialising in wind energy:
- The European Energy Research Alliance’s Joint Programme on Wind (EERA-JP-WIND), which unites Europe’s foremost public research organisations involved in significant research and innovation activities related to wind energy
- The European Academy of Wind Energy (EAWE), which unites more than sixty universities and research centres from Europe, North America, and Asia
It will therefore benefit fully from exchanges with all these international partners and help to establish a credible voice for future research into offshore renewable energies.
Key dates
- April 2025: first Call for projects launched by ORACLE
- 24–27 June 2025: Organisation of Wind Energy Science Conference (WESC 2025) in Nantes (1,000 participants)
- October 2025: recruitment of first ORACLE doctoral and post-doctoral researchers
- Summer 2026: first ORACLE summer school on scientific challenges in offshore renewable energy (co-organised with GDR-EOL-EMR)
