What's happening?

The Appledore Clean Maritime Innovation Centre is poised to become a key addition of the South West's maritime strengths and be at the forefront of national green energy futures.

Scheduled to open in 2026 and funded by £15.6m from the Levelling Up Fund, the Appledore Clean Maritime Innovation Centre will provide a regional focal point for activity across the Celtic Sea, supporting innovation in fields from clean-propulsion to green hydrogen, maritime cyber security to robotics, aquaculture to environmental intelligence.

Establishing a unique combination of academia, skills providers, private sector innovators and customers, and all set within the North Devon UNESCO Biosphere, it will provide a space to foster collaboration and create solutions to industry challenges around decarbonisation, environmental innovation and, crucially, create genuine social value. Set alongside a circa 95m quay frontage designed to maximise interaction with the waterfront, the centre will enable a smooth flow from development to testing to delivery and into commercialisation.

Offering 2,500m2 of high-quality office, workshop and collaboration space for businesses of all sizes, and set next to Harland & Wolff's Appledore shipyard, the site is also in close vicinity both to The Crown Estate's Project Development Areas in the Celtic Sea (Leasing Round 5 is now underway) and expected cable routes to shore within Torridge, offering significant future green hydrogen production and offtake potential. And with the UK's largest MMO-licenced seaweed farm, Algapelago, on the Centre's doorstep, the inter-connected opportunity is immense, including for future agricultural decarbonisation linkages.

With scoping now underway for additional manufacturing and innovation sites within easy reach of the core site, Appledore stands to serve as a real catalyst for regional growth within the "Blue" economy.

Working in partnership with key bodies such as Maritime UK SW, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), National Shipbuilding Office, Innovate UK, Innovate UK Edge, and also the Catapult networks, and linking to exciting activity at the Plymouth and South Devon Freeport and regional neighbours Celtic Sea Power, the Centre will be a key driver for job creation and Net Zero-driven growth.

A key role for the Centre will also be to inspire both local pride and to build aspiration at all ages to enable people to develop new skills and access higher-earning employment. In addition to existing provision delivered by a University Centre partnership with the University of Plymouth, Petroc College are collaborating with partners, including Harland and Wolff and the University of Exeter, to further expand their maritime and engineering courses focused on the growing areas of opportunity for the northern Devon region. These will deliver a range of innovative new courses, from mid-level engineering courses through to higher level apprenticeships. Alongside this, the Innovation Centre team are already working in close partnership with Appledore Primary School to embed maritime and engineering content within their curriculum, supporting the development of a next generation of skilled local workforce.