The oceans hold a stunning potential for meeting our ever-growing demand for energy in a sustainable manner by converting energy stored in the form of heat, waves, currents and tides. At present the offshore renewable energy industry remains in its infancy, but given the right conditions, it could grow into a significant contributor to the global energy mix. A number of inter-related barriers, such as resource and user conflicts, regulatory complexity, and a limited understanding of environmental impacts associated with offshore renewable energy technologies, as well as the general challenges surrounding ocean governance, hamper the development of the industry. Marine spatial planning is emerging around the world as a practical tool for promoting a more rational and wise use of the oceans. It could also play a significant role in promoting the speedy and environmentally sound deployment of offshore renewable energy by assisting in overcoming the various hurdles to the development of that sector of the blue economy.

Broadening the participation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields is more than a social-justice issue; diversity is paramount to a thriving national research agenda. However, women face several obstacles to fully actualizing their research potential. Enhancing the research capacity and opportunity of women faculty requires purposeful changes in university practice. Therefore, we designed an intervention, a grant-writing bootcamp informed by self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan 2012), to support the participants’ feelings of relatedness, autonomy, and competence. Three grant-writing bootcamps were run over an 18-month period. Using a pre- and post-test design over the span of 1 year (and contrasting results with a comparison sample who were not part of the intervention) showed that the women participating in the grant-writing bootcamp significantly increased the number of external grants submitted, the number of proposals led as principal investigator, the number of external grants awarded, and the amount of external funding dollars awarded.

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