Cedric Muscat, who has recently started his PhD with the IROE group, scooped the Award for Emerging Innovation at the Malta Intellectual Property Awards 2025, for his research on geospatial modelling for offshore wind in the Mediterranean.
Supervised by Prof. Susan Gourvenec (SMMI Deputy Director and IROE chair) and Dr Hugo Putuhena for his individual project at part of his undergraduate civil engineering course at the University of Southampton, Cedric identified suitable locations for offshore wind in Malta. The results proved promising; with 40% of Malta’s marine space suitable for offshore wind and only a tenth of that would provide enough electricity to supply 7 times Malta’s peak energy demand, providing attractive export potential. For this research and findings, Cedric was awarded the winner for Technological Initiative by Hon. Silvio Schembri, Minister for the Economy, Enterprise and Strategic Projects in Malta.
The Malta Intellectual Property Awards are awarded to 6 individuals or companies to recognise their efforts in developing their ideas, concepts and operational processes. In doing so the Government of Malta aims to encourage the development of innovative ideas and products which have a degree of potential that is both unique and sustainable. The winners of the Malta Innovation Awards also receive an award from the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
The Malta Intellectual Property Award follows on from Cedric’s previous work which he presented at Thalassa 2024 and published on the EMODnet portal . Since then, Cedric has continued this research, supervised by Prof. Susan Gourvenec and Dr Hugo Putuhena for his PhD by conducting a geospatial analysis for offshore renewable energy for the rest of Europe.