Venterra Company Partrac wins Technological Breakthrough of the Year Award

22 May 2026, London, UK: Partrac, Venterra Group’s specialist metocean and seabed consultancy, has won the Technological Breakthrough of the Year award at the IIRSM Risk Excellence Awards 2026 for its V-LiDAR floating wind measurement system.

The award recognises technology that meaningfully advances risk management. For Partrac, it marks external recognition of a system developed to address long-standing safety and operational challenges associated with floating LiDAR deployment and recovery in offshore wind. The award was presented at the IIRSM Risk Excellence Awards ceremony in London on 21 May 2026.

Developed through a risk-led engineering approach, V-LiDAR has been designed to reduce offshore handling risk, remove the need for vessel-to-buoy transfers and confined-space entry, and minimise offshore interventions through modular design and real-time data return. The system also offers extended deployment capability of up to 20 months, helping reduce servicing requirements and time at sea.

V-LiDAR was developed by Partrac with support from fellow Venterra company Osbit and draws on decades of offshore metocean, engineering and operational experience from across the group.The award follows another major industry safety recognition for Partrac earlier this year, when the company received The Crown Estate’s Safety First Award for exceptional safety performance during the Celtic Sea Round 5 metocean and floating LiDAR survey programme. It also comes amid growing industry demand for safer, lower-intervention floating LiDAR solutions to support offshore wind development.

Sam Athey, Managing Director at Partrac said:

“V-LiDAR was developed with a clear focus on reducing offshore risk while delivering high integrity, reliable data. This award is an important recognition of that approach and reflects the expertise, commitment and safety-first mindset of the team behind it.”

Claire Binns, Group Director of HSSEQ at Venterra Group, added:

“Innovation delivers the greatest value when it improves safety outcomes. To be recognised by IIRSM is a real honour, particularly in an area as critical as risk excellence. It speaks to the strength of collaboration across Partrac and Venterra Group, and our shared commitment to advancing safer offshore wind technologies.”