Growing Blue in The Ocean State
Ocean Tech Hub
Grow Blue! Recently, Rhode Island and Southeastern New England were named 1 of 31 Tech Hubs, designated by the Biden-Harris Economic Development Administration (EDA). The Ocean Tech Hub was also awarded a Tech Hubs Strategy Development Grant that will help the consortium increase local coordination and planning activities to strengthen its region’s capacity to manufacture, commercialize, and deploy critical technologies. The Ocean Tech Hub of Southeastern New England (OTH) is a consortium-led initiative committed to activating the ocean technology ecosystem through research and innovation in undersea robotics, automation, advanced materials, and composites. (Read the full release here.)
Daniela Fairchild, the Chief Strategy Officer at RI Commerce, believes Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts are poised to be global leaders in undersea tech in the next decade. “With big implications for climate adaptation and change mitigation, national security, and economic development, this opportunity impacts our startups, researchers, and workforce—and has implications for childcare, transportation, and housing needs,” Fairchild said.
SeaAhead is supporting the Ocean Tech Hub application with a proposal to advance commercialization for ocean technology startups. Alissa Peterson, CEO of SeaAhead states: “SeaAhead’s objective is to support the Consortium by creating pathways to commercialization for high-impact ocean technology startups in Southeastern New England.”
Lisa Carnevale, Vice President of Innovation Initiatives at RI Commerce, emphasizes her enthusiasm for the project. "Great momentum continues on the Ocean Tech Hub,” Carnevale said. “I am glad to join this smart and critical group building our region’s strength in ocean technology."
In phase two, the EDA will be investing $10 billion over five years, which the OTH consortium hopes to use to strengthen the region’s capacity to manufacture, commercialize, and deploy critical technologies.
Grow Blue Initiative
The successes of the OTH application stem from over a decade of work supporting the New Blue Economy in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.
The University of Rhode Island Research Foundation (URIRF) used the 2021 Build Back Better Regional Challenge to establish a Blue Economy Technology Cluster. Receiving $500,000 in grant funding to expand this concept through the “Grow Blue Initiative,” which they’ve outlined in the state’s 2030 Blue Economy Action Plan.
The plan’s goals are to drive a scalable economy backed by internal and external partnerships, build a diverse and equitable industry to bolster commercial resilience, create a diverse range of job opportunities for all, convene stakeholders to maximize existing assets, and develop a shared vision of the Blue Economy and the potential impact. URIRF’s Pete Rumsey, one of the leaders of the Grow Blue Initiative, spearheaded this movement for years, sharing his expertise in power systems and green and renewable technologies. Rumsey asserts that Rhode Island could be the center for underwater ocean bluetech due to the historic assets of the state.
“We have the deepwater ports, the naval assets, and even some of the startups that have already started to take root here,” he said.
One of his main areas of focus for this year is to expand on offshore wind training and resources as well as aquaculture expansion through smart fisheries. Rumsey’s greatest roadblocks to the initiative include forming a collaborative cluster of stakeholders and spreading the word about what “bluetech” means. “I think the biggest challenge is really just awareness of what this opportunity is,” he said.
Christian Cowan, executive director of 401 Tech Bridge and URIRF, views undersea technology and artificial intelligence as important aspects to innovative bluetech efforts.
401 Tech Bridge and Polaris MEP, both partners of the foundation, have been making strides in business development within the blue economy. Polaris offers operation improvement consulting and training utilizing their business improvement programs to advance manufacturing industries in bluetech. 401 Tech Bridge assists bluetech startups with equipment, training, and programming solutions to increase technology commercialization.
To continue their work for the Grow Blue initiative, core partners of The Foundation formed the Grow Blue Partnership. This grassroots coalition comprised of about a dozen of the original 32 stakeholders, will continue to convene, advocate for, and build collaborations that support bluetech opportunities and economic growth in Rhode Island.
According to Christine Smith, Director of Special Projects at URIRF, a priority for the Grow Blue Partnership has been diversity, equity, and inclusion in their workforce. The EDA partnered with a national organization known as the New Growth Innovation Network (NGIN) to provide diversity, inclusion, and storytelling training for initiative partners.
“It was competitive, and Rhode Island was accepted into the first training cohort that ran this Fall,” Smith said. “That’s four of us as organizations: two community-based organizations and two economic development organizations are getting the training. That’s huge. We can understand how to better work together and build these bridges.”
Looking forward
Further plans for the Grow Blue Initiative include allocating spaces for bluetech startups at URI’s Bay Campus in the new Ocean Hub Center. Startups such as Juice Robotics will use the space to ideate their underwater robots which are pressure-tolerant and rugged for use in collecting data from our oceans.
To learn more about Rhode Island’s work in the sector, check out the 2030 Blue Economy Action Plan.
In other Rhode Island news, the upcoming Blue Innovation Symposium will be held February 26th-29th at the Wyndham Newport Hotel in Middletown, RI. We hope to see you there!
Photo credit: Grow Blue: The Blue Economy Partnership for Rhode Island