Developing the Pillars of the New England Innovation Ecosystem

Panelists

Ms. Donna Hazard,
Managing Director, Investments, SeaAhead

Dr. Keoki Jackson
Senior Vice President, The MITRE Corporation

Dr. Dennis McGillicuddy
Senior Scientist and Chief Science Officer, Ocean and Government Affairs, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Dr. Beth Orcutt
Vice President, Research, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

Moderator: Dr. Denise Bruesewitz
Provost Designate and Professor of Environmental Studies, Colby College

Session Overview

Leaders from industry, academia, national laboratories, labor, and government discussed the pressing challenges and significant opportunities for New England to set the national and global pace in the blue and green economies. The discussion focused on pillars of the region’s innovation economy, including talent, technology, investment, and infrastructure, which underpin the region’s competitiveness and future success. This session also highlighted collaborations and best practices from within the regional innovation ecosystem that unite startups, established firms, research institutions, and government.

Key Discussion Points

Colby College Provost Designate and Professor of Environmental Studies Denise Bruesewitz began her survey of New England’s innovation opportunities by looking at what the Blue and Green economies have to offer the region. The Blue and Green economies each have long histories in New England, but new opportunities, especially at the convergence of the two, have the potential to remake the region’s innovation economy. For example, the MARIA project from Bigelow Laboratories, in partnership with academia, scientists, and businesses, seeks to supplement livestock feed with farmed marine algae and seaweed, reducing methane emissions. Expanding those opportunities across the region will help spread innovation beyond the tradition Boston hub.

Part of that effort can come from the constellation of higher education institutions spread across the region. Dr. Bruesewitz noted how, at Colby College, students received both a residential liberal arts experience and cutting-edge STEM training through partnerships with research institutes like Bigelow Laboratories. Combined with training in entrepreneurship, this recipe can encourage young innovators to stay in New England, preventing the innovation flight that other speakers had thus far warned about.

Asked about how to best leverage New England’s marine assets, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Senior Scientist and Chief Science Officer for Ocean and Government Affairs Dennis McGillicuddy suggested that, rather than trying to pick a winner between the food, energy, and defense industries to invest in, it would be better to focus on the technologies that support them all. Marine sensors and underwater vehicles developed to be deployed from submarine torpedo tubes can be used to support military activities or biosphere monitoring; finding other multi-use technologies is key to efficiently supporting the whole Blue economy. Lauding a strategy of maximizing the number of cycles between laboratory and real-world testing only possible at Woods Hole, Dr. McGillicuddy pushed for better connecting industry to unique research capabilities that can lead to faster technological deployment. SeaAhead Managing Director for Investments Donna Hazard pointed out the connecting industry with new technologies was her organization’s primary mission. With the maritime environment so risky to operate in, legacy industries can often be wary of introducing new and unproven innovations. But that reticence can be overcome by better “connective tissue” between industry, academia, government, and entrepreneurs, diminishing risk. Incubators like Ms. Hazards can also connect startups to capital for piloting their technologies, removing uncertainty about their ultimate performance.

This strategy of derisking, according to MITRE Corporation Senior Vice President Keoki Jackson, is a central part of his company’s strategy. While MITRE is often thought of as working on government deep tech, they work at the intersection of academia, industry, and government to provide solutions for security and economic problems. MITRE has seen eight partners use their New England bluetech facilities in just the past year, ranging from government to academia to startups – a collaboration that is speeding up the deployment of dual-use technologies across sectors. This acceleration is critical as, according to Dr. Jackson, the United States is not just facing competition in the air, sea, space, and cyberspace domains; they are being actively contested by China. In just one example, the data cables that carry 95 percent of internet traffic have been cut on six different occasions – in the past year. Building the connections that get technology out of laboratories and outperforming missions must be a central focus of innovation policy in New England going forward.

Just as important as the implications of blue and green tech for national security are their implications for economic security, with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences Vice President for Research Beth Orcutt elevating in particular the possibilities for rural communities. She specifically raised the idea of using seaweed and algae to supplement feedstocks for dairy farmers; taking no land or fertilizer and regenerating the environment, seaweed farming has great potential as an environmentally friendly industry. But the project has faced several hurdles; permitting for seaweed farming has been difficult, as has bringing seaweed-based products to market. Dr. Orcutt called for scientists and innovators to better educate investors and policymakers on these roadblocks in order to build the momentum needed to overcome them. While New England is a leader in creating novel ideas for industry, removing the economic barriers is critical to scaling them within the region.

Ms. Hazard turned to another barrier for growing novel industries in the region: access to capital. For bluetech in particular, startups can have a difficult time acquiring early funding, both due to a lack of knowledge in capital firms about bluetech industries and reticence to invest in projects with long time horizons. Through a combination of better education for investors and finding the “patient capital” willing to help technologies develop over years or even decades, bluetech startups will be able to find better financial footing. Ms. Hazard also noted that cost mitigation, like a Massachusetts program subsidizing lab usage for startups, would also ease financial pressures. Dr. Jackson pointed to security outfits, like the Defense Innovation Unit or NATO’s Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, which are seeking rapidly deployable and scalable new technologies, as another potential source of investment, taking advantage of the dual-use nature of much of bluetech.

The new technologies these investments produce are already beginning to show their value. Dr. McGillicuddy mentioned that, while we have long had sophisticated systems and models for atmospheric weather monitoring, a similar system for the ocean is only now beginning to emerge. These systems track everything from currents to whale movements, providing value for commercial operators and scientists alike. And combining these huge new data sources with AI can lead to surprising results; without both, scientists would have never discovered the counterintuitive link between salinity in the eastern tropical Atlantic to rainfall in the Midwest. Dr. Orcutt named this convergence of data science and monitoring as one of the key places New England can lead in the years to come.

To conclude, Ms. Hazard called on the members of New England’s innovation economy – especially those present – to commit to reaching out to partners on the individual level, building the relationships that lead to the collaborations that drive innovation forward.