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 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, infrastructure, partnerships, and policy underpinning New England’s competitiveness and future success.

Key Discussion Points

New England’s innovation economy holds significant promise at the intersection of the blue and green economies—sectors with deep roots in the region and growing potential when combined. Colby College Provost Designate and Professor of Environmental Studies Denise Bruesewitz kicked off the leadership session by identifying this convergence as a catalyst for remaking the region’s economic future. She pointed to the MARIA project at Bigelow Laboratories as a model, where researchers, businesses, and academic partners work together to reduce methane emissions by supplementing livestock feed with farmed marine algae and seaweed as an example of how this is unfurling in real time.

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences Vice President for Research Beth Orcutt built on the power of aquaculture and, in particular, seaweed and algae farming as a regenerative, low-impact alternative for dairy feedstocks that requires no land or fertilizer. Orcutt noted, however, that the sector faces serious constraints, particularly in permitting and market development. She called on scientists and entrepreneurs to engage more actively with policymakers and investors to remove these barriers and scale sustainable marine solutions throughout the region.

Unlocking the potential of the intersection of the blue and green economies also requires a strong educational foundation and retention of homegrown talent. Higher education institutions across New England provide critical infrastructure for this transformation. Bruesewitz described how Colby College integrates a residential liberal arts experience with rigorous STEM training and entrepreneurship through partnerships with institutions like Bigelow Laboratories. This combination, she said, helps prepare students for innovation careers and creates incentives for them to remain in the region — offering a potential solution to the talent drain flagged by other speakers throughout the Competitiveness Conversation.

To fully capitalize on these educational and scientific assets, the region must align its investments with technologies that cut across sectors. Rather than picking winners among food, energy, or defense, regional stakeholders should prioritize cross-sector platforms that serve multiple industries. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Senior Scientist and Chief Science Officer for Ocean and Government Affairs Dennis McGillicuddy advocated for this approach. He cited marine sensors and underwater vehicles—initially designed for deployment from submarine torpedo tubes—as examples of multi-use technologies that support both military operations and environmental monitoring. He underscored the unique capacity at Woods Hole to rapidly cycle innovations between lab and real-world testing environments and called for stronger links between research institutions and industry to accelerate deployment.

Forging those connections requires a more integrated ecosystem that brings together entrepreneurs, researchers, and investors. SeaAhead Managing Director for Investments Donna Hazard reinforced the importance of this integration. Her organization focuses on connecting startups with capital, customers, and research institutions to reduce the risk associated with deploying new marine technologies. She acknowledged that maritime industries tend to resist early-stage innovation due to high operating risks but argued that targeted incubators and public-private partnerships can overcome that hesitancy by reducing uncertainty. Hazard described SeaAhead’s role as providing the “connective tissue” needed to move technology from concept to pilot to market.

This need for derisking extends beyond bluetech into a broader national security context. MITRE Corporation’s approach offers a model for speeding up the commercialization of dual-use technologies. MITRE Senior Vice President Keoki Jackson explained that MITRE operates at the intersection of government, industry, and academia to address both economic and national security challenges. Over the past year, MITRE hosted eight partners at its New England bluetech facilities — including federal agencies, startups, and universities — to advance deployable technologies. Jackson framed this work as urgent and strategic, noting, “the United States is not just facing competition in the air, sea, space, and cyberspace domains; they are being actively contested by China.” He cited the cutting of undersea internet cables—six times in one year—as evidence of mounting threats and argued that moving technology swiftly from research to mission-critical use must become a central policy priority.

Access to capital remains a major constraint in this effort. Hazard pointed out that bluetech startups often struggle to secure early-stage funding because of long development timelines and a lack of investor familiarity with the sector. She called for increased education among capital providers in hopes of generating a greater supply of “patient capital” willing to support technologies over multi-year horizons. She also identified programs like Massachusetts’ lab-use subsidies as effective mechanisms to reduce financial barriers. Jackson added that funding sources aligned with national security, including the Defense Innovation Unit and NATO’s Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, represent promising avenues for supporting dual-use technologies emerging from the bluetech ecosystem.

These investments are already beginning to produce measurable benefits. McGillicuddy described the emergence of ocean observation systems that mirror the sophistication of atmospheric weather models, enabling real-time tracking of currents, marine life, and environmental trends. When combined with artificial intelligence, these systems can generate new insights with broad implications. For instance, scientists recently uncovered a connection between salinity in the eastern tropical Atlantic and rainfall in the U.S. Midwest—an insight that would not have been possible without integrated data monitoring and advanced analytics. Orcutt identified this convergence of environmental data and machine learning as a strategic leadership opportunity for New England in the years ahead.

The discussion closed with a call for stronger regional collaboration. Hazard urged participants and stakeholders to actively build individual relationships across institutions and sectors, arguing that these connections form the foundation for the larger-scale collaborations needed to advance innovation. Strengthening those ties will be essential to realizing the full promise of New England’s blue and green innovation economy.