The Healey-Driscoll administration announced today that the state is putting new capital behind boosting Massachusetts’ bluetech sector.
MITRE Corp. will receive just over $2 million for its proposed two-year project — called BlueTech OCEAN, or Open Collaborative Experimentation and Acceleration Network — to elevate the Bay State’s role in ocean science, marine robotics, clean energy and other marine industries.
This project is supported by the Technology & Innovation Ecosystem program, which receives funding through the MassTech Innovation Institute’s Scientific and Technology Research and Development Matching Grant Fund. MassTech is a public agency that supports business formation and growth in the state’s technology sector.
“The oceans are an invaluable resource tied to many of the nation’s biggest challenges, including national security, climate resilience, and economic growth,” Douglas Robbins, vice president of engineering and prototyping at MITRE Labs, said in a statement. “This project will foster an attractive innovation ecosystem for BlueTech startup companies, providing a first-in-the-nation data sharing capability that will maximize advantages for the region and grow the BlueTech workforce to meet the needs of the New Blue Economy."
MITRE is a nonprofit that operates federally funded research and development centers. It’s dual headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, and McLean, Virginia.
With this new funding, MITRE will work with local universities, marine research institutions and Massachusetts bluetech businesses on several initiatives.
This money from the state will help MITRE fund and outfit a bluetech lab on its Bedford campus. The lab will be used by researchers, entrepreneurs and companies to accelerate their research and technology development in areas like undersea sensing and communications. MITRE previously announced it would build this lab in 2021. The organization said this funding will help outfit the lab with technologies like a camera/localization system, unmanned underwater vehicle and other test equipment.
Data gathered in the lab will support the creation of the BlueNERVE Data Network. This national data hub will connect lab spaces and marine research organizations across the country. The goal is to establish real-time data sharing and simulation capabilities.
MITRE also plans to put funding toward bluetech workforce development. The organization says it will host projects and experiments to encourage people, especially students, to pursue careers in the blue economy. One proposed idea is to work with students to build underwater remotely operated vehicles.
“Massachusetts already has a strong foundation of marine tech research hubs in our state and the partnership established by MITRE points to how BlueTech OCEAN will expand upon that work and drive new opportunities for collaboration and talent development,” said Pat Larkin, director of the Innovation Institute at MassTech.
“The BlueNERVE network is also intriguing given the national partners that MITRE and the project partners can work with, engaging research labs coast to coast. The ocean economy has been a critical part of the Commonwealth’s history and these types of investments ensure it will stay a critical part of our future.”
The Healey-Driscoll administration has already taken some steps to bolster the blue economy in Massachusetts, including establishing the Office of Climate Innovation and Resilience and naming a climate chief at the cabinet level.
Lawmakers and advocates, including the New England Aquarium, put forward bills earlier this year to push the state’s investment in the blue economy’s workforce and businesses, research and development, conservation efforts, climate resilience and sustainability.
