Nalu Scientific was recently awarded a $400,000 Phase II federal contract to continue its research and development of an undersea monitoring system
The contract — which was awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, in collaboration with the Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, program — is for Nalu's Oceanographic LIDAR, Light Detection And Ranging, for Environmental Assessment or OLEAS, project.
According to officials with Nalu Scientific, OLEAS is a low-cost, compact, rugged system that can be operated from surface vessels and underwater vehicles and that continuously and remotely monitors the upper ocean.
Nalu Scientific is the only Hawaii firm to receive a Phase II grant in this latest round of funding, which totaled $8 million across 21 projects.
“We are gratified to see that NOAA has reaffirmed its support of our work with LIDAR ... as part of its broader mandate to harness technology in addressing our changing climate,” said Nalu Scientific founder and CEO Isar Mostafanezhad in a statement. “Hawaii is particularly vulnerable, and thus a meaningful place for us to be doing this work.”
“LIDAR, in general, is a technically challenging system, and the competitive landscape is expansive, but we see an opportunity to collaborate with other industry leaders and form strategic partnerships,” Mostafanezhad said. “We currently have beta versions being tested at various locations and have received patents for our base technology."
“We have a strong relationship with one of the leading scientific instrument providers, and are looking to have our microchips distributed as commercial products through another partner,” he said.
OLEAS could be utilized by government officials, researchers, and hobbyists to assess ocean health as it relates to biogeochemical processes.
“Every day, communities and businesses grapple with challenges due to climate variability and change,” said Wayne Higgins, director of NOAA’s Climate Protection Office, in a statement. “These new awards will expedite climate science discoveries and build the library of resilience solutions needed to protect all sectors of our economy and environment.”
This recent award comes after Nalu Scientfic received $2.8 million in funding in October for five other Nalu Scientific projects, and $2.3 million in August for the company’s research into ultrafast image capture and data processing.
