BOSTON — Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced the launch of the Seaport Economic Council’s BlueTech Tech and Innovation Grant program, established to identify new business and technology approaches that address the needs of the Commonwealth’s coastal communities.
Following up on the success of the Seaport Economic Council Grand Challenge in 2018, the BlueTech Tech and Innovation Grant program seeks proposals from municipalities, entrepreneurs, and technology firms interested in developing innovative solutions to improve the economies of our marine industries and coastal communities. Applicants can propose business or technology solutions that focus on sectors such as commercial fishing, aquaculture, maritime monitoring or security, shipping, marine biotechnology, offshore renewable energy, and more.
“Our administration is committed to supporting innovation and growth across every industry and community in our Commonwealth,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “The BlueTech Tech and Innovation Grant program will help our coastal communities prepare for a strong future, supporting new technologies and ideas that address their unique challenges and position the maritime industry for continued growth.”
“Since the re-launch of the Seaport Economic Council in 2015, our administration has been proud to support projects that drive job creation and growth throughout our coastal communities,” said Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, Chair of the Seaport Economic Council. “We are pleased to build on this work with The BlueTech Tech and Innovation Grant program, which will leverage our robust innovation economy to provide additional support to the maritime industries that provide opportunities across our coastline.”
Applications for the BlueTech Tech and Innovation Grant are available now at https://innovation.masstech.org/seaport, with proposals due by May 26, 2021.
The grant program is managed by the Innovation Institute at the MassTech Collaborative on behalf of the Seaport Economic Council, as was the previous Challenge in 2018.
“The BlueTech Tech and Innovation Grant will further strengthen our state’s position as a leader in marine and Blue Tech innovation,” added Carolyn Kirk, Executive Director of MassTech, and a former mayor of Gloucester, Mass.. “Our past investments in Massachusetts innovators have shown how this type of cross-sector collaboration can create long term and sustained economic benefits.”
“We’re excited to launch this collaboration with MassTech to leverage the Commonwealth’s unique coastal assets and strengthen the industries that call these communities home,” said Ashley Stolba, Undersecretary of Community Development. “We are eager to see what innovative solutions come forward that help to further unlock the economic potential of our key maritime sectors.”
The inaugural Grand Challenge in 2018 awarded over $450,000 to three projects that deployed Internet of Things connected technologies that impacted projects with a footprint in Buzzards Bay, New Bedford, Gloucester, and Scituate. Those grantees developed innovations that launched high-tech data analysis in commercial fisheries; deployed distributed sensors to help track lobster populations; and created an online data portal to help researchers track tidal flows and other data points.
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About the Innovation Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative
The MassTech Collaborative is a quasi-public economic development agency that strengthens the competitiveness of the tech and innovation economy by driving strategic investments, partnerships, and insights that harness the talent of Massachusetts. The Innovation Institute is the division of MassTech that advances its core mission of innovation and cluster growth across the Commonwealth. Created in 2003, the Innovation Institute intervenes in the economy in the following four ways:
- Conducts research and analysis that improves the state’s understandings of unmet needs and opportunities in the innovation economy;
- Serves as convener and key strategic broker on the landscape;
- Manages high-value projects on behalf of the Commonwealth; and
- Makes strategic investments in support of innovation-based economic development.
For more information, visit https://innovation.masstech.org/.