Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Analog Devices Launch Ocean and Climate Innovation Accelerator - Seite 2

The consortium will be jointly led by WHOI, a world leader in oceanographic research, technology, and education dedicated to understanding the ocean for the benefit of humanity, and ADI, a world leader in the design, manufacturing, and marketing of a broad portfolio of high-performance semiconductor solutions used in virtually all types of electronic equipment. Designed to act as an engine for continuous innovation and powered by some of the world’s leading minds and businesses, the OCIA consortium is open to participation by a wide range of leading organizations across business, academia, and non-profits that recognize the inextricable links between ocean and climate and wish to have a positive impact on the global climate crisis.

The OCIA consortium will also establish a robust, multi-stage innovation ecosystem, building on WHOI’s existing strengths in education and research to drive solutions-thinking and allow scientists and engineers to focus on high-impact problems. This will include the launch of a new Climate Challenge Grant Program which will award seed-funding for smaller, competitively selected projects.

Initially, the OCIA will provide two types of awards:

• Incubation Awards: comprised of seed-funding awarded to dynamic individuals and teams. Incubation Awards will support design, exploration, and early execution of new, cutting-edge scientific initiatives that foster new avenues of research and engineering and encourage and incentivize collaborative engagement.
• Acceleration Awards: awarded to successful recipients of prior support for novel ideas and technologies, as well as other more mature projects, for the purpose of expanding these programs, increasing public engagement, and positioning and preparing projects to achieve lasting impact and receive durable outside support.

As the consortium grows over time, OCIA programs may expand to invest in people through the establishment of fellowships and other awards, along with a portfolio of other activities such as support for collaboration hubs to drive innovations in data processing, machine learning, and transdisciplinary science and engineering.