The online registration for Blue Institute World Oceans Day Summit 2021 will open on Friday, May 14th.
BLUE Institute is a global education, research, entrepreneurial, and community engagement hub for clean water, healthy oceans and climate change solutions. Our main office in Massachusetts is on Cape Cod at the Harwich Cultural Center, and we are now a proud Community Member at Groundwork in New Bedford, where the Blue Institute "grew up" through the Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll ) South Coast program in 2016. We are also thrilled to be in Newport, Rhode Island (the Ocean State) at Innovate Newport. BLUE Institute is a Registered Nonprofit 501(c)(3) designed to be an "open access" hub for excellence in water, oceans, and climate change education, research, entrepreneurship, and community engagement. We believe in an interdisciplinary inclusive approach to our curriculum, research efforts, entrepreneurship, and our community engagement activities such as our World Oceans Day celebrations. The BLUE Institute is a growing strategic consortium of dedicated “Triple Helix” partners (academia, industry, government) on a mission to create solutions for clean water, healthy oceans and climate change issues both local & global and to educate the “NextGen” or next generation of water-thought leaders through hands-on training in the unique fresh water and the saltwater ecosystem at and surrounding Nantucket Sound, Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, Cape Cod Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Our vision is of an open access 250+ person residential waterfront Blue Innovation campus with our sister BlueTech & blue economy ecosystem development group Blue Institute Labs for students, researchers, industry, government, academia, and startups coming together under one roof to foster applicable solutions for clean water, climate resiliency, and healthy & secure oceans.
At the end of the day - it's all about their future.
We aim to help educate young people to be the next generation of water thought leaders for their communities and the wider world. That could be as simple (and important) as serving on a local water resource committee, or exploring the burgeoning opportunities and career pathways in the water, marine and blue tech infrastructure and innovation sectors.
As a research center we will offer rotating topics of interest to bring researchers and practitioners together for a semester at a time from academia, industry and government to take a deep dive into collaborative working solutions - because we believe strongly in "innovation through collaboration."
The BLUE Institute is mission driven to support early stage BlueTech and blue economy startups (including ideas growing within a university or a garage). To address the significant challenges facing the more advanced startups - particularly in BlueTech & blue economy - water and the ocean are harsh environments and expensive to test/pilot in - the BLUE Institute Labs, PBC was created. As a Public Benefit Corporation it is committing 10% of its profits towards scholarships, fellowships, and early stage BlueTech and blue economy entrepreneurs at the Blue Institute. Our vision that co-locates the two entities - BLUE Innovation Center - supports regional and global economic development, research, entrepreneurship and commercialization in water security, resiliency, aquaculture, BlueTech, and marine technology. The BLUE Innovation Center will be the first oceanfront "Blue Tech" and Blue Economy hub on the US Eastern Seaboard - a “True BLUE Cluster!”
Our unique water-centric undergraduate “Blue Semester” program - the first pilot cohort in 2020-2021 will be comprised of hands on experiential learning drawing from cross-disciplinary fields integrating science, art, policy, engineering, humanities, economics, and technology, and mini-internships with area practitioners, agencies and organizations. The program will introduce students to the rapidly growing opportunities in the “blue economy" & to also create a generation of “water knowledge ambassadors" to better serve the world. Introductory level, advanced undergrad and graduate courses will be available. Are you a college student or know one who might be interested in participating? Contact us at info@blueinstitute.org
When the BLUE Innovation Center will be up and running research residencies will be open to scientists, graduate students and advanced undergraduates completing capstone projects. Students will have access to BlueTech and water security innovation incubator, fresh and salt water testing sites, and the area marine environments. The Institute supports sustainable water & ocean research which will bring together private and public sector projects, and research scientists in a unique academic and environmental ecosystem fostering collaborative exchanges, blue cluster development, and an innovative ecosystem. We are all about networking ideas, resources, people, and projects - locally, regionally, and internationally.
BlueTech and Blue Economy startups, particularly early stage companies need mentorship from scientists , engineers , and other "in the field practitioners " technologists or aquaculturalists. Entrepreneurship is hard. Water and Ocean related technologies and services are incredibly challenging because they need to be designed or deployed in the harshest environments on earth. Blue Institute is uniquely situated to support Bluetech and Blue Economy startups at the early stages of growth through specialized programming, networking, internship placements, and pilot & proto-typing opportunities. We are particularly focused on inclusive engagement and creating more opportunities for women and entrepreneurs of color to not only thrive in BlueTech & Blue Economy, but drive the BlueTech and the Blue Economy.
Community engagement offerings on water and climate change cover many disciplines such as the Seaweed & Algae panel, local authors community writing workshops, and "Words on Water" writing competition for World Oceans Day, community science panels, Women on Water lecture series, H20 STEM Community Conference. K-12 special curriculum events for children, and future educational support for teachers through hands-on research focused workshops are being developed. We are the happy recipient of a significant and valuable give of numerous tethered ROV's (remote operated vehicles) and look forward to having students try these out in the water when covid allows. Also in planning are cross-generational collaborations through classroom and onsite experiential learning incorporating schools, community, and senior citizen area programs. We are particularly excited to be working with students from UMass Dartmouth as well as the MET school in Newport, Rhode Island.
Are you passionate about what we're doing? Are you ready to dig in? Let us know! We are always looking for volunteers to help us make our vision a reality. We'll help you find a way to volunteer that best suits you. We're excited to have you join the team!
Join us next summer (covid allowing) at Harwich on Cape Cod, New Bedford, Mass and Newport, RI to learn more about the water all around us to explore STEM related BlueTech and underwater robots. Email us for info: info@blueinstitute.org
Whether you help through monetary donations, volunteering your time with us, or spreading our mission through word-of-mouth, thank you. We accomplish our goals with the help of supporters like you. Thank you!