Closing the BlueTech Commercialization Gap

A Message from Robyn

I have spent much of my career working at the intersection of science, education, and innovation, and I keep coming back to the same challenge: we are remarkably good at generating ideas and far less good at getting the best of them into the world.

That challenge is especially urgent in the Blue Economy. Scientists, entrepreneurs, students, and communities are developing new approaches to ocean health, climate resilience, sustainable industry, and the responsible use of marine resources. But an idea, even an extraordinary one, is only the beginning. Moving from discovery to application requires relationships, resources, places to test and learn, and people willing to work across the boundaries that too often separate research, industry, investment, education, and community.

That is what excites me about the Blue Institute.

We are building connections that help promising ideas move forward. Through the BLUE Excelerator, education and workforce initiatives, and partnerships across the innovation ecosystem, we bring together people who might not otherwise find one another, and create opportunities for them to build, test, learn, and grow together.

As a scientist, educator, entrepreneur, and higher education leader, I have seen what becomes possible when we stop treating discovery, learning, and economic development as separate endeavors. Students become contributors to real problems. Researchers see new pathways for their work. Entrepreneurs gain access to expertise and networks. Communities become partners in innovation rather than simply places where innovation happens.

The ocean challenges ahead of us are complex. No institution, sector, or brilliant idea will solve them alone. Our opportunity is to build the connective tissue that allows good ideas, and the people behind them, to go farther.

That is the work I am delighted to help lead at the Blue Institute.

Robyn E. Hannigan, Ph.D.
President, Blue Institute

What We're Building

Accelerating Innovation

Helping BlueTech entrepreneurs move promising ideas from concept toward commercialization through mentorship, testing, partnerships, and access to the broader innovation ecosystem.

Connecting Research to Impact

Bringing together researchers, entrepreneurs, industry, investors, and communities to shorten the distance between discovery and real-world application.

Developing Blue Talent

Creating opportunities for students and emerging professionals to learn by doing—working alongside scientists, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders on the challenges shaping the Blue Economy.

About Robyn Hannigan

Robyn E. Hannigan, Ph.D., is President of the Blue Institute, where she brings together her experience as a scientist, entrepreneur, educator, and executive leader to advance ocean innovation and the Blue Economy.

Over more than three decades, Robyn has worked across higher education, government, nonprofit organizations, and entrepreneurial ventures. She has served as a college president, university provost, founding dean, department chair, professor, and program officer at the National Science Foundation. A geochemist by training, she has led more than $30 million in externally funded research and programs, authored more than 100 scholarly publications, and co-founded technology ventures translating scientific discovery into practical applications.

Throughout her career, Robyn has been particularly interested in what happens at the boundaries between disciplines and sectors, where researchers, entrepreneurs, students, industry, communities, and funders come together around problems that no one organization can solve alone. Her work has included building research and innovation partnerships, developing academic and workforce programs, supporting entrepreneurs, and creating opportunities for students to participate directly in discovery and problem-solving.

At the Blue Institute, Robyn focuses on strengthening those connections: helping promising BlueTech innovations move toward application, expanding partnerships across the ocean innovation ecosystem, and developing opportunities for the next generation of scientists, entrepreneurs, and Blue Economy leaders.

She believes that the most consequential work rarely fits neatly within a single organization or discipline, and that our greatest opportunity lies in connecting good ideas, capable people, and the resources they need to make a difference.

President of the Blue Institute

Robyn E. Hannigan, Ph.D.