Ian Estaphan Owen launched a marine robotics company less than two years ago with the aim of helping combat the effects of climate change.
But getting the Newport-based business up to speed hasn’t been easy.
Owen, who worked at Raytheon Technologies Corp. in the United Kingdom before relocating to its facility in Portsmouth, developed underwater robotic equipment at several companies before founding Jaia Robotics LLC in 2020. The company uses torpedo-shaped robots to conduct geological surveys, identify hazards, track pollution and make other environmental assessments for its clients.
“I have a passion for the environment,” Owen said. “We need a healthy ocean that is accessible to all.”
Owen says the excitement surrounding Rhode Island’s blue economy was a motivator for starting his business, but for all the buzz, he’s finding there’s a lack of venture capital and job training, and not nearly enough support from the state government.
“The state could do more to attract angel investors,” he said recently.
Help could be on the way.
The University of Rhode Island Research Foundation is a finalist in a high-stakes federal grant competition that could fetch as much as $100 million to boost the state’s blue economy, an ocean-related sector with an estimated value of more than $5 billion in Rhode Island.
URI’s grant proposal calls for such things as developing Narragansett Bay into a “smart bay” where undersea and maritime technologies can be invented, prototyped and tested. It’s one of 60 finalist applications nationwide that are vying to win the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, a key part of the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s American Rescue Plan Act expenditures. The EDA is set to award $1 billion in grants to 20 to 30 winners by September.
The grants will range between $25 million and $100 million, depending on the merits of each winning project, the EDA said.
URI and state officials say $100 million could help Rhode Island capitalize on opportunities to develop marine-based businesses through a smart bay, a “blue innovation technology center,” improved aquaculture operations and increased job training. There are plans to upgrade ports in North Kingstown and Providence for offshore wind staging areas, too.
“We’re going to connect across all sectors of the blue economy, and redefine the blue economy,” said Pete Rumsey, URI Research Foundation chief business development officer.
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CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT:
BioConnects New England’s entry into the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge calls for the collaboration of institutions in Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island to strengthen biomanufacturing and life sciences in the Northeast. In Rhode Island, that would include the creation of a lab that would support biotech startups. / SOURCE: BioConnects New England / PBN ILLUSTRATION/ANNE EWING[/caption]
ANOTHER SHOT
URI’s proposal is not Rhode Island’s only opportunity to get the top prizes from the $1 billion available to Build Back Better Regional Challenge winners.
BioConnects New England, a multistate biotech coalition, has also been named a finalist in the challenge. Led by Northeastern University, the group says it aims to accelerate the growth of the biomanufacturing industry in New England with nine life sciences hubs spread across Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The plan is to create training and education programs – with a special emphasis on minorities and women – to feed a growing need for workers in the emerging fields of developing cell and gene therapies and RNA and DNA therapeutics.
Other components include adding laboratory space and commercial-scale bioreactors to the hubs to allow startups to research and develop products beyond the heart of the industry in Cambridge, Mass.
“This is an opportunity for a massive investment in the region to do what I think is really crucial to biotechnology, and that is to think about how we get research and development that is centered in Cambridge to bleed out across the rest of New England,” said Jared AuClair, associate dean of professional program and graduate affairs in the College of Science at Northeastern.
Indeed, the BioConnects proposal cites Rubius Therapeutics Inc. as an example of what it envisions for the future. Rubius started by developing its red blood cell therapy in Cambridge but has now opened a pharmaceutical plant in Smithfield that employs more than 70 people.
R.I. Commerce Corp. and URI are signed on to BioConnects and already have issued a request for proposals for a shared laboratory site.
Hilary Fagan, R.I. Commerce president and chief operating officer, says a shared wet lab for early-stage life sciences companies was identified in the state’s 2020 Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy as one of the key investments the state needed to make to support the growth of biotech in Rhode Island.
The lab space – which would be part of a “bioinnovation” campus potentially located in the I-195 Innovation & Design District in Providence – will provide resources at a reduced cost, allowing companies at every stage of development to focus on science and business growth, she says.
“The initiative will create a strategic talent pipeline … facilitate coordination among the region’s strong workforce development and training programming, and accelerate the commercialization of therapeutics,” Fagan said.
Carol Malysz, executive director of the life sciences industry network Rhode Island Bio in Providence, is hopeful the BioConnects proposal can beef up the state’s meager biomanufacturing resources and persuade early-stage ventures to stay in Rhode Island.
“With the lack of wet lab space in the state, it’s difficult to discourage startup companies from moving to Massachusetts-based locations, which already have those facilities,” she said.
“We need only look to the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, a 10-year, $1 billion state-funded life sciences initiative as a model for our state,” Malysz said. “With the influx of [federal] funding in Rhode Island, it’s an opportune time to accelerate the development of our life sciences infrastructure, both physical and human capital, and push this project to the next level.”
A third Build Back Better Regional Challenge finalist with Rhode Island ties is the Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region, which is proposing to build a New London and Bridgeport-based offshore wind “ecosystem” aimed at workforce training programs that would, in a later phase, attempt to tie into Rhode Island workforce programs.
Selected from a pool of 529 applicants, the 60 finalists have already won $500,000 each from the EDA program, which falls under the purview of U.S. Commerce Secretary (and former R.I. Gov.) Gina M. Raimondo. The winners are slated to be named in September, with funding of up to $100 million to be awarded to each project the following month.
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MAN WITH A PLAN: Pete Rumsey is the chief business development officer at the University of Rhode Island Research Foundation in South Kingstown, which has applied for up to $100 million in federal grant money to develop the state’s blue economy. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM[/caption]
FORGING AHEAD
URI isn’t waiting for the winners to be named to pursue its goals.
“This is something we’re going to do to drive our economy forward, with the EDA or independent of the EDA,” Rumsey said.
Indeed, support is building to expand the state’s blue economy. Gov. Daniel J. McKee has proposed allocating $70 million in investments from American Rescue Plan Act funding to help with the development of the smart bay concept and an innovation center.
Beyond that, McKee proposes putting on the statewide ballot a $62 million bond issue for higher education, with $50 million dedicated to making improvements at URI’s Bay Campus in Narragansett. URI President Marc B. Parlange says those improvements would include a new 77,000-square-foot marine laboratory.
Still, the Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant would provide a massive lift.
“We have the resources to support technology and growth while building a robust pipeline of jobs,” Parlange said. “This grant will not only accelerate the work we are currently doing but it will position URI as a powerful engine, fueling the blue economy in the state and the region.”
After Rumsey took the reins at the URI Research Foundation in March 2021, R.I. Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor backed the creation of a marine innovation center at URI – where researchers could study capturing wave energy, examine the impact of sea-level rise and fortify the local supply chain – and the development of Narragansett Bay as a “smart bay,” where startups such as Jaia Robotics could conduct research and development.
The plan is based on a 2020 economic development report commissioned by R.I. Commerce called Rhode Island Innovates 2.0, which projected the state’s blue economy growing to a value of $25 billion over the next decade.
“We got lucky this [grant challenge] came when it did,” Rumsey said. “We were a couple of months into convening, meeting with organizations, when the Build Back Better program dropped. It was like, ‘Whoa!’ We were suddenly able to supersize it and adapt what we were planning to the EDA’s program.”
The URI Research Foundation is now hiring staff using the $500,000 it has already been awarded as a finalist and is beginning to organize and draft more detailed plans.
In addition to a smart bay and an innovation center, the proposal submitted to the Build Back Better Regional Challenge calls for developing new blue economy workforce development programs to train workers for support positions, improving the state’s marine-based infrastructure so local ports can serve the offshore wind energy industry, and upgrading aquaculture, fisheries and seafood facilities.
“Our blue economy is a legacy economy, and it’s the foundation upon which much of our success and character has been built,” said Jennifer McCann, director of the U.S. Coastal Programs at the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Center. “What we’re talking about now is leveraging the next iteration of this formidable economic engine, one which is directly tied to our social and environmental well-being.”
URI says the proposal brings together a collection of 37 government, nonprofit and private-sector entities all under the leadership of the URI Research Foundation, R.I. Commerce and the governor’s office.
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PROTOTYPE: Ben Sorkin, left, CEO of electric boat motor developer Flux Marine Ltd. in East Greenwich, works with powertrain engineer Milo Ferrazzoli on one of the company’s prototype engines. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM[/caption]
For a company such as East Greenwich-based Flux Marine Ltd., which develops electric boat motors, it’s a chance for Rhode Island to take leaps ahead in an emerging sector.
“So much revolves around the blue economy, but it’s been far behind in innovation for such a long time,” said Ben Sorkin, Flux founder and CEO. “For so long Silicon Valley has been synonymous with the [San Francisco] Bay Area for tech startups. Rhode Island specifically has the opportunity to become the ‘bay area’ of blue technology.”
Flux recently closed a $15.5 million round of venture funding and received an estimated $1.9 million in tax credits from R.I. Commerce over 10 years in exchange for hiring at least 80 people by 2025. Now it’s establishing a 40,000-square-foot factory, research and development space and offices in a former complex mill in Bristol.
“We would like to see [Rhode Island] as a hub for attracting talent, bringing global monies into the areas around the local blue economy,” Sorkin said. “That would not only help to foster technological growth but create a hub for development.”
Another company, Newport-based Inspire Environmental LLC, could be a benefactor if URI wins the Build Back Better challenge.
Drew Carey is CEO of Inspire Environmental, which specializes in marine-based imaging surveying to monitor seafloor ecology, assess sediment and conduct mapping.
A “smart” Narragansett Bay could provide a platform for testing Inspire’s equipment, including high-resolution image surveying technology.
Carey said some regional fishing areas are suffering from the impacts of climate change and shrinking fishery stocks, while the development of adaptable technology, such as LED lighting on nets to attract or repel certain species, is lagging behind.
“A lot of the fishing communities have been challenged by the loss of fish and the changes in the climate – and they all need to be able to have a bridge into a future blue economy, and not just be left behind as developments occur in other areas of the sector,” he said.
‘COULD BE EXTRAORDINARY’
For local officials, the stakes are high, particularly because there are two finalists for the Build Back Better Regional Challenge with strong Rhode Island connections that could both bring in $100 million.
Cliff Wood, executive director of The Providence Foundation, is thrilled by the possibilities.
While the BioConnects proposal could give a jolt to the biotech industry in the heart of Providence, URI Research Foundation’s blueprint could bring improvements to the port of Providence that could make it a central hub for shipping and the renewable energy industry, Wood says.
“They’re super interrelated,” Wood said. “If we pull it off, it could be extraordinary.”
For his part, Owen, from Jaia Robotics, is heartened by the sense of collaboration that has come out of the URI Research Foundation’s blue economy proposal so far. His company also participated in MassChallenge and 401 Tech Bridge’s eight-week Blue Tech Accelerator and Fellow Program last fall.
“If we are going to be successful in establishing a world-class, blue-tech cluster, then we have to collaborate because in isolation there is no way one organization can do it alone,” he said.
