Befitting its nickname as the “Ocean State,” much of Rhode Island’s economic history has been directly linked to its surrounding waters. Used by many for recreation, research and income, the waters have become a breeding ground for new and exciting opportunities. For the past three years the Ocean Technology Center has been at the hub of helping local companies develop opportunity from this important economic resource.
Created by the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council in 1997 as one of only two Research Centers for Excellence in the state, its purpose is to support start-up and small businesses in applied research and development projects through a combination of grants and loans.
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“This program is very common in other areas of the country,” said Jeffrey Callahan, director of the Ocean Technology Center. “The new economy is based on technology and information and this is a way to really get it going. That’s precisely what EPC did. They realized that success starts with someone who has an idea and is willing to put in the effort to realize that idea.”
The Ocean Technology Center operates as a unit of the University of Rhode Island. With a staff of three, the center is located on the University’s Narragansett Bay Campus. The 10,000-square-foot-building includes administrative spaces, a large systems fabrication shop, and a start-up company incubator area. The building also includes an equipment development lab that can be utilized by participating companies.
“We would eventually like to have more incubators, maybe a whole wing” Callahan said. “Because supporting smaller companies that really haven’t had time to grow yet is really the purpose of these centers.”
But it’s quite a change for Callahan and his staff, who prior to becoming a Center for Excellence in 1996, were part of a National Science Foundation as a Cooperative Research Center. Callahan said the problem with being a Cooperative Research Center is that much of the center’s funding was dependent upon the investment of larger national companies in the activities of the center.
“It became increasingly difficult for us to find companies that wanted to pay the membership fee for our cooperative,” he said. “This industry is dominated by the little companies, and none of them could afford to pay the fees.”
So when the EPC began forming the idea for the Centers of Excellence, Callahan said he and his colleagues were eager to learn more.
“This model makes a lot of sense for this industry,” he said. “It can really do some good for businesses and for the state’s economy. It’s much more interesting for us to do something with the local company.”
The bulk of the Ocean Technology Center’s ability to fund other companies comes through R & D Grants. Part of the Ocean Industry Grant Program, this plan is a direct result of the state’s Research Centers for Excellence Initiative. OTC makes grants of up to $75,000 to for-profit entities, which must provide matching funds for the grant. Proposals for this program are solicited once a year during the fall and are awarded at the beginning of the following calendar year.
Callahan said in order to be eligible for the program a proposal must come from a Rhode Island based company or a company with a large operation in Rhode Island; the proposals must be focused on something that will bring economic development to Rhode Island; and finally the funding may only be used for research and development and can not pay for hiring or equipment.
“What we have been dealing with is smaller companies that are just starting-up or only in their first couple of years,” he said.
Loans are also made to small Rhode Island based companies through OTC’s Marine Enterprise Development Program (MEDP). The loan pool of more than $1.6 million is made up of grant funds from the United States Economic Development Administration and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.
OTC also provides networking assistance through a range of traditional development activities, including sponsoring meetings and assisting groups in finding resources.
During its first three years, Callahan said the center has already given money to more than 15 companies, and he expects that number to continue to climb once “the word gets out about the center.”
OTC is also working on a new program called the Ocean Technology Transfer Initiative. Callahan said the purpose of this program is two-fold. The first goal is to work with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) to improve the flow of intellectual property from the NUWC into local technology firms. The second goal is to launch a cooperative applied research development program between NUWC, URI and local technology firms that has both commercial and defense applications.
