The internet is filled with news stories from across the country with folks boasting about their area ready to become the ‘next Silicon Valley’ for … something, almost anything, it seems, tied to innovation.
Tobias Stapleton, UMass Dartmouth Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship director, adds our region to the list in this week’s cover story, citing the promise of marine technology. And, despite a touch of hyperbole, he has a point.
Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts have the ocean assets and a growing number of academic and research services and companies eager to tap into the developing market.
What could prove to be a game-changer, however, is an effort by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport to create a consortium of underwater-tech companies under a federal program that could speed the development and commercialization of undersea and maritime technology.
NUWC expects the consortium to begin forming by year’s end.
For the Ocean State, it’s an idea worth supporting, in the form of workforce training and grants to keep involved companies in the game.