Innovation Accelerator

The RTDC’s Innovation Accelerator (IA) business model is focused on nurturing new companies in technology areas in which Cape Cod-based research institutions have distinctive strengths and strategic local and/or geographical assets. The goal is to catalyze new company formation that will diversify the Cape Cod work force and create a broad range of new employment opportunities. 

The IA model has two features that distinguish it from conventional incubators and other programs that support emerging companies:

• A market-focused approach
• The matching of “technology fragments” from multiple sources to develop a complete technology innovation that will meet market needs

The RTDC plans to establish IAs in five technology areas in which Cape Cod institutions have acknowledged strength and active research interests:

• Marine Sciences (IA/MS)
• Environmental Sciences (IA/ES)
• Aquaculture (IA/A)
• Alternative Energy (IA/AE)
• Life Sciences (IA/LS)

The RTDC has identified development of the Innovation Accelerator for Marine Sciences (IA/MS) as its initial model prototype due to:

• Growing recognition about the need to support the marine sciences in development of new technologies and techniques for environmental monitoring, weather forecasting, and fisheries studies
• Cape Cod’s world-renowned research strengths and facilities in the marine sciences

The IA/MS will provide a critical link between basic academic researchers with commercially promising but developmentally early technology, and business and scientific executives with marine science industry experience who have developed and marketed products from the bench to the marketplace.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, widely recognized in their research domains and attracting internationally acclaimed scientists from around the world, are working closely with the RTDC to facilitate the goal of commercializing technology.

The functional base of the IA will be an IA Advisory Board with up to 10 members from the marine science industry, coordinated by a Project Manager with similar commercial experience. This Advisory Board will identify, review, and advise in the formation of new marine science-based companies to be established on or around Cape Cod.

Not all technologies are sufficiently robust and commercially viable to warrant the formation of a new company. Another important function of the IA/MS, therefore, will be to actively collaborate and interact with other marine science institutions around the U.S. and globally to identify complementary technology that may be in-licensed to complement these “technology fragments” mined from local research institutions.