Blue Economy Innovation Hub AUS Launches Blue Economy Innovation Platform for WA
Western Australia just got a structured on-ramp for ocean innovation. Here's what that means.
The Blue Economy Innovation Platform for WA is not another one-off innovation program. It’s a platform built on decades of ocean innovation experience to do something much harder: creating a system for growing marine and maritime capability, at scale.
Western Australia has an opportunity that any nation would envy. It has deep marine science capability, significant industrial and research infrastructure, a coastline that touches some of the world's most productive and contested ocean territory. In the last five years a range of small-scale initiatives have been capitalising on that opportunity.
Today marks the start of the emergence of WA as a global hub for ocean innovation.
The Blue Economy Innovation Hub AUS (BEIH AUS) has launched the Blue Economy Innovation Platform for WA (BEIP WA): a structured, funded platform connecting industry challenges to validated ocean ventures, with clear pathways for innovators, investors, and industry operators alike.
“WA is already a crucible for creating award-winning, sustainable, scalable ocean-based solutions to global challenges: from transformative bioinnovations such as Seastock, Ullu, Marine Biomedical and Coral Maker to dual-use engineering ocean solutions like Hyperion Systems, WaveX, Carnegie Clean Energy and Greenroom Robotics. This Platform is an invitation to access world-class capability and address unsolved challenges, scale innovative solutions and generate great social, environmental and financial returns.”
— Andrew Outhwaite, Managing Director, For Blue
What the platform actually does
BEIP WA operates across four service lines, each designed for a different types of participants and stages of the innovation journey.
Gravity provides foundational support: onboarding, diagnosis, challenge definition, incubation, and access to the broader platform ecosystem.
Propel is the flagship accelerator: intensive, structured, and built for ventures ready to scale.
Dock serves as both a physical landing pad for inbound investors and a launchpad concierge service for ventures targeting export markets.
Growth provides the community and events infrastructure that keeps the broader ecosystem connected and visible.
The platform is deliberately distributed rather than centralised, embedded across regional ecosystems rather than housed in a single institution. That's not an accident. It reflects how blue economy innovation actually works: locally rooted, globally connected.
What this means for industry, innovators, investors and government is there is a single point of entry to access the world’s leading ocean innovation: solutions, ecosystems and capabilities.
The coalition behind it
BEIP WA is an initiative of the BEIH AUS Founding Members: Ocean Impact Organisation, For Blue, and the UWA Oceans Institute and in partnership with The Hub on SX (HOSX). Already funding has been committed by WA's Department of Energy and Economic Diversification (DEED) through the Innovation Pathways Program, the City of Cockburn, City of Fremantle and Austrade. Additional partners will be announced shortly.
The founding membership brings complementary strengths: venture development and commercialisation capability (OIO), regional ecosystem and industry network (For Blue), world-class research infrastructure (UWA Oceans Institute), and on-the-ground startup and sustainability community (HOSX). Government backing at state, local, and federal levels gives the platform both legitimacy and runway to scale up to meet the urgency of need and scale of opportunity.
“Australia holds world-class marine science, industrial infrastructure and sovereign capability. The Blue Economy Innovation Platform for WA puts that to work giving industry, investors and innovators a real on-ramp; structured, supported and connected to global markets.”
— Nick Chiarelli, CEO, Ocean Impact Organisation
What this means for Australia
Algal blooms, oil shortages, decarbonisation targets, growing investment in nature positive solutions and long-term commitments to naval shipbuilding are all convergent drivers for innovations in, with and for the ocean, to serve Australia’s national interest.
The platform directly delivers on Australia's national priorities across multiple areas: Future Made in Australia, the National Marine Science Strategy, and the National Defence Strategy, and also delivers on Western Australia's Science and Technology Plan and Innovation Strategy.
For the growing national networks of marine and maritime industries and ocean innovators, the significance is straightforward: there is now a funded, structured, multi-partner pathway from challenge to solution to market …. and it is open.
BEIP WA is the first flagship program of the Blue Economy Innovation Hub AUS, a distributed national platform established in 2025. The WA launch is a proof point for a solution that meets multiple needs for Australia, not an initiative limited to a single region.
What our partners said at launch:
“Fremantle is a major hub for the Blue Economy and home to a significant number of innovative businesses and ventures operating across the sector. The City welcomes the launch of the Blue Economy Innovation Platform for WA and looks forward to participating in the initiative via its existing start-up and innovation ecosystem program, Propel Fremantle. We are also proud to host the Platform’s ‘Dock’ within our own building, where our latest tenants will attract the right mix of innovators, investors and industry partners to support collaboration and drive global impact.”
— Ben Lawver, Mayor, City of Fremantle
“Through the Innovation Pathways Program, the Cook Government is investing in initiatives that accelerate innovation, support commercialisation and position Western Australia for long-term economic growth.”
— Stephen Dawson, Minister for Ports; Science and Innovation, Western Australia
“The City of Cockburn has been a proud supporter of Blue Gravity since its inception and the Blue Economy Innovation Platform will accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship across the blue economy. The global blue economy holds many opportunities for coastal communities like Cockburn, especially with the growing recognition of WA as a centre for ocean innovation. For the City of Cockburn, our role is clear. We are here not just to support industry, but to help shape the conditions for its future success. This new platform will promote Cockburn’s role as a place where innovation can start, scale and succeed.”
— Logan Howlett, Mayor, City of Cockburn
Expressions of interest are open now
Industry partners, investors, and innovators can register interest and access the platform at www.bei.org.au.
