Tailwinds #1: Blue Ocean Marine Services and the case for not sailing alone
While innovation implies doing something new and different, it’s critical to differentiate between where you need to metaphorically sail into the unknown alone, and where you can follow a well-travelled route and benefit from the tailwinds and support of others.
Making the journey as easy as possible for as many industry, researchers, innovators and investors as possible, is the focus of the Blue Economy Innovation Platform for WA.
The problem: making sense of seabed data
An example of how this has worked in the past is of how Blue Ocean Marine Services were able to use an incubation support program and subsidised access to researchers to innovate.
At the time the WA-based Blue Ocean Marine Services were providing marine geophysical, oceanographic and environmental survey services into the offshore sector in Australia and internationally, specialising in the use of remotely operated or autonomous (unmanned) technologies. They had a specific need around improving their capability in computer aided analysis and interpretation, particularly as it related to benthic habitat surveys for coral, algae and seagrass.
At the same time, the WA State Government was seeking to diversify WA’s economy through funding innovation support programs. And, UWA and US-based philanthropy were piloting a model to enable innovators to access research capability within universities.
Three weeks, two researchers
As an early proof-of-concept that has lead to the current form of Blue Gravity and the Blue Economy Innovation Platform, For Blue and UWA collaborated to support Blue Ocean Marine Services with:
diagnosis of their needs and recommendations
financial subsidies, in-kind expert support and referrals to address the recommendations
an academic team with specific expertise and access to leading edge research.
UWA, Knodes Network, For Blue, WA State Government and Blue Ocean Marine Services all contributed to funding a three-week sprint by two early-career researchers, and mentoring the researchers to ensure they gained expertise in areas they were new to. The focus of their work for Blue Oceans was the leading-edge of machine vision, data processing and use of machine learning and AI as it related to benthic habitat mapping.
From a 17-page report to a global player
What the researchers were able to do is dig deep into academic research and pre-publication expertise within UWA and other institutions and then organise and synthesise their findings. At the end of three weeks they presented a 17-page report that gave Blue Ocean a view of the landscape of technologies, competitors and experts relevant to their strategy and tactics for collaborative technology development or acquisition.
These invaluable insights required limited cash and time input from Blue Oceans and gave them an exclusive edge in a domain relevant to their further product development and partnerships.
Fast forward a couple of years and Blue Ocean Marine Services merged with Geo Oceans with the combined entity now a multiple award-winning global player employing hundreds of people specialising in asset-deployed mini-ROVs and leading the market, including in benthic habitat surveys and use of their proprietary Go Vision software.
What this means for innovators now
That service of multi-party support that benefits the company and the WA economy is available now, thanks to the Blue Economy Innovation Platform, Blue Gravity and the incubation support and subsidies.
This sort of support addresses capability gaps for innovators that cannot be overcome through funding alone, including in R&D, commercialisation, regulatory processes, market navigation, customer development, investor engagement and export market development.
This means innovators like Blue Oceans can focus on looking to the horizon in their area of expertise knowing they have a team and tailwinds behind them for everything else complementary.
About Blue Economy Innovation Platform WA (BEIP WA)
Blue Economy Innovation Platform WA is the first initiative of the Blue Economy Innovation Hub AUS. Its purpose is to strengthen Western Australia's position as a global hub for developing, deploying and scaling technologies that solve global marine, maritime and naval challenges.
BEIP WA provides a single point of entry for innovators, investors, industry and government to connect, collaborate and grow. Support runs across four pathways: Gravity, the entry point; Propel, the accelerator; Dock, a bridge to global markets; and Growth, the community and events program. Ventures at any stage are welcome, including those based outside Australia.
Submit an expression of interest in five minutes: https://www.bei.org.au/western-australia/eoi
Learn more about BEIP WA: bei.org.au
BEIP WA is delivered by Ocean Impact Organisation, For Blue, and The University of Western Australia, with the support of the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification, The Hub on SX, City of Cockburn, City of Fremantle, Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), and City of Rockingham.
