Announcement of DEVELOP Competition
Open of DEVELOP Competition and Design Contest: October 19, 2020
Close of Design Contest: February 16, 2021
Link to Prize: https://americanmadechallenges.org/oceanobserving/
DEVELOP Competition:
The second stage of the Ocean Observing Prize, known as the DEVELOP Competition, opened on October 19, 2020. The DEVELOP Competition challenges problem solvers to develop technologies to better map, monitor, and understand the ocean with the ultimate goal of improving hurricane forecasting in the Atlantic. The challenge itself is to integrate wave energy harvesting with autonomous underwater vehicles to create a self-charging ocean observing platform for hurricane monitoring that can remain deployed at sea for months at a time. There are three contests: Design, Build, and Splash. Through these contests, competitors will be asked to design prototypes, build and test them in a controlled environment, and eventually test them at sea. The Design Contest will remain open for 120 days, closing February 16, 2021.
PRIZE OVERVIEW
The Powering the Blue Economy™: Ocean Observing Prize challenges innovators to develop solutions that integrate marine renewable energy with ocean observation platforms in order to revolutionize our ability to monitor, manage, and understand the ocean.
The Powering the Blue Economy Initiative is a new R&D effort being led by the DOE’s WPTO to investigate alternative non-grid applications for marine energy. This joint prize between WPTO and the IOOS® program at NOAA seeks to encourage energy innovation in ocean observation technologies. The Ocean Observing Prize consists of a series of competitions over several years to develop marine energy solutions that meet the needs of ocean researchers, agencies, explorers, and other end-users in the ocean observing community. The development of the prize was coordinated through NOPP and the execution of the Prize is supported by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
COMPETITION STRUCTURE
The Ocean Observing Prize consists of two competitions that are designed to incentivize accelerated innovation in marine energy and ocean observations. The first competition, the DISCOVER Competition, solicited novel concepts that integrate ocean observing technologies with marine energy systems to address end-user needs across five broad themes: (1) Unmanned Vehicles; (2) Communications and Underwater Navigation; (3) Extreme Environments; (4) Buoys, Floats, and Tags; and (5) Blue Sea Ideas (i.e., other). The second competition, the DEVELOP Competition, focuses on a single theme and challenges contestants to develop their ideas into a functioning prototype. Together, the DISCOVER and DEVELOP Competitions will award up to $3 million in cash prizes, as well as other in-kind awards such as access to facilities, specialized equipment, and subject matter experts.
