The North Carolina Ecosystem Technology project has been awarded $1 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation's Regional Innovation Engines, or NSF Engines, to develop an economic engine that could rapidly improve the quality of life in rural coastal communities using ecosystem technology, or ecotech, an emerging branch of applied science.
NCET is among more than 40 unique teams to receive one of the first-ever NSF Engines Development Awards, which aim to create economic, societal and technological opportunities in their regions. The NCET team consists of 11 principal investigators who are experts across disciplines from seven institutions: the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Cape Fear Community College, Carteret Community College, Duke University, East Carolina University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and RTI International. Using the coastal city of Wilmington as its hub, NCET will focus on three key areas: coastal infrastructure, aquaculture and renewable energy ancillary services.
The NSF Engines program is a transformational investment for the nation, ensuring the U.S. remains in the vanguard of competitiveness for decades to come.
"These NSF Engines Development Awards lay the foundation for emerging hubs of innovation and potential future NSF Engines," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "The awardees are part of the fabric of NSF's vision to create opportunities everywhere and enable innovation anywhere. They will build robust regional partnerships rooted in scientific and technological innovation in every part of our nation. Through these awards, NSF is seeding the future for in-place innovation in communities and to grow their regional economies through research and partnerships. This will unleash ideas, talent, pathways and resources to create vibrant innovation ecosystems all across our nation."
More specifically, the NCET developing engine will improve the infrastructure of the NC coastal region and solve problems.
"NCET focuses on using ecosystem technologies to help all communities of Eastern North Carolina thrive by developing an academic-business-local government partnership to drive innovation and use-inspired solutions to climate-related and other societal issues that will continue to impact the region,” said Dr. Ken Halanych, executive director of UNCW’s Center for Marine Science and lead PI on the project.
According to Dr. Halanych, NCET has the potential to turn North Carolina into a national, and eventually, global hub of ecotech innovation that will integrate economic, community and ecological sustainability. Moreover, innovation engines such as NCET have the potential to create quality jobs for people living and working in the region, seeding opportunities of innovation-driven economies more fully in eastern NC, explains Sara Lawrence, director of economic development at RTI International. Currently, NCET has nearly 40 supporting partners from a variety of sectors statewide.
Within the three key areas, five emerging subfields of focus include:
Some examples of innovative research and development in these key areas include:
The NSF Engines Development awardees span a broad range of states and regions, reaching geographic areas that have not fully benefited from the technology boom of the past decades. These awards will help organizations create connections and develop their local innovation ecosystems within two years to prepare strong proposals for becoming future NSF Engines, which will each have the opportunity to receive up to $160 million.
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