New England Seafood Partnership for Innovations, Research and Engagement

New England is a cornerstone of America’s seafood industry. Building on deep connections among Native American Tribes with the sea, fishing in New England was the first commercial enterprise of the United States, laying the foundation for a powerful maritime economy that continues to support coastal communities. Today, aquaculture adds to this legacy, serving as a testament to the power of innovation and ingenuity. However, economic, environmental, and policy challenges that contribute to a more than $20B national seafood deficit have brought New England’s iconic seafood industry to a crossroads.

NSPIRE confronts these challenges head-on by mobilizing New England’s dynamic, expanding, and world-leading tech sector toward breaking through bottlenecks across the seafood supply chain. Technological innovation is the vehicle through which NSPIRE is bringing unprecedented levels of boat-to-plate and industry-to-science collaboration to increase the volume, quality, consistency, variety, and, ultimately, value of seafood products in New England and across the U.S.

In July 2025, the National Science Foundation announced that NSPIRE was selected as one of 29 semifinalists for support as a Regional Innovation Engine from among more than 300 expressions of interest submitted. Building NSPIRE into an NSF Engine would enable the vibrant partnerships and innovations at its core to expand and mesh into a dynamic ecosystem with six key focus areas:

Cross-Sector Partnerships & Stakeholder Alignment

At the heart of the NSPIRE strategy is mobilizing technological innovation across the seafood supply chain to achieve synergistic and cumulative impacts. This can only be achieved by bringing together the full spectrum of seafood industry stakeholders in all NSPIRE activities, thereby building bridges and catalyzing further innovations. Cross-sector convenings to share NSPIRE’s success and shape its future are critical to these outcomes, such as Seafood Expo North America, a global milestone event that notably takes place each year in New England.  

Use-Inspired Research & Development

Technological innovation that is grounded in the day-to-day operations and challenges of seafood industry members will have a direct pipeline to adoption. Seafood harvesters, processors, distributors, and marketers are therefore core collaborators in NSPIRE research and development activities, building upon established and successful models of industry-science-government collaboration involving NSPIRE partners, such as the Environmental Monitoring on Lobster Traps and Large Trawlers, or eMOLT, program.

Translation of Innovation to Practice

As the seafood industry develops new solutions to critical challenges, New England’s vibrant tech sector is spurring innovations for other applications that can generate additional value if channeled into the seafood sector. In particular, the Ocean Tech Hub is an NSPIRE partner that is engaging, organizing, and elevating blue tech companies developing tools for the defense sector that can be dual-purposed by connection with the seafood industry.

Workforce Development

Experienced seafood industry members are essential to NSPIRE’s efforts to address fundamental challenges, while its leaders of tomorrow will embrace, sustain, and evolve the innovations developed. Integrating technological tools into training of new industry members early in their careers is therefore critical to the success of NSPIRE. Established industry programs including the Commercial Fishing Apprenticeship Program and Deckhand to Captain Training Program provide ready-made entry points for this integration and an opportunity to connect and expand workforce development region-wide.

Regional Engagement

NSPIRE takes off from a foundation of cross-sectoral partnerships, projects, and programs that have not yet achieved their full impact due to limited scale and reach, but through NPSIRE will come together as a thriving innovation ecosystem. The key catalyst for this evolution will be strategic engagement that unites elements within NSPIRE and expands their reach, in doing so bringing new partners to the ecosystem. Initiatives underway to engage deeply with commercial fisheries and aquaculture give NSPIRE momentum on which to build.

Strategic Regional Investment

NSPIRE aims to jointly grow New England’s historical seafood industry and rising tech sector into even stronger and more profitable pillars of the regional and national economy. That growth will rely on an engaged and energized community of public, private, and philanthropic investors who join NSPIRE in nurturing the symbiotic potential of seafood and technology. Investor outreach activities, modeled on the successful portfolio of NSPIRE partner New Hampshire Tech Alliance, will bring this important community into NSPIRE’s vision and strategy.