FY2023 Ocean-Based Climate Resilience

NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean, and coasts, to share that knowledge and information with others, and to conserve and manage coastal marine ecosystems and resources. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) complements the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to provide the largest direct investment to date in our Nation's coastal resilience. Over 40% of the U.S. population lives in coastal counties, producing more than $9.65 trillion in goods and services and employing 54.6 million people.

Within the Climate Ready Coasts component of the IRA, NOAA will work with partners from multiple sectors in the U.S. coastal and Great Lakes states and territories to help address localized impacts of climate change that would otherwise have an outsized economic and societal impact on the entire nation. The Climate Resilience Accelerators component of the IRA will fund accelerator entities to support businesses navigating commercialization pathways for coastal and ocean-based resilience solutions related to NOAA's mission to help communities prepare for, adapt to, and build resilience to climate challenges. The accelerators will support entrepreneurs and startups with training, resources, mentorship, and funding to bring ocean-based climate resilience solutions to market. Climate resilience focused start-ups and innovative technologies are critical to the growth of the resilience economy in the United States. Start-ups drive technology development, business model innovation, and job creation. However, the market has not demonstrated the ability to provide sufficient capital, business development services, and entrepreneurial training to early-stage climate resilience-focused companies.

NOAA recognizes that successfully navigating commercialization pathways in the climate resilience market requires a variety of services over and above capital access, including mentorship, capacity building, testing facilities, business development, data processing and storage capabilities, and connections to manufacturers. Business accelerators provide important services that assist start-ups in commercialization pathways and play an increasingly important role for companies and entrepreneurs who may have raised initial capital through private foundations or small business innovation research (SBIR) grants but

struggle to bring their company to market. Strong business accelerator services including, but not limited to, mentoring, Notice of Federal Funding Page 3 of 31

entrepreneurial training, prototyping assistance, and follow-on commercialization support not only provide direct support for early-stage start-ups, but also have the potential to de-risk the start-ups for follow-on investors. Accelerators have the potential to spur regional economic development, strengthen national innovation capacity, and propel the advancement of ocean-based climate resilience solutions to market. By recruiting and selecting promising entrepreneurs and startups, connecting entrepreneurs with manufacturers and other key resources, and advising start-ups to prudently use their capital on vital services, accelerators play a critical role in supporting commercialization pathways. Accelerators can also play a key role in advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and

accessibility within innovation ecosystems by prioritizing these practices within the accelerator's own organizational culture, by engaging in partnerships with diverse organizations and stakeholders, through the entrepreneurs and businesses that are selected to

participate in accelerator programming, and by integrating relevant best practices into the accelerator's approach to outreach, curriculum, and retention.

The objectives of the NOAA Ocean-Based Climate Resilience Accelerators two-phase opportunity are to:

Establish a network of ocean-based climate resilience accelerator entities across the nation with coordinated support to better understand how ocean observation technologies and information services can support solutions to climate resilience challenges, enable sustainable business models for US businesses delivering such solutions, and increase competitive advantages for innovators to meet these challenges.

Support entrepreneurs and startups that are developing ocean-based climate resilience focused products or services.

Accelerate and catalyze investment in ocean-based climate resilience-focused businesses by providing funding, where appropriate, as well as access to growth capital and support in networking for innovative technologies and startups.

Leverage and advance startups and technologies that have already received federal investments (from SBIR/STTR and other BIL and IRA projects) to enable more product and service development and industry adoption.

Advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility within ocean-based climate resilience business innovation ecosystems.

Definitions

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For the purpose of this opportunity, the following definitions are provided.

Accelerator Entities are defined as entities composed of one or more eligible applicants (see Section III.A) that develop and deliver accelerator programing. For the purposes of this NOFO, accelerator entities must have a proven track record of supporting businesses and/or entrepreneurs in business development.

Accelerator program design is defined as the program development process aimed at designing an accelerator program that supports entrepreneurs and startups as they navigate commercialization pathways including, for example, market analysis, customer discovery, partner structure, challenge definition, use cases/product-market fit, and/or demonstrations that will be executed by the accelerator entity. Program designs should clearly articulate how the Accelerator Entity will provide entrepreneurs and businesses with training, resources, mentorship, connections, and funding access needed to address critical start-up challenges, overcome common pitfalls, and accelerate their path to commercialization. Accelerator program implementation is the execution of the Accelerator Program design, including selection of cohort participant businesses, training cohort participant businesses in the concepts that they have incorporated into their accelerator program design, and other support services to assist accelerator cohort participating businesses navigating commercialization pathways. Implementation also includes conducting rigorous processes for distribution of technology, development, and commercialization (TDC) awards to cohort

participant businesses. Funds for TDC awards will be provided by NOAA as part of a Phase Two award. Cohort participant business is a company that applies and is selected to participate in a specific cohort of an accelerator program. These businesses are the entities that will participate in the accelerator program, potentially receive TDC awards, and ultimately be positioned to pursue commercial opportunities in the ocean-based climate resilience sector.

Accelerator cohort is a group of cohort participant businesses that participate in an iteration

of an accelerator program together.

Technology Development and Commercialization (TDC) awards are non-dilutive funding awards that are offered to cohort participant businesses by the accelerator entity, during or after the businesses have completed the formal accelerator training, to implement specific projects or activities that were identified through the accelerator process to directly promote commercialization of their product/service.

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Climate resilience is the ability of a community to prepare and plan for, absorb impacts of, recover from, and/or adapt to extreme weather events and longer-term climate impacts. Ocean-based climate resilience solutions are products and/or services that integrate ocean observing technologies and information services into solutions that address specific climate resilience challenges. This includes technologies that support the acquisition of coastal, ocean, and Great Lakes data, analytical and modeling tools to translate such data into actionable information, and the development of decision support services targeting specific climate resilience applications targeted to identified needs. These resources may also include integration of social science and economic information to support particular climate resilience decision making applications. Commercialization pathways include the various strategies and approaches that lead to

successful commercialization of a product or service. There are multiple potential commercialization pathways that may be appropriate for a particular product or service depending on a variety of factors including but not limited to market opportunity, scalability, and capital intensity. Examples of commercialization pathways include, but are not limited to, business scaling, partnerships, licensing, and acquisitions.