BWI: Ocean Optics Offers R&D Funding with Blue Ocean Grants

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Ocean Optics
Monday, July 30, 2012 10:04 AM IST (04:34 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest; Business: Business services, Electronic appliances & components, Information technology; Technology; Healthcare
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Ocean Optics Offers R&D Funding with Blue Ocean Grants
Over a quarter of a million dollars available to explore ideas involving optical sensing

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Monday, July 30, 2012 -- (Business Wire India) -- Ocean Optics (www.oceanoptics.com) has opened the application period for the second year of its highly successful Blue Ocean Grants program (www.blueoceangrants.com). The program seeks innovative and novel proposals that solve challenging problems and improve the world using optical sensing. Applicants from all disciplines are encouraged to apply before the September 1, 2012 deadline.

The program is designed to facilitate open innovation and spur the development of new optical sensing technologies with potential for market commercialization. The international program is open to applicants from academia and industry around the world. 2011 winners had a diverse range of ideas with extremely high quality proposals ranging from novel spectrometer and spectral imaging architectures to emerging applications as diverse as low cost surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, early prostate cancer detection techniques, and new nano-liter microfluidic chip architectures.

The Blue Ocean grants are divided into two phases. Phase I grants are issued to fund initial evaluation and development of ideas and technologies to the proof of concept phase. Phase II grants will be issued to nurture a proposed technology through proof of concept in a way that enables the potential of market commercialization.

Last year the company originally planned to award up to 10 Phase I grants of up to $10,000, but expanded that number to 13 grants when the grant committee, made up of Ocean Optics Chief Technology Officer Jason M. Eichenholz and independent photonics experts, felt strongly compelled to find funding for three additional worthy recipients. In addition, another seven strong submissions were awarded development grants. Development grant recipients were given or loaned Ocean Optics equipment to facilitate progression of their grant ideas, enabling them to be submitted to both last year's Phase II program as well as this year's Phase I process.

"The Blue Ocean Grants program is a unique combination of open innovation and crowd sourcing from all disciplines," explains Ocean Optics Chief Technology Officer Jason M. Eichenholz. "As 2011 was our first year, we didn't quite know what to expect and were elated by the quality and quantity of the applications from around the world. We're currently evaluating the strong proposals from last year's winners to determine who will move on to Phase II funding."

Grant awards will again be determined by Eichenholz and an expanded panel of independent photonics experts, based on technical merit, potential commercial viability, and the ability to change the world for the better via optical sensing. The simple application asks two fundamental questions: What is the idea and how will it be implemented or tested?

About Ocean Optics

Headquartered in the USA, Ocean Optics is a leading supplier of solutions for optical sensing - fundamental methods of measuring and interpreting the interaction of light with matter. With locations in Asia and Europe, the company has sold more than 100,000 spectrometers worldwide since 1992. Ocean Optics' extensive line of complementary technologies includes chemical sensors, analytical instrumentation, optical fibres, thin films and optics. The company is a subsidiary of Halma p.l.c.

About Halma

Halma p.l.c. is an international market leader in safety, health and sensor technology. A public company listed on the London Stock Exchange, it has over 4000 employees in 40 subsidiaries worldwide. Halma's subsidiaries make products that protect lives and improve the quality of life for people through innovation in market leading products which make its customers safer, more competitive and more profitable. These subsidiaries are assisting India's economy in areas such as manufacturing, energy, water and waste treatment, the environment, construction, transport and health.

Halma recently opened a Hub office in Mumbai. For further news about Halma in India and to subscribe to the Halma India RSS News Feed please visit our news blog.

Photo: http://halmapr.com/oo/BlueOcean2012.jpg


CONTACT DETAILS
Mr Kuniyur J. Srinivasan, Country Head & Managing Director, Halma India, +91 (22) 67080400, Srini@halma.com
Damian Corbet, Halma PR Services, +44 (0)1494 789152, dcorbet@halmapr.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, BUSINESS SERVICES, ELECTRONICS, IT, TECHNOLOGY, HEALTHCARE

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