Marcus Oliver Gay, Executive Director of NEWIN, discusses how New England's water-tech network connects startups and established firms across three areas: water IT, reuse technologies, and quality management. The region has 93 water-tech companies employing 6,000 people, with member firms like Oasis Water exporting membrane technology to China.
Hi, I'm Angela Godman with Waterworld magazine and Industrial Water World magazine coming to you from the BlueTech forum here in San Francisco, California. Joining me today is my guest, Marcus Oliver Gay. He is with Nguyen the New England Water Innovation Network. Marcus, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate it. So we've heard a lot today about new technologies and innovation. Tell me about the New England Water Innovation Network and what its purpose is and how things are coming along there.
Thank you for that question. Yeah, so Nguyen is really focusing on driving local innovation with global impact. So we support our member companies, which can be very early stage academic ideas, proto venture companies, early stage startups, and even more mature water technology firms. Right now we're focusing on three particular topic areas. So the first one is water it. So we're hearing a lot about that today. The industrial Internet of Things and water analytics. The second area that we focus on is water reuse. We actually just came from a session that talked about that. So looking in our case, we look at membrane and separation technologies as enabling technologies. And then the third area, which is really unique to our ecosystem and our market in our region is water quality with a focus on nutrients. So when you look at Cape Cod and even as far down as maybe Long island in New York, we have a lot of problems with nitrogen pollution changing those ecosystems. And technologies that our innovators are developing will help address that.
Excellent. Now in the the program, in the BlueTech Forum program, there are two members of Nguyen here. Tell us about that.
Yeah, we're really excited to see the success of our member companies. So we have a company called Oasis Water. Oasis is a forward osmosis membrane technology developer. They've actually, they're a really good example of a local company in Massachusetts that is exporting their technology and their knowledge. So they're working predominantly in China right now with flue gas desulfurization power plants. The second company that we have representing here the New England region is Opti rtc. Opti is a water IT technology firm that is looking to modernize how we manage Stormwater.
Wow, that is fantastic. So now I understand you have quite a few members, including several universities who are some of the more prominent partners in Nguyen.
Yeah, great question. So actually, I'll back up a little bit. Within the New England region, we have a lot of opportunities for innovation. We have over 300 academic institutes that are working in this space. In our region, we don't have all of them as members, but many of the very influential ones are recently the Massachusetts cec, which is a clean energy center, they're a quasi government agency in Massachusetts. They funded an industry roadmap analysis. And what we found from that is that just in Massachusetts we have 93 water technology firms and we employ close to 6,000 individuals working in water technology innovation. So we have a very strong ecosystem in Massachusetts and then growing beyond that within New England.
Wow. So really poised to be a water hub, if you will, right?
Very much so, yeah, we are. We very much are. What a cluster in that we've got the access to capital, we've got the HR and capabilities, and we have the market drivers, both local and global.
Fantastic. Well, we will keep an eye on that and see how that progresses. And thank you very much for joining us today. We appreciate it.
Thank you. I appreciate your time.
For Waterworld magazine, I'm Angela Godwin.
