New Member Interview – Novarium

Novarium is a blue economy-focused innovation campus that generates synergies between entrepreneurs, research centers, investors, and industry in Quebec. It was founded by Martin Beaulieu, PhD, an entrepreneur and CEO of La Zone Bleue, and is also part of an international blue economy innovation network, acting as a major catalyst for the development of maritime knowledge with more than a hundred scientists involved in fields ranging from oceanography, marine biotech, marine engineering, data management and marine biology. Photo of the Novarium campus Interview with Daniel Olivier, VP Partnerships and Corporate Innovation Can you briefly present your organization to the members of our international network? Novarium is a blue economy-focused innovation campus that promotes synergies between entrepreneurs, research centers, investors, and industry in Quebec. Its marine accelerator FLOTS helps startups and industrial partners to develop and bring to market sustainable solutions aimed at tackling the most urgent climate challenges, especially in terms of ocean conservation. The organization has teamed up with world-class partners to offer acceleration programs including MaRS Discovery District and Cycle Momentum. Novarium also works to stimulate innovation at Quebec businesses involved in the blue tech field, particularly in the maritime and port sector, which is crucial to the blue economy in Quebec and Canada. What do you think Novarium can bring to the AIVP network? The vast majority of ports are facing issues of urban coexistence and tensions in the port-city interface. Innovation takes on a social dimension when it aims to improve relations with neighboring communities, whether through education and awareness programs, public relations initiatives, acoustic measures to mitigate noise, programs to manage aquatic environments and habitats, water quality monitoring and management, dust control measures, efforts to cut carbon emissions, or strategies to optimize truck routes. In addition, we are seeing an acceleration in the adoption of AI to optimize port operations, which directly and indirectly reduces the overall environmental footprint of ports, in line with the universal principle that a more fluid port means a greener port. For example, Novarium is helping the ports along the Saint-Lawrence to roll out technologies for measuring…