The Call for Canadian Innovators opens June 9 and is open through August 25. One CAD$100,000 award, funded by MEOPAR, will be given to the AI-based solution that advances our understanding of the ocean and helps minimize our impact on its ecosystems. The award focuses on the use of AI as a tool to understand and predict the ocean, Great Lakes, and St. Lawrence River and Gulf for better, responsible management and sustainable development of the ocean economy. The award winner will be invited to present at Ocean Exchange in the fall and access all the network help that we provide to our fall finalists. The first and second runners up will be invited guests to Ocean Exchange in Fort Lauderdale, FL, October 25–27 to engage with the network of ocean tech investors and strategic partners.

Millicent Pitts, Executive Director of Ocean Exchange said, “This MEOPAR collaboration is a natural extension of a decade of increasingly close relationships between Ocean Exchange and the Canadian ocean innovation community, recognizing our mutual North American interests in maritime management Additionally, the focus on AI tools for ocean observations complements our activities in the US NOAA Ocean Enterprise Accelerator Program, also with a focus on the infrastructure to collect data and turning that data into information products.”

Anne-Sophie Ste-Marie, Director of CIOOS at MEOPAR, said: “At MEOPAR, we are committed to making ocean data more accessible and usable to support decision-making and innovation. This exciting collaboration with Ocean Exchange builds on that mission by encouraging creative uses of AI to transform data into insights that benefit ocean health and communities.”

Applications are available via the Ocean Exchange website and F6S platform: https://www.oceanexchange.org/meopar/

Finalists will be announced on September 1. The Canadian winner will be chosen September 22, 2026, in Ottawa, Canada, in conjunction with a meeting of the Canadian Integrated Ocean Observing System on AI use in ocean observations.