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Seeking out new technology or exciting ideas at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Global is something of a treasure hunt. Dr. Scott Walper, science director, ONR Global, says the search for innovative projects can take him and his team of program officers all over the world, relying on a bit of luck — or serendipity — to strike gold. But recently, Walper said he and his predecessor for Synthetic Biology at ONR Global, Dr. Patrick Rose, who is now with SPRIND (Germany’s Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation) had an idea to try something a little different. Walper said, “The thought was we would put out a call for a ‘Serendipity Collective,’ where we would sponsor a workshop and ask people to tell us their craziest ideas”. To attract innovators, the team worked with the company IdeatePlus. Walper said Kevin D'Silva, IdeatePlus CEO, and his team were instrumental in helping develop and manage the event, setting up a web-based platform to crowdsource and push out a social media campaign. The website generated 73 concepts from more than 225 active participants. The information was collected and shared it with a team of experts, including an artist, engineer, scientist and someone from the humanities. The experts scored proposals based on originality and feasibility. Eight teams were then invited to the “Serendipity Collective” held in Berlin in May. From those core concepts, another panel of experts composed of representatives from ONR Global, DEVCOM, the VW (Volkswagen) Foundation and SPRIND picked the ones they wanted to sponsor with an award of $50,000 to kick-start their efforts.

Records Overview for Researchers

The Office of Naval Research's multi-scale mechanics research area endeavors to develop multiscale and multiphysics mechanics theories that bridge the nano scale to the continuum scale to predict material and structural strength.

Novel methods to resolve and forecast clouds and atmospheric visibility (OVERCAST)

Systems Learning Applied to the Tactical Environment (SLATE) ONR Technical Candidate

Two ONR-supported scientists awarded the prestigious 2012 Kavli Prize for nanoscience and neuroscience.

Science advisors from the Office of Naval Research Global play a key role in today’s naval technology—connecting the warfighter to cutting-edge capabilities in the air, at sea, on land and in the information/cyber domain.

NRE Connect provides an opportunity for new connections in areas of science and technology (S&T) research that are of interest to NRE program officers in the advancement of naval technological capability. Simply introduce yourself and your area(s) of expertise to be added, and help increase our experts' awareness of scientific expertise around the world.