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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.

To protect U.S. Navy divers operating in freezing conditions, ONR is sponsoring work to design a wetsuit mirroring the insulating properties of animal blubber, allowing divers to swim in frozen waters for longer periods of time.

An exciting new scientific frontier—synthetic biology—took center stage as a celebrated scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently spoke at the headquarters of the Office of Naval Research.

Science and technology enthusiasts were treated to a day of educational fun at the Navy League STEM Expo at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is sponsoring the development of a new app to help warfighters learn about hearing protection on their mobile Android devices.

Collective maritime endeavors against piracy, smuggling, terrorism, weapons proliferation and other threats present unique technology challenges for Sailors, Marines and allies – but they also serve as catalysts for cooperation on science and technology (S&T) solutions, resulting in a growing number of partnerships worldwide.

In the world of Information Technology (IT), integrating different software packages is notoriously tough—there are lots of unintended consequences when you try to run different applications together—and even commodity hardware like PCs can break.

Universities, nonprofits and commercial entities may submit grant proposals to enter into a contractual relationship with the Office of Naval Research.