Funding will allow continued advances in sensor technology and water treatment innovation
Boston, MA (May 9, 2011) – Cambrian Innovation™ (Cambrian) is the proud recipient of two prestigious grants for continued research and product development. Cambrian has been awarded a NASA Small Business Innovation Research grant for a water treatment system. In addition, the company has received a grant from The National Science Foundation’s Industrial Innovation and Partnerships Division to continue work on bio-electrochemical sensor technology.
“The two projects demonstrate Cambrian Innovation’s creative approach to environmental product development, and re-affirm our leading position in the commercialization of bio-electrochemical systems,” said Justin Buck, Cambrian co-founder and chief technology officer. “Together with our partners we foresee large markets for our sensor product and expect our proprietary treatment scheme to be an important addition to NASA’s water processing capability.”
NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program is a highly competitive three-phase award system, which provides qualified small businesses with opportunities to propose innovative ideas that meet the specific research and development needs of the Federal Government. As a SBIR recipient, Cambrian will work to develop a novel water technology system using bio-electrochemical processes. These systems work to treat water while also creating a viable, usable byproduct, such as electricity, methane or hydrogen.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds research and education in science and engineering through grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. The Foundation accounts for approximately 20 percent of federal support to academic institutions for basic research. With the awarded NSF grant, Cambrian will fund a project supporting the development of evolutionary, low-cost, real-time sensor technology based on bio-electrochemical systems. These sensor technologies, once developed, will help the environmental and agricultural sectors track damaging chemicals, fertilizer run-off and harmful pollutants on a large scale.
Cambrian receives these grants after a period of marked growth for the company. In 2009, Cambrian, then known as IntAct Labs LLC, won the top Ignite Clean Energy prize awarded by the MIT Enterprise Forum. Resulting from its win, Cambrian was awarded more than $100k in cash prizes, legal services, and real estate consulting. Additionally in 2009, the company was nominated to be a TiE50 Most Innovative Cleantech Company in the U.S. The company received corporate and private capital investments in 2010, and is currently located in Boston’s seaport district.
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Cambrian Innovation™ is an environmental product development company focused on moving revolutionary scientific discoveries from bench to market. As a world leader in the commercialization of bio-electrochemical systems, our technological platform has application to a range of industries including wastewater treatment, renewable natural gas, distributed sensing, and aerospace. Cambrian is building an innovative product platform with a network of collaborators in industry, academia, and government. We also provide market and technical feasibility analysis for corporate and government clients interested in quickly determining the validity of novel technologies, and are actively seeking partners with which to continue developing and innovating novel technologies.
