Solving Real Problems Starts with the Right Mindset
Written by Elisa-Marie Dumas
The most successful innovators aren’t just in love with their solution. They’re in love with the problem. That’s the message we kept coming back to during our 2025 Ocean Impact Ideation Program.
Over eight weeks, we worked with a brilliant group of researchers and early-stage innovators who were ready to explore how their work could make a real difference for the ocean.
But we didn’t start with pitch decks or business models. We started with mindset.
Previous Ocean Impact Ideation Participants at INNOVOCEAN 2023
We spent time understanding what it really means to adopt an entrepreneurial approach. Not to become a startup founder overnight, but to learn how to stay close to the problem, connect with potential users, and recognise where their research could meet a real-world need.
Each week built on that foundation. We explored the sustainable Blue Economy, identified commercial opportunities, developed and tested ideas, mapped value propositions, and learned how to validate those ideas with customers or stakeholders. We also tackled funding: how to find it, speak the language of different funders, and understand what makes an idea investment-worthy.
This work is hard. It requires researchers to shift gears and apply a different kind of thinking.
But the results speak for themselves.
By the end of the program, the 2025 cohort pitched solutions that included AI sonar technology for fish monitoring, a sustainable algae-based cooking oil, tools for rotating fishing activity using digital insights, models to accelerate ocean plastic cleanup through transparent credits, innovations in sustainable shrimp farming, and coral reef restoration strategies informed by ongoing monitoring.
These ideas weren’t pulled out of thin air. They were grounded in the participants’ research, refined through market insight, and tested against the needs of real-world stakeholders. That’s where the value is. That’s what turns an academic insight into something that can actually scale and deliver impact.
We’re incredibly grateful to SARAH & SEBASTIAN for backing this program and believing in the potential of research-led innovation. Their support has helped us create the kind of space where researchers can grow not just as scientists, but as problem solvers.
SARAH & SEBASTIAN Co-founder & Creative Director, Sarah Gittoes, and Global Head of Brand, Matt Lennon, at INNOVOCEAN 2024
To the 2025 cohort: thank you for being open to the journey. You’ve shown that commercialisation doesn’t mean compromise. When done with care and intention, it’s how we get the right ideas into the world where they’re needed most.
What’s Next?
Helping researchers explore new ideas is just the beginning. At Ocean Impact Organisation, we’re going beyond the ideation phase to support science-backed solutions in moving out of the lab and into the market. Commercialisation can be challenging, but it’s also a crucial key in unlocking meaningful impact for ocean health. We’re proud to be playing a role in this, and are committed to expanding this support in the years ahead.
