FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. - s4story -- New for 2026, an addition to the Ocean Exchange ecosystem, an event curated to target Canadian innovators using the established Ocean Exchange process and network.

The Call for Canadian Innovators opens June 9 and is open through August 25.  One CAD$100k 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.

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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/register/  Finalists will be announced: September 1st.

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