Innovation Fellowship Grant Recipients Announced

The Rhode Island Foundation officially announced the two recipients of their annual Innovation Fellowship Grant at a reception on Wednesday night (April 15) in the gallery at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium. John Haley and the husband and wife team of Deniel Kamil and Emily Steffian will receive $300,000 over three years to fund a project of their own invention.

The Foundation is the largest funder of nonprofits in the state, and the Innovation Fellowship is the creation of philanthropists John and Leticia Carter. The program is specifically designed to address the challenges of Rhode Island through the funding of ambitious, inventive projects, and this year’s selections are great examples.

John Haley’s fellowship project aims to grow the state’s shellfishing industry (specifically blue mussels) by mass-producing a special kind of material he calls “blue mussel spat attachment cord” that will eliminate hurdles in the cultivation process. When asked how he developed the technology, Haley replied, “completely by accident! I made the material for another industry and then thought ‘I wonder what would happen if I put this on my boat in Bristol Harbour.’ When I came back the next season, I had 700 pounds of blue mussels!”

But this serendipitous discovery could have a big impact. “Most of the blue mussels we eat here come from faraway places like New Zealand and Prince Edward Island. If we could bring that industry to Rhode Island, we could create a substantial number of jobs.”

Daniel Kamil and Emily Steffian, the married couple at the helm of the Cable Car Cinema in Providence, will launch a multi-screen film exhibition space they’re calling Cinematheque. It will maintain a focus on independent films, with an entire screen dedicated to women, minority and LGBT filmmakers, probably the first of its kind. Their space will also focus on education and providing people of all ages with “the critical viewing skills essential for understanding and communicating in the technological global community.” Kamil remarked that he was thrilled to have the opportunity to “make my professional dreams into a reality.”

The ceremony was initiated by RI Foundation President and CEO Neil Steinberg, who highlighted the overall talent and ingenuity in this year’s 354 applicants. Then the winners took the podium, thanking the foundation and the benefactors and talking about their ideas. Kamil summed up the program well by saying the innovation grants “make impacts on the community in ways visible and invisible.”

John Carter then took a few minutes to thank everybody who entered and comment on the three critical elements of this fellowship: the great ideas put forward, the judging panel that has to make the tough decisions and the catalyst, Jessica David (The Foundation’s VP of Strategy and Community Investments), who put the whole thing together.

Steinberg closed the ceremony by bringing attendees’ attention to the luxury apartments across the highway, once thriving factories. The foundation’s mission is to once again make Rhode Island a source of innovation.

If all goes according to plan, years from now you may be able to dine on famous Rhode Island blue mussels and follow it up by seeing a locally made film!