Cooking an Innovation Stew: Promoting NavalX at ONR / ASNE Naval S&T Symposium

By Warren Duffie Jr., Office of Naval Research

ARLINGTON, Va.—For Scott Bewley, the mission of NavalX is simple.

“We want to build, lead and sustain an ecosystem that promotes innovation not only within the Department of the Navy [DoN] but also the broader Department of Defense [DoD],” he said.

Bewley, NavalX’s deputy director of business operations, gave his remarks while leading a professional talk at the 2024 Naval Science and Technology (S&T)/Combat Systems/Technology, Systems and Ships Symposium held Dec. 9-12 in Arlington, Virginia.

Hosted by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the American Society of Naval Engineers, the symposium enabled attendees across the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, industry and academia to meet, discuss and learn about “Naval S&T: From Idea to Maritime Dominance.”

During his presentation, Bewley gave an overview of NavalX. Founded in 2019, NavalX, which is led by Director Capt. Joel Uzarski, is ONR’s accelerator department responsible for centralizing and streamlining the innovation pipeline at naval organizations and establishing smoother collaborations between the Naval Research and Development Establishment (NR&DE), academia and industry.

NavalX also helps the NR&DE leverage the commercial market and attract private investments to hasten and reduce the cost for defense acquisition and deployment of technologies that provide capabilities to the warfighter, employ agile best practices in contracting that accelerate awards, and provide flexibility and speed in technology maturation and adoption.

“Our success is directly aligned with the success of the entire defense innovation ecosystem,” said Bewley. “We partner with naval labs, programs and warfare centers to support technological transformation in practical ways.”

To achieve this, NavalX works closely with the DoN Technology Transfer (T2) Program Office as well as the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs — all located at ONR.

The DoN Technology Transfer (T2) Program Office oversees the policies, guidance, designations and training for the DoN T2 professionals who foster collaboration between the Navy and Marine Corps, government agencies, industry and academia. The SBIR program provides the Navy and Marine Corps with innovative advances in technology created by small businesses — while STTR transitions products developed by both small businesses and research institutions.

Bewley closed out his talk with the topic of Tech Bridges. A partnership involving ONR, NavalX, the DoN T2 Program Office, and the Navy’s systems commands, Tech Bridges serve as regional innovation hubs where warfare centers, government, academia and industry can team up and work together on technology research, evaluation and commercialization — as well as economic and workforce development.

Each hub enables local projects designed to solve pressing problems and technology needs identified by the DoN. There are 18 Tech Bridge locations worldwide — 17 in the U.S. and one in London, England.

“At the end of the day, we want to add more players to the field,” said Bewley. “They could be larger, more established companies, startups, nontraditional companies. We want to ensure the Department of the Navy has access to the best possible technology and capabilities to address operational challenges and strategic priorities.”