Fostering Innovation to Tackle Miami-Dade's Most Pressing Challenges

Launched in 2023, the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority leverages the power of competition and innovation to support start-ups, scale solutions to local problems, and improve lives.
The Miami-Dade Innovation Authority, founded in 2023, is developing public-private partnerships to bring imaginative yet practical solutions to urban challenges in one of America's fastest growing cities, including sargassum clean-up initiatives in Virginia Key Beach (above) and other public waterfront areas.
Photo Credit: Miami-Dade Innovation Authority

Focused on tackling pressing local challenges, the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority (MDIA) is a public-private partnership that identifies and invests in early- to growth-stage tech companies building scalable solutions in the region. With $9 million in support from Griffin Catalyst, the Knight Foundation, and Miami-Dade County, MDIA launches competitions focused on solving a specific community problem, helps to rapidly test the most promising solutions over a three- to six-month period, and then fast-tracks successful innovations to scale in Miami-Dade.

WHO WE’RE SUPPORTING

Griffin Catalyst helped to launch the MDIA in 2023. Inspired by the Israel Innovation Authority, which has helped Israel become one of the leading centers of tech innovation in the world, MDIA is focused on strengthening the relationship between Miami-Dade County and tech companies with solutions to regional challenges. To this end, MDIA launches competitions to source companies both in Miami and around the world, advancing novel ideas that could be applied and scaled locally.

Under the leadership of President and CEO Leigh-Ann Buchanan, MDIA announced its first Public Innovation Challenge in July 2023. MDIA issued an open call for innovative and sustainable strategies to address one of the area’s most urgent problems: how to repurpose sargassum, the floating mats of seaweed that wash up on Miami’s beaches during the summer.

Though they represent a crucial part of the marine ecosystem—providing shelter and food for small sea creatures—the sargassum blooms of southern Florida have grown perilously large and much more frequent in recent years. This continued growth releases harmful amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas and jeopardizes the region’s tourism and fishing industries. Recognizing this problem, MDIA’s first open call sought new for-profit approaches to repurpose this seaweed and replace the costly collection and removal processes currently in use.

WHY IT MATTERS

MDIA’s Public Innovation Challenges will further the goal of strengthening Miami-Dade County’s already growing tech community. Winners will partner with the county to test their solutions with the goal of determining the likelihood of success within three to six months. For approaches that appear promising, MDIA will assist in fast-tracking projects through the county procurement process to ensure the technology is quickly scaled and implemented.

MDIA aims to also serve as a beacon for companies globally that might otherwise not have had Miami on their radar, and partner with tech-talent pipeline efforts at Miami’s schools, universities, and other institutions to create additional pathways for emerging tech jobs.

Unlike traditional start-up accelerators that focus mostly on the bottom line, MDIA will be looking to maximize both profit and impact—not only on the pressing local challenge but also on job creation in the region.

WHAT’S THE IMPACT?

Within four months of starting operations, MDIA announced its first Public Innovation Challenge, calling for companies with creative approaches to repurposing sargassum. In 2022 alone, Miami-Dade County spent $4.2 million in sargassum collection, removal, and clean-up efforts.

To explore alternative approaches, in January 2024 MDIA announced that, with support from The Nature Conservancy, it selected four tech start-ups and invested $100,000 in each to pilot test their sustainable solutions in collaboration with Miami-Dade County. Florida-based Algas Organics intends to turn the sargassum into fertilizer for farmers, and Boston-based CarbonWave, PBC pitched upcycling the seaweed into an agricultural yield enhancer, while Miami-based Chemergy explores green hydrogen solutions, and the United Kingdom-based XMET Ltd converts seaweed into polymers.

Building on this first competition, in December 2023 and February 2024 MDIA launched its second and third Public Innovation Challenges, respectively, to improve the passenger experience at Miami International Airport and to enhance cargo visibility at PortMiami, two of Florida’s leading engines of economic development.

“This challenge is an example of our continued investment in having a future-ready infrastructure to work more efficiently, stay ahead globally, create jobs locally, and serve our customers better,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

And this is only the beginning. Leveraging competition to drive discovery and progress, MDIA is poised to identify and support innovative, scalable solutions to Miami-Dade County’s most pressing challenges for years to come.

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