2026 Great Lakes Blue Tech Challenge launches
TRAVERSE CITY — NMC has opened registration for the Great Lakes Blue Tech Challenge, seeking startups with solutions for a wide range of issues impacting the world’s largest freshwater system.
At stake is $55,000 in seed funding. First prize is $30,000, second prize is $15,000 and third prize will win $10,000. Finalists will present at the Lakebed 2030 conference in Traverse City Sept. 17, gaining visibility and networking opportunities.
The third such competition of its kind at NMC, the Blue Tech Challenge is progressing in parallel with the Freshwater Research and Innovation Center, with the wider idea of Traverse City becoming a freshwater innovation hub.
“It’s all maturing together in a way which is beneficial for northern Michigan,” said Canadian Trade Commissioner Dakota Korth, a judge for the 2025 competition.
The Challenge is open to entrants from the U.S. and Canada. Registration closes March 27, and first-round pitches will take place on June 29. The Challenge is open to motivated entrepreneurs, startups, early-career professionals, and even student-led ventures from across the United States and Canada. Areas of focus are:
- Resilience and adaptation
- Aquatic ecosystems and aquaculture
- Maritime mobility and exploration systems
- Water treatment and purification
- Resource recovery and circular solutions
- Water intelligence and decision support
- Water infrastructure and asset management
After 35 initial inquiries, 18 teams entered the 2025 Challenge, won by Wave Lumina of Traverse City. The company, which manufactures a portable, rapid-response PFAS testing device, also placed second in Aquahacking the Great Lakes, the 2024 competition. Since launching in founder Vernon LaLone’s spare bedroom in 2023, Wave Lumina has won a $305,000 National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation & Research grant; hired two employees, both NMC alumni; and served its first paying customers in December.
Now operating in a lab at NMC’s Parsons-Stulen Building, LaLone hopes to become a tenant at the Freshwater Research and Innovation Center when it opens in 2027.
For more information visit nmc.edu/bluetechchallenge.
Release date: January 21, 2026
For more information:
Denver Peters
Director, Strategic Portfolio and Development
dpeters@nmc.edu
(231) 995-1215