RISE is a non-profit, economic development organization with a mission to accelerate innovation and business growth around solutions to coastal communities’ resilience challenges. RISE leverages local assets and global networks to enable businesses to develop, demonstrate and scale innovations that help coastal communities adapt to changing climate.
2020 Winners
Meet the five winners of the 2020 Coastal Community Resilience Challenges
Natrx
The company will develop and launch its mobile manufacturing units, which can be used to produce custom shoreline protection structures to prevent flooding. Learn more.
Re:Public
The company will launch its map-based risk communication platform to help non-mapping professionals to track real-time flooding risk. Learn more.
StormSensor
The company will create features for its stormwater monitoring software and hardware products. It provides communities with real-time tidal and storm analysis. Learn more.
Virginia PACE Authority
The organization, which provides financing solutions for flood mitigation and resilience improvements, will expand its outreach and create an open-market platform. Learn more.
WeatherCheck
The company will expand its product to include pluvial and fluvial flood threats, which now continuously monitors properties for severe weather damage and loss. Learn more.
Why Hampton Roads, VA?
Hampton Roads in southeastern Virginia is a globally critical region. Home to the largest concentration of U.S. defense facilities in the world, including world’s largest naval base, and the third largest commercial port on the East Coast, the region is a hub for trade and a security nexus for the world. A combination of the region’s cities’ diverse typologies, climate change challenges and assets make Hampton Roads a perfect resilience innovation hub for entrepreneurs.
Beachfront
Urban Waterfront
Historic Properties
Infrastructure
Agriculture
Navy Bases
Suburbs
Hub Port
 Past Winners
Meet six winners of the past $1.5M Coastal Community Resilience Challenges
Building Resilient Solutions
Reducing flood-damage through alternative retrofit methods for existing buildings.
Constructis
Harnessing kinetic energy from traffic to power emergency services.
InfraSGA
Reducing nuisance flooding in constrained urban environment without massive infrastructure overhauls.
Grow Oyster Reefs
Reducing shoreline erosion and flooding with innovative reef tiles that attract oysters faster than competitor solutions.
Landscape Resilience Partnership
Training resilience workforce to design, install and maintain flood-reducing solutions.
Resilience Enterprise Solutions
Raising the bar for workforce training in the home raising industry.
Current RISE Coastal Community Resilience Challenges
The Challenges seek innovative products and approaches that enhance resilience of coastal communities, create substantial new value, can be demonstrated in the Hampton Roads region of Southeastern Virginia, are scalable to other communities, and can be built into sustainable businesses.
RISE provides the following services to the winning teams:
Resilience Innovation Fund (non-equity, non-dilutive)
Resilience Innovation Accelerator
Resilience Innovation Hub & Testbed
Real-world infrastructure & pilot sites
Co-working office space
Fabrication & testing work space
Datasets
Experts and stakeholders
Entrepreneurial community
Regulatory TA and permitting
PR and media visibility