Adaptation Facilitator Interview - Activate

'Unbound Showcase' is a globe-spanning series of interviews with pioneers of climate adaptation and resilience solutions. We're questioning innovators, business leaders, policymakers, academics, buyers, and investors taking on the challenge of our lifetime—how do we adapt to the changes we know are coming from climate change?

Today's interview is with Calvin A. Cupini , Director of Investments at Activate . Activate empowers scientists to bring their research to market, providing personalised expertise, tools, and resources that may otherwise be inaccessible. They are creating an unprecedented community of technology leaders whose innovations are building a better future for all.

Can you give us an elevator pitch for Activate and share more about your mission?

Calvin A. Cupini - Activate, empowers early-stage science leaders to bring groundbreaking research to the commercial market. We do this through a two-year non-dilutive fellowship program, where we provide salary, R&D funding, and laboratory space to some of the brightest deep tech founders in the US. We can’t only bring mitigation strategies, we must help those in harms way today to adapt to the changes we know are coming. Even if we hit net zero today, we still will have challenges and require transformation.

Activate supports technologies like sustainable aviation fuels, enhanced geothermal energy, sustainable steel manufacturing, and more. One case study that's particularly interesting is that of one start-up that is engineering bacteria to live inside your gut and produce insulin from inside your body. These are wild ideas that can rewrite the script for what our optimistic future looks like. I still find many moments where some of these ideas must come to grips with a changing world that will arrive with or without our permission, and this is where the Adapt Unbound summits come into play.

What are the most significant barriers early-stage start-ups face in tech, and how does Activate help them overcome them?

Calvin A. Cupini - We hear too much about a singular valley of death between idea, product, market fit, and early-stage investment. Interestingly, it's different in climate tech. We have a better opportunity now than we've ever had to address these challenges, but the ideas also need to be bigger than ever before to address the challenges. One of the challenges we see is when the right founder is not as exposed to the challenge as they need to be. Founder / Market fit is underdiscussed, and where the leadership of a scientist founder is unmatched.

Many of the biggest challenges are implementing big, expensive, and challenging things within complex industry. If software could solve this problem, we would have done it by now. We have genius software engineers, but we only truly see societal inflection points at the moments of physical technological advancement. To get them from research to reality, they will have to discuss them with engineers, corporations, governments, and many players in the field. This is even more true in Adaptation than other areas.

How do you anticipate the needs of the adaptation resiliency space changing, particularly in the next 5 to 10 years, and how is Activate preparing for those?

Calvin A. Cupini - On the one hand, I'm inspired by the idea that not many people know they are already engaging in adaptation; they're just not calling it that. For example, someone weatherising their home in Oregon, improving their air conditioning and HVAC systems, or building out parks with more trees, that's adaptation! I was recently in Houston, and I know they're moving their summer events later into the evening, so rather than starting at 6 pm when it's too hot. Instead, these events begin at 8:30 pm when it's cooler. This is also an adaptation. In some ways, I don’t really want a movement or a policy push. I just want people’s incentives, and good planning to be aligned.

So, in that way, every job is a climate job, and every improvement is an adaptation. The market is as open-ended to growth as it can be.. These might benefit biodiversity or outputs that could be put into other inputs. Those that aren't just cleaner and greener but are restorative, and we see far more of an impact than just in the pure market where they're employed.

Can you share some success stories of Activate fellows who have transitioned from fellowship to securing substantial funding and market presence?

Calvin A. Cupini - One of the key features of an Activate fellow is that what they're working on is very novel, difficult and important. To see it come to fruition, they need to become a broad spectrum leader, perhaps for an entire industry or a new way of thought that today doesn’t exist. It is more complex than just saying, 'I will make a company that will make money and solve the problem'. They’re up against an entire incumbency, how we operate the world. Researchers are becoming leaders, not just CEOs, in public and private sectors, making a difference in a way only a uniquely brilliant group of driven individuals can.

Unbound Summits' mission focuses on connections, new insights, and unbound adaptation and resilience opportunities. Find out more about the scientists working with Activate to change how we power our lives, make things, build buildings, and move around the world at https://www.activate.org/.