About the Fellowship

The Shaw Innovation Fellowship offers two programs to catalyze student innovation on campus by providing mentorship, curriculum, professional development opportunities, and stipend support. Shaw Fellows work with internal and external partners to create solutions that address social, environmental, and economic challenges facing our communities. In 2024, six Senior Shaw Fellows from across UNE’s academic programs each receive $5,000 to lead an innovative project in their area of interest. A second group of students form the Shaw Innovation Team, with each team member receiving $1,000 to collaborate on an interdisciplinary capstone project. As part of the program, students also have the opportunity to meet other local and regional innovators via specially designed workshops.
Photo of David Evans Shaw against rocks and the ocean

About David Evans Shaw

The Shaw Innovation Program, launched in 2021, is made possible through the generosity of David Evans Shaw. Through the program, Shaw, a prominent business and social entrepreneur and resident of Maine, seeks to supplement demand for education and research in the fields of entrepreneurship, science, technology, business, and leadership in order to help build a network of student innovators across several New England universities.

The five Shaw Senior Fellows standing in a line

Meet the Shaw Senior Fellows

The six students selected as Shaw Senior Fellows for the 2024–2025 school year have demonstrated exceptional drive and passion and have each been awarded $5,000 to lead an innovative project in their area of interest.

A group of seven students and two faculty members pose in the Makerspace

Meet the Innovation Fellows and Team

The Shaw Innovation Team is composed of students from diverse backgrounds and interests who have demonstrated creative thinking, curiosity, and teamwork. These students receive training in design thinking and real-world problem-solving, learning how to generate wild ideas, prototypes, and experiments and how to use empathy to become more innovative thinkers and doers. Each receives a $1,000 stipend, and collectively they work as a team to apply their change-making skills to select capstone projects.

In 2024–2025, the innovation team is working to bring a nutrition bar to market that uses ingredients such as seaweed and honey sourced from UNE’s campus. Read about the SeaMade Bar in the news