Innosphere’s NSF ASCEND Engine Signs Partnership Agreement with Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative

FORT COLLINS, Colo., Sept. 24, 2026.  Innosphere’s NSF ASCEND Engine and the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative (WRTBI) signed a Partnership Framework Agreement in July 2026, laying the groundwork for workforce development and environmental monitoring tied to WRTBI’s buffalo restoration work on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. WRTBI is the organization authorized by the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes to plan and implement their buffalo programs, and the agreement makes Indigenous Data Sovereignty a guiding principle of the partnership.

The agreement outlines four areas of collaboration: technology innovation, workforce development, technology commercialization, and ecosystem building. This partnership is led by WRTBI, whose priorities will determine how the NSF ASCEND Engine’s programming and resources are deployed going forward.  

"Meaningful work on the Wind River Reservation has to be Tribal-led,” says Amber Rahn, the NSF ASCEND Engine’s Workforce and Regional Engagement Director. “Our role at the ASCEND Engine is to listen, bring resources and expertise to the table, and support the priorities identified by WRTBI and the Tribes themselves. From a workforce perspective, that means building local skills and capacity alongside the environmental work, so the knowledge, opportunities, and career pathways we help create can remain within the community for generations."

To carry out the environmental monitoring work called for under the agreement, the NSF ASCEND Engine has hired Cory Ott as its Environmental Monitoring and Data Strategist for this project.  

“It is really exciting to get to work with cutting-edge technology in the environmental sector, and bring that technology to WRTBI in a way that fits the project and their capacity,” Ott said. “It’s about letting the tribes drive the science: what they want to monitor, what questions they want answered, and what decisions they want to make.”

At WRTBI, Ott’s role will be to strengthen environmental science capacity, support indigenous-led stewardship, and expand workforce opportunities for tribal members. This will include training WRTBI staff and providing mentorship in environmental monitoring, data management, remote sensing, or data analysis. An additional important part of Ott’s role will be to expose tribal youth to environmental science technologies and potential careers.

“This project gives us the chance to help build a foundation with a tribal organization, an environmental monitoring and science program that hasn’t existed on the reservation before,” Ott added. “It also means getting youth involved: sharing the technology and the science, taking it into schools, and connecting the next generation of physical and natural scientists on the Wind River Reservation to career paths they may not have known about.”

About the NSF ASCEND Engine 

The NSF ASCEND Engine — Advanced Sensing and Computation for Environmental Decision Making — is a U.S. National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engine led by Innosphere. Based along the I-25 Innovation Corridor, the ASCEND Engine connects Colorado and Wyoming's federal laboratories, R1 universities, and technology companies to develop scalable solutions for wildfire, drought, extreme weather, and environmental resilience. Every NSF ASCEND Engine program is built with commercialization as a design requirement, moving scientific advances from discovery to deployment through three technical layers: advanced sensing and data generation, computational analytics, and decision support tools. Projected 10-year impact: $3 billion in regional GDP, 18,000 new jobs, and $2 billion in capital raised by 2034.* 

*Projections provided by Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation. 

About Innosphere 

Innosphere is the Colorado-based nonprofit venture development organization built for entrepreneurs turning discovery into companies. Innosphere brings acceleration, capital, infrastructure, and partners together to advance the region and enhance national competitiveness. Innosphere offers sector-specific accelerators, advances capital access, leads the NSF ASCEND Engine, and convenes the Colorado Innovation Council across four R&D-intensive industry sectors. Cumulative impact since 2013: 400+ companies served, 2,000+ jobs created, $3.6B in capital raised, and $300M+ in revenue by client companies. In August 2026, Innosphere was named to TIME magazine's list of America's Best Incubators & Accelerators, developed in partnership with Statista. 

About the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative

The Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative (WRTBI) is the organization authorized by the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes to plan and implement their buffalo programs on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. WRTBI works to restore a healthy buffalo population to the reservation after more than a century of absence: “To reestablish a healthy buffalo population is to heal our land, our health, and to honor the cultural legacies of our ancestors.” Jason Baldes, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe’s Buffalo Manager, serves as WRTBI’s Executive Director.

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