Microplastics, increasingly prevalent in waters worldwide, pose a threat to ecosystems, industry, and human health. Traditional methods for sampling water for microplastics are cumbersome, involving tedious laboratory processing and analysis over multiple days. This project, led by the University of Alabama, with support from the NOAA Marine Debris Program and the National Sea Grant Program, seeks to introduce a novel, low-cost, portable sensor designed to detect and characterize microplastics in near real-time directly from water sources. The prototype integrates filtration technology, Raman spectroscopy for polymer identification, and machine learning enabled imaging for physical characterization and concentration analysis. Successful development and adaptation of this instrument has the potential to transform the detection capabilities of organizations which have an interest in microplastic mitigation by lowering cost, introducing portability, and exponentially shortening sample-to-analysis time. Additional nanofiltration capabilities aim to provide a selective method for removing microplastics from water, particularly in small-scale, closed systems. A collaborative Research-to-Application Team comprised of academic institutions, Sea Grant programs, industry partners, municipalities, fisheries, and outreach organizations is guiding development to ensure practical use case alignment.