economic development

KY pivots to new innovation model

After 20 years of a program that had supported innovation in the state of Kentucky, the governor said he wanted to consolidate the funding to support entrepreneurs and become more strategic in the state’s efforts. This month, the state unveiled a new program — Regional Innovation for Startups and Entrepreneurs (RISE), a strategy that unites each area’s most powerful economic drivers, prioritizes commercialization and promotes rapid scaling.  The new strategy is designed to decrease duplication of efforts and get investments more directly to entrepreneurs, said Brian Mefford, the executive director of KY Innovation.

Regional innovation funding and economic development investments highlighted in EDA report

Working with public and private-sector partners across the U.S., the EDA invested approximately $289.1 million in 815 locally-driven economic development projects in FY 2017, according to its most recent annual report. The report provides examples of the projects it funds in each state, to help show the breadth and diversity of the programs and projects it funds. It also provides an interactive map detailing the summary and case studies of investments for any given state or territory.

Cities are refocusing economic development efforts, NLC report

Economic development was the most prevalent policy issue across mayoral speeches in 2018, according to State of the Cities 2018 from the National League of Cities (NLC). This is the fifth straight year that economic development issues were are the forefront of mayoral speeches with NLC reporting 58 percent of  state of cities speeches including “significant coverage of economic development issues.” However, this year marked a shift from mayors focusing their speeches on job creation and business attraction strategies in previous years to primarily focusing on driving downtown development, supporting innovation, and enhancing local art scenes. For those mayors that did discuss job creation, the speeches focused primarily on developing more inclusive strategies that create equitable access to economic opportunities for all members of their respective communities.

Questions for economic developers on cybersecurity and AI

The World Economic Forum (WEF) identified cybersecurity breaches along with environmental degradation caused by human-induced climate change, as the top two risks to the global economy over the next 10 years, according to the 2018 Global Risks Report, the Forum’s annual survey of nearly 1,000 experts from across the planet.  With evidence mounting of Russian hacking of the U.S. elections in 2016, increasingly common cyberattacks on the mega databanks of several of the country’s largest corporations, and computer viruses growing more serious in their potential disruption, the WEF concerns seem justified.

Recent Research: Customized services are cost-effective economic development tools

Financial incentives for company recruitment and retention still dominate state and local economic development expenditures, but recent research estimates that extension programs and customized job training can accomplish development goals in a more cost-effective manner. Despite this, customized services get, on average, five cents of public investment for every dollar that traditional financial incentive strategies receive.

Achieving an equitable innovation economy

A range of equity-based strategies to support scale-up programming for small-scale manufacturers are among the findings of a recent report from the Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA). In Making, Scaling and Inclusion, UMA found that the economic development field is hungry for strategies that remove employment barriers and build the talent of low-income and economically disadvantaged communities to drive economic growth in their cities and the report offers guidance for building equitable innovation economies.

Council, governor request nearly $40 million to support Wyoming’s economic growth, diversification

The executive council of ENDOW, an economic development initiative started by Wyoming governor Matt Mead, has announced its preliminary recommendations to diversify and grow the state’s economy, including statewide programs to support tech-based economic development that total more than $36 million. Notable among the recommendations are $6 million for a proposed Wyoming Research and Innovation Fund that provides matching funds as a way to leverage federal R&D opportunities and $5 million to develop a new organization called Startup:Wyoming, which would administer the Fund and provide support to entrepreneurs throughout the state.

$755 million awarded for NY economic development

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced more than $755 million in economic and community development funding awarded through Round VII of the Regional Economic Development Council initiative. The Regional Councils were established in 2011 as a community-based and performance-driven approach to economic development. Each of the 10 regions of the state must develop strategic plans tailored to their region. Each region also competed for designation as a “top performer,” to receive up to $20 million in additional Empire State Development grant funding.

Four VC funds awarded CDFI funding

Following reforms to the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) application process, four of the five venture capital funds that applied for CDFI financial assistance funding in FY 2017 were awarded. In trying to increase the impact of CDFIs by supporting their growth, reach and performance, the Fund implemented reforms to the application, making it easier for CDFIs to demonstrate their impact with an award regardless of what type of financial institution they are — they can be banks, credit unions, loan funds, microloan funds or venture capital providers. The four VC funds that received awards were Fund Good Jobs, Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation, Launch New York, Inc. (which is also newly certified this year), and National Community Investment Fund. In total, the last round saw more awardees overall than ever before in the history of the CDFI Fund.

MO and WV examine economies, strategize on future efforts

Two states taking a fresh look at their economies convened task forces that recently released reports detailing efforts the states can make to improve their state’s economic futures. In Missouri, Gov. Eric Greitens asked an innovation task force to take stock of the state’s current standing and offer options to help businesses and innovators succeed. The resulting summary report offers more than 30 options that the state could pursue in growing its economy. In West Virginia, WVU President Gordon Gee, Marshall University President Jerome Gilbert and WV Secretary of Commerce Woody Thrasher released findings from the West Virginia Forward report that identifies possible short- and long-term solutions for the economic challenges the state faces and will result in a memorandum of understanding among the three to help implement the report’s findings.

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