The Regional Innovation Initiative (RII) will catalyze, develop and sustain innovation clusters

Michael Gurau is Founder and President of Clear Innovation Partners (Clear), a firm formed to catalyze and sustain innovation and entrepreneurship in rural and urban economies.  In alliance with leading national and regional non-profit economic development organizations, Clear is raising public and private capital to develop and deploy the Regional Innovation Initiative (RII), a foundational technology and knowledge infrastructure paired with educational and communications programs intended to speed the development of innovation cluster-based economic growth. Cluster-based economic development leads to greater productivity, innovation, higher wage jobs, entrepreneurship, regional diversity and economic activity.   Clear will pilot RII in six New England states prior to rolling the program out nationally. 

RII will “link, leverage and align” with existing cluster actors throughout its New England pilot region

RII’s aim is to link, leverage and align existing national, regional and local organizations to implement the program.  RII will develop and deploy its technology and programs to regional and local rural and urban-metro cluster “actors” that include: 1) economic and community development organizations; 2) technology and trade associations across a range of traded and local clusters; 3) educational institutions, incubators and research organizations; and 4) professional and financial services organizations. Clear has developed a program that delivers full engagement/commitment from these actors, which in turn will engage and activate the companies (e.g. wind energy turbine manufacturers) that drive a given cluster.

RII will enable market actors to “Find, Learn, Connect & Transact”™ with one another

Consistent with thought leaders in cluster theory and development, RII’s program seeks to increase networks, knowledge and exchanges among market participants. The initiative will develop, deploy and maintain a “Web 2.0” technology “Platform” as well as a suite of Programs designed to help market actors to Find, Learn, Connect and Transact™ with the companies that form the heart of clusters.  The Platform will include a) directories and databases of resources and companies (Find); b) education, training and knowledge management assets (Learn); c) communications, events and social media tools (Connect); and d) contact management and electronic commerce applications (Transact).  The Platform will be designed to utilize, integrate and extend existing web tools and applications, developing new functionality only when existing applications will not work.  RII’s Programs will include live and virtual seminars, educational and networking events. Together, Platform and Programs will provide the framework that will enable a region to speed, sustain and expand development of its most promising rural and urban clusters, identified by existing and planned cluster studies[1].

RII will gain participation from cluster actors by providing utility, resources and recognition

RII’s guiding principal is to enable self-interest to drive engagement and participation from public and private sector players.  Participants will engage because the platform will be designed to provide compelling utility to each party’s core activity, whether: a producer seeking suppliers, customers, funders or employees; a university looking to transfer technology, access federal funding opportunities, place students in local/regional business opportunities or connect a domain-experienced professor with a company; a federal agency or community development organization offering its services to private market players; a venture or angel capitalist searching for sector-specific investment opportunities; or a trade/technology association in search of new members.  Clear’s “theory of engagement” trades no-cost use in return for which actors must maintain a form of “certification” that includes: 1) designating a part- or full-time staff person to maintain their directory listings and events through the system; 2) committing to organize and manage cluster-specific program activities including events, newsletters, and social media tools; and 3) integrating the platform into their internal and external (web) systems.  In addition, Clear believes that the “certification” scheme will serve as a means by which future federal funding for innovation cluster initiatives may more readily be directed to these “cluster development organizations or CDOs[2].” 

RII will raise public and private funding with the intent to rely on private markets over the long term

RII’s funding strategy has both a public and private sector funding strategy; Clearrecognizes the importance of private sector leadership in respect of activating cluster development.  The RII will seek “startup” program funding from federal agencies (EDA, USDA, SBA) matched by private sector funds from state agencies, foundations and others; Clear has already identified potential private sector match for the RII.   Ongoing funding and functionality will be developed in a public-private partnership model that will enable the initiative to let private sources lead, reducing the requirement for federal and state subsidy while ensuring on-going access to the technology, knowledge-base and programs.  The “business model” for the RII assumes the following: 1) initial funding from federal, state and non-profit sources to develop the core platform architecture; 2) platform development strategy that enables private sector participants and partners to: a) integrate the platform into their external and internal systems; and b) allow private sector companies businesses (existing, new) to integrate with and build upon the system for commercial benefit—in so doing, RII may access both funding and development resources that will progress the platform’s features and functionality for the benefit of both private and public sector stakeholders.