Business Oregon, the State's economic development agency, has awarded Portland State University and metro region partners one of 11 $140,000 planning grants. The funding supports the development of regional innovation hubs, the purpose of which is to enable the coordination of resources "to maximize support for innovation-based entrepreneurs," including those from underserved communities. The work will begin in September and run through June 30, 2023
Portland State will serve as the host organization for the planning grant, coordinating regional partners and facilitating the group's work. Over twelve months, partnering organizations will create an inventory of existing regional entrepreneurial resources and programming to identify strengths and gaps in services. The funds will also support an assessment of engagement among ecosystem participants and a survey of regional entrepreneurs intended to determine what support systems within the ecosystem are working, where participants perceive gaps in services, and which services might benefit from greater coordination. Partnering organizations will present their findings in a series of reports to Business Oregon along with a plan for an Innovation Hub for the metro region that focuses on providing services specifically to innovation-based, traded sector businesses and coordinating ecosystem partners.
When it launches, the Innovation Hub will incentivize regional collaboration to support and grow the innovation ecosystem in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties.
"The metro region has a robust and complex innovation ecosystem, including various resources and programming both specific to and agnostic to sector or company stage that support invention and entrepreneurship," said Joseph Janda, Assistant Vice President for Research--Propel PSU. "The aim of the metro region Innovation Hub is to streamline navigation of those resources, identify and fill gaps where they exist, and prioritize equity and inclusion to meet the needs of the region over time."
Propel PSU is the Portland State unit taking the lead on the project. Propel PSU includes Innovation & Intellectual Property, the University’s technology transfer office, the Center for Entrepreneurship, home to innovation and entrepreneurship programming at PSU, and the Portland State Business Accelerator, a business incubator and community of over 20 traded sector companies,
Work on the project will be led by the core grant partners, with data collection managed through a primary consultant. The core partners at this time include Greater Portland Inc., Oregon Startup Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Oregon Entrepreneurs Network, Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute, City of Sherwood Economic Development, Venture Catalyst - Washington County, OTRADI/Oregon Bioscience Incubator, Built Oregon/PIE, TiE Oregon, VertueLab, Prosper Portland, and Oregon Bioscience Association. An RFQ for a primary data collection consultant will be released in mid-September and be open for three weeks.
Original source can be found here.
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