![CT launches new 0M program aimed at fostering innovation clusters CT launches new 0M program aimed at fostering innovation clusters](https://i2.wp.com/ctmirror-images.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_3134.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
Connecticut’s economic development agency is offering up to $100 million in grants aimed at fostering startup “clusters” in cities and towns across the state, with a focus on innovations in biotechnology, finance, insurance and advanced manufacturing.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced the initiative, called the “Innovation Cluster Program,” during his remarks at the Yale Innovation Summit on Wednesday, a gathering of more than 2,500 startup founders, venture capital investors and business leaders in the Yale School of Management in New Haven. (Lamont’s wife, venture capitalist Annie Lamont, was sitting in the front row.)
“We are some of the best when it comes to life sciences, some of the best when it comes to advanced manufacturing…also in the FinTech space, from InsureTech in Hartford to Stamford,” Lamont said.
“Those are the investments we’re going to make, trying to build those ecosystems in a way that is transformative,” he said.
Interested municipalities must partner with at least one business, nonprofit, or university to apply for the grant, ensuring that private sources match (and ideally exceed) the state’s contribution. The Department of Economic and Community Development, which administers the program, will prioritize projects that include “walkable downtown or campus environments,” access to public transportation, and support for workforce training and career development. The DECD expects to issue a request for information next week.
While the bond-funded program aims to encourage innovation, the concept isn’t exactly groundbreaking. Connecticut has attempted, at least twice before, to establish entrepreneurship centers in and around the state’s academic and urban centers.
A program known as “Innovation Places” within CTNext, Connecticut’s now-defunct quasi-public entrepreneurship support agency, lost steam during the pandemic, when many businesses went completely remote. A $100 million “Innovation Corridors” program, established within DECD less than three years ago, no longer appears on the agency’s website.
DECD Commissioner Dan O’Keefe said innovation corridors still exist, but he anticipates they will be “defunct” because they were not successful. There are currently no projects funded under that program, he said.
“In my opinion, the Innovation Corridors were too specific and I wanted it to be broad,” O’Keefe said. “I wanted to specify the areas where we are seeing growth, but I want the market to come to us with ideas.” For example, depending on the project, grant funding could go toward lab space, incubator space, workforce training or even internet infrastructure, he said.
O’Keefe pointed to the recent launch of an effort known as QuantumCT as an example of an “innovation cluster” already taking shape in the state. The public-private partnership, involving both Yale University and the University of Connecticut, received a $1 million federal grant last year to pursue a proposal establishing a quantum research center in Connecticut.
Before taking the helm of DECD last year, O’Keefe spent 25 years as an investor focused on software, consumer technology and financial technology companies. He said he sees potential for Connecticut to become a hub for emerging technologies like quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and wants to help the state attract more private investment.
“What we seek to do is support the application of those next-generation horizontal companies to verticals, where they have a competitive advantage,” he said. “We want to redouble our efforts and invest in these existing trend lines because those two new emerging categories (quantum and artificial intelligence) have the opportunity to fundamentally transform our largest industries.”
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