Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative
Coalition Lead: Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative
Phase 2 Award: $62.7 million
Private Investment (Sept. 2022 – Sept. 2024): $4.4 million
Additional Public and Nonprofit Funding (Sept. 2022 – Sept. 2024): $13.7 million
Project Description:
The Southwestern Pennsylvania (SWPA) New Economy Collaborative is utilizing a $62.7 million BBBRC grant to supercharge SWPA’s globally recognized robotics and autonomy cluster and ensure that its economic benefits equitably reach rural and coal-impacted communities in the 11-county region. This effort represents the first time the region has developed a truly systemic approach to creating opportunity for workers and employers to encourage the adoption, upskilling, and innovation of robotics and autonomous technologies.
The coalition unites regional partners such as the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and Catalyst Connection.
As of September 2024, the coalition has made significant strides in achieving its vision of expanding the benefits of robotics and AI to the region:
- The Robotics Factory, a set of programs to create, accelerate, and scale robotics startups in the Pittsburgh region, opened its facility in the “Robotics Row” area of Pittsburgh and started accepting applications for its acceleration and scaling programs for entrepreneurs.
- The coalition has developed the internal infrastructure, built partnerships, and planned out strategies and outcomes for its workforce development efforts, which involves 18 funded partners including workforce, robotics networks, community colleges, regional universities, industry ecosystem builders, and labor organizations. This effort will expand pathways to employment in robotics related careers and provide support to both individuals and businesses.
- The coalition has built out a state-of-the-art dashboard to track progress and milestones across its five component projects. This dashboard will provide current information to the coalition on how projects are being implemented and how these outcomes are translating to local benefits for communities.
Coalition Overarching Narrative (applicant submitted) (PDF)
“The Collaborative includes 90+ organizations: community-based organizations, labor unions, educational and research institutions, economic development partners and leaders from the private, public and philanthropic sectors. We focus on communities that need support, adopting a hub-and-spoke approach designed to benefit not only the urban core but surrounding communities as well.”
Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative
Related Links
- Learn about the direct impact that the coalition is having on Pittsburgh and the surrounding counties.
- Learn about how the coalition is supporting local manufacturers with advanced technologies.
- Learn about the coalition’s programs to support entrepreneurs from underserved backgrounds.