Northern Kentucky University
|
Location |
Highland Heights, KY |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Project Name |
NKY Collaborative for Economic Engagement: Connecting Entrepreneurs to Knowledge, Data, Talent, and Capita |
|
|
Award Amount |
Federal Share |
Local Match |
|
$750,000 |
$188,147 |
The grant will support the Northern Kentucky Collaborative for Economic Engagement (NKY Collaborative), a one-stop, shared-services central innovation hub for businesses and entrepreneurs designed to increase regional economic resilience and accelerate long-term economic recovery.
The NKY Collaborative will leverage regional agencies and programs as well as Northern Kentucky University’s (NKU) expertise in data analytics, health, tech, logistics, and entrepreneurial innovation to provide the tools that entrepreneurs need to thrive: access to knowledge, access to data, access to talent, and access to capital.
Proposed activities will increase regional competitiveness by enhancing NKY’s overall entrepreneurial capacity, overcoming the challenges inhibiting innovation and job creation, driving innovations from the initial idea through commercialization, and supporting rural and underserved founders, to create an ecosystem in which innovators and entrepreneurs will strengthen and diversify the regional economy.
Outcomes from this project include: scaling a novel entrepreneurship support model for underserved entrepreneurs to address the pandemic’s virtual and remote work environment; exposing industry professionals, investors, and successful entrepreneurs to innovations at their earliest stages to foster opportunities for high-growth startups; accelerating existing health-related startups to multiply high-quality jobs; equipping entrepreneurs with knowledge and resources needed to enter markets and scale businesses. The Collaborative will expand the NKY innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem to ensure that high-growth startups continuously drive regional job and value creation.