Georgia Institute of Technology, Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2)

The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) EDA University Center proposes to serve primarily the state of Georgia, with additional efforts in states within the Atlanta EDA Region and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The program proposes to assist distressed, rural, underserved, disaster and persistent poverty communities (PPCs) in three focus areas: (1) cultivating innovation (40 percent of effort); (2) advancing high-growth entrepreneurship (20 percent of effort); and (3) increasing the resiliency of a region (40 percent of effort). Through (1), we will continue to serve minority serving institutions (MSIs) by providing inclusive entrepreneurship training for faculty/students. Through (2), we will continue to support technology commercialization and entrepreneurship by assisting entrepreneurs in the establishment of companies to commercialize technology/innovative products and services. Through (3), the team will assist communities with regional recovery and resiliency assessments, strategic assessments focused on growing opportunities and creating economic prosperity, and workforce systems analysis with recommendations to direct future workforce development efforts.