Cleveland State University

The EDA University Center, housed at the Center for Economic Development in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, is collaborating with economic development organizations, economic development districts, and state and local governments to support the development of the economic ecosystems in Northeast Ohio and Ohio. The Center will focus on four programs over the next five years: cultivating innovation, advancing high-skilled entrepreneurship, developing a high-skilled regional workforce, and providing service and technical assistance within these and other themes prioritized by the U.S. EDA and regional needs. The Center will assist by providing applied research, suggestions to public policies and programmatic activities, calculating economic impacts, and fostering collaboration through an annual statewide conference planned around raising innovation in Ohio through the development of three Ohio Innovation Districts, the growth of innovative industries, and the measurement and promotion of clusters. The Center will continue developing entrepreneurial ecosystems by focusing on high-growth entrepreneurship and minority entrepreneurship through the iterative process of ecosystem assessment and measuring annual gaps that can be addressed by service organizations and by creating publicly available and readily accessible mapped resources. The Center will support the development of a regional high-skilled workforce by addressing the gaps of employment and occupations for innovative industries and clusters and developing career paths to address those gaps. The CSU EDA University Center will support its partners, economic development districts (EDDs), Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS), governments, and economic development organizations on all products developed under these programs. It will respond to their additional needs, especially in data-driven requests aligned with their strategies, EDA investment priorities, and regional needs.