A new initiative to help spark innovation across the state will focus on five cities. The announcement was made Friday at NC State's Hunt Library.
鈥淣ext up we have Greensboro! Come on up Greensboro!鈥� shouted Christopher Gergan, CEO of
Gergan helped make the announcement.
The leaders at NC State鈥檚 Institute for Emerging Issues say "Innovate NC" is a first of its kind economic development initiative. Five cities鈥揋reensboro, Asheville, Pembroke, Wilson and Wilmington鈥搘ill partner with several groups over the next two years to help boost innovation and jobs.
Anita Brown-Graham heads the Institute.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have to figure out how to get more people, more places engaged in this work. And we鈥檙e absolutely convinced, not only can we do it, but we鈥檝e assembled the right group to do it quickly," said Brown-Graham.
The new state-wide initiative is designed to help boost North Carolina鈥檚 Innovation ranking. Nationally, North Carolina is considered 鈥渁verage.鈥�
Bob Geolas is President and CEO of the . He says can change that.
鈥淏ut when I think about how hard it鈥檚 going to be for us to innovate, to do the kind of work that鈥檚 ahead of us, I am inspired by the fact that 60 years ago we had to make as big a decision then about innovation when North Carolina took on Research Triangle Park as a big idea!鈥� said Geolas.
Grant Goings is the City Manager of Wilson, one of the five participating cities. Goings said his team will build on local assets including the community-owned .
鈥淲ell obviously, many jobs in the future are going to be technology dependent. We believe that cities need to be very innovative to create spaces and opportunities and capacity," said Goings.
Each participating city will receive support valued at over $250,000.
