Thursday, January 30, 2014
Brings manufacturing leaders together to discuss the Rhode Island Innovation Institute, hear how to support manufacturing sector
SMITHFIELD – Today Gina Raimondo hosted a roundtable with leaders in manufacturing from across the state to share her proposal for a Rhode Island Innovation Institute (RI II) and to hear directly from them about how best to grow our manufacturing economy and create jobs. Rhode Island is stuck and making our state a national leader in manufacturing again is critical to bringing our economy back.
“We have to start making things in Rhode Island again. We sat back and watched as thousands of good manufacturing jobs left this state and our leaders didn’t do nearly enough to develop new industries,” said Gina. “Now we have the highest unemployment rate in the country. It’s unacceptable; people are really hurting. We have to act and we have to be bold. Today was a great opportunity to get input from manufacturing leaders on how best to support their industry and, in doing so, get people back to work.
“Gina’s sense of urgency and commitment to bringing people together to solve big problems is exactly what this state needs,” said Scot Jones, owner and CEO of Groov-Pin. “She really wants to hear from those of us trying to run and grow a manufacturing business in Rhode Island and it was great to have the opportunity today to have a detailed discussion of not only her proposal for RI II, but of our needs and concerns as well. She can help turn this state around.”
The Rhode Island Innovation Institute (RI II) is designed to bring together higher education and private industry – to take ideas and technologies that are conceived in colleges and universities, and give them the resources and money to turn ideas into businesses that employ people to make things across our state.
Innovation institutes are being created in places like New York City and North Carolina. We can do this right here in our Rhode Island
How it will work: RI II will be responsible for researching and developing new applied sciences, particularly in areas poised to grow like, biotech, food science and marine technologies. From there, the Institute will work to commercialize the technologies they produce, by helping students and researchers spin off revenue-generating businesses based on their ideas, right here in Rhode Island.
In action: One successful example of what can happen when universities, the private sector, and government work together is NABSYS. This cutting edge life science company started with technology developed at Brown University. Realizing the potential commercial applications of their new technology, they set about to start a business, using grants from a variety of government programs. Later, when they were looking to grow, they sought out private funding – with Gina’s old firm, Point Judith Capital, leading the first investment round.
Today, NABSYS is thriving in Providence and is a world leader in the field of gene sequencing. It is a best-in-the-world company, here in RI.
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