Reminds of research triangle in North Carolina, concept wise.
Full article at the link.
Ono and Baruah said they are forming a preliminary convening committee that will develop a strategy, benchmarking metrics, goals and timeline, as well as review best practices from other successful “innovation corridors.”
“Our intent is simply to create and set the table for a broad coalition to convene, to collaborate and, most importantly, take tangible and measurable action in the cause of building a robust innovation corridor stretching across Southeast Michigan, encompassing certainly not just Detroit and Ann Arbor but other areas across the region,” Baruah said.
The primary corridor in this region has been north-south, starting in downtown Detroit and going north up Woodward Avenue to Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Pontiac and beyond.
But the new corridor would run east-west from downtown Detroit from Michigan Central Station and encompassing the new University of Michigan Innovation Center in Detroit, the joint Michigan State University-Henry Ford Health Distance Innovation Center on Grand Boulevard, the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn and onto the UM campus in Ann Arbor, the other innovation “nodes” that the chamber and its partners have developed, Baruah said.
Both leaders indicated they see the corridor as a way of better competing with peer states and regions to attract funding and high-tech entrepreneurs. A stated goal is to also work on initiatives to develop “attractive” communities that will attract young professionals.
Ono said UM will likely eclipse $1 billion in investments in Innovate Michigan-related initiatives in the long term. He also expects that the university “supercharging” its national laboratory relationships will also draw talent and entrepreneurs to the state.
“UM received a $15 million investment from the Los Alamos National Lab that will bring computing technologies to the state of Michigan at a level that we do not enjoy currently that is essential for everything that we want to achieve as a state,” Ono said.
“That’s not just for the University of Michigan. That’s for everyone in the state of Michigan and all the other educational institutions, as well as the companies that rely upon high performance computing for their competitive advantage.”
Ono has experience working on a similar innovation corridor that launched in 2016 between Washington state and British Columbia when Ono was president at the University of British Columbia. In its first year, the collaboration launched a feasibility study for a new ultra-high-speed rail line from Portland, Oregon, to B.C.
“We clearly have a focus on economic development. This president, when he says we’re the University for Michigan, not the University of Michigan, he really means that,” said Sarah Hubbard, chair of the UM Board of Regents.