The Alabama Innovation Commission has unveiled concrete steps the state will take to improve innovation and entrepreneurship.
The commission, while having numerous recommendations, is already taking steps to put the report into action.
It has launched the Alabama Innovation Corporation, a public-private partnership that is equipped and empowered to accelerate the growth of Alabama’s innovation economy. The Corporation will oversee the newly created Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) state matching program. Through the program, the state provides matching funds to eligible federal awards.
Peggy Sammon, CEO of Huntsville-based GeneCapture and another commission member, said many ideas and lists were kicked around during many virtual meetings, and a lot of work went into triaging the ideas.
"One of the highlights of this entire experience for me is that there was a commitment early on to have an innovation corporation that would take these ideas and move forward with them. So unlike other commissions where the entire purpose is to study something or to provide ideas, this one just felt a lot more action oriented and a lot more traction with supporting innovation in Alabama,” Sammon said. "I think one of the one of the really great aspects of this commission is that it ended with an innovation corporation that now has a board of directors and can go forward.”
The commission and its advisory council were established in July 2020 with a charge to develop forward-thinking policy recommendations and ideas to create a more robust, inclusive economy that supports entrepreneurship, innovation and technology.
The report, which took 14 months to complete, assessed what programs were available in Alabama, what schools were doing in terms of innovation and studied what could be done further. It calls on leaders to identify and support opportunities to fuel entrepreneurial development at every stage of business growth. It also calls for recruiting and retaining a workforce with the skills, knowledge and credentials necessary to create innovation ecosystems throughout Alabama.
According to the report, there are specific calls to action to boost entrepreneurship and innovation statewide. They are centered around five core areas, including entrepreneurship, talent attraction, increasing commercialization, bridging digital and economic divides and having a knowledge economy.
Specific points under these cores include but are not limited to developing a coordinated university and college retention program; creating a new program focused on talent retention beyond college and into fields that advance the state's economy; launching a national marketing campaign that promotes the innovation economy; creating entrepreneur mentorship networks; creating seed funds for startups through the corporation; establishing grant funding for startups; and securing and deploying small business credit initiative funding, among other things.
These programs each have 30-, 60- and 90-day objectives attached that will be applied soon.
Charisse Stokes, executive director of TechMGM and a member of the commission, said the commission did a thorough job of sifting through information to determine what boosts Alabama needs. She said leveraging university talent and branding are the most important points for her.
“We discussed at length (about) Alabama having to do a better job of telling people all the great opportunities that are in Alabama. I think there's so much misperception external to the state. And then there's also just a lack of awareness inside of the state with a lot of the resources that are available,” Stokes said. “So how we really look at Alabama's brand, how we tell our story and how we let people know about all the opportunities and valuable assets that exist, that is huge, and it affects university talent, certainly affects companies' abilities to see Alabama in a different light, and it also affects our ability to retain that workforce that we're so desperately trying to ensure that we ... look for.”
