The Louisville region has been named among 60 finalists for the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Build Back Better Regional Challenge.
This comes after a proposal that aims to establish the Louisville region as a national hub for digital health care by broadening its artificial intelligence talent pipeline and supporting AI adoption in the health care sector.
As a finalist, the region will receive a $500,000 grant to develop a second-round proposal. The finalists will compete in phase two of the national challenge, which will award 20-30 regional coalitions as much as $100 million to implement 3-8 projects that support an industry sector, according to a news release.
The new Kentucky Digital Health Tech and Artificial Intelligence Innovation Coalition is led by the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council (LHCC) and includes the University of Louisville, the Academy of Music Production Education and Development (AMPED), Greater Louisville Inc., Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency, Louisville Metro Government, the Louisville Urban League and Metro United Way.
“This work will be transformative for our city and our region,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for research and innovation, in a news release. “By bringing together a powerhouse research university and our community partners, we can build on our strengths and past success in health care, innovation and entrepreneurship to make a real impact.”
With the phase one funding, the coalition partners will plan new workforce development, entrepreneurship, research, innovation and commercialization programming and supports centered on digital health care and artificial intelligence.
“Our goal is to establish the Louisville region as a national hub for digital health care and train a high-tech health care workforce,” said Tammy York Day, president and CEO of LHCC, in the release.
This new effort builds on previous collaborations between UofL and LHCC to boost regional health care startups and innovation, including Aging 2.0, which supports programming, training and mentoring for aging and health care innovators and entrepreneurs.
At LHCC, Aging 2.0 supports programming through the LHCC Corporate Innovation Center, housed on UofL’s downtown entrepreneurship and innovation campus. This includes LHCC’s Chairman’s Circle, a group of former health care executives available for entrepreneurial mentoring, and annual CareTech aging innovation pitch competition.
“Louisville already has significant strength in all of these areas — in health care, technology and startups,” said Will Metcalf, an assistant vice president for research and innovation at UofL and a lead on the grant. “With this new funding from the EDA, we hope to build on that success and to promote economic development and equity.”
The deadline for Phase 2 is March 15, 2022. The $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge provides investments to develop and strengthen regional industry clusters across the country, while embracing economic equity, creating good-paying jobs and enhancing U.S. competitiveness globally.
“This will be a tremendous leap forward for closing our equity gap in technology,” said Dave Christopher, executive director of AMPED. “This grant, if we get it, will show we can do tech and we can do it in West Louisville.”
