A new report from The Brookings Institution has singled out the region's successful $62.7 million winning pitch in the Build Back Better Regional Challenge as being among the most equitable proposals in the country due to its objectives and scope, among other factors.
The Pittsburgh region was one of 60 finalists across the country and one of 21 coalitions that won such funding from the $1 billion challenge administered by the Economic Development Administration, which partnered with Brookings for this report.
The Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative — which encompasses 11 counties and is the designated receiver of the funds locally — is looking to use the proceeds for five major grant-funding projects that touch on robotics-related developments as well as provide funding for 20 other regional entities that work in this industry or similar ones. These projects are intended to provide long-term opportunities for people, businesses and communities in the region looking to get into the growing robotics and autonomy industries.
This local initiative cluster of proposals has been described as an "extender," according to the 41-page Brookings Metro report titled "The future of place-based economic policy: Early insights from the Build Back Better Regional Challenge." Extender-based clusters, the report said, are vying to take established clusters — like Pittsburgh's budding robotics scene — and connect them to more rural regions — like those beyond the borders of Allegheny County — to better serve those who are often left out of these types of developments. Brookings classified 21 of the 60 winning pitches as extenders after analyzing all of them.
"These applicants often argued that legacy failures such as discrimination or economic isolation meant that economic opportunities generated by their established clusters were not benefiting underserved people and areas within their regions," the report said. "Or they argued the technological assets within the cluster were not being adopted by small- and mid-sized businesses (e.g., southwestern Pennsylvania’s robotics cluster). Because these regions are trying to extend the benefit of established clusters in more equitable ways, we call the coalitions that use this group of strategies 'extenders.'"
Other cluster categories defined by Brookings in the report included "contenders" and "reinventors," which are initiatives looking to build out emerging clusters or improve existing clusters that are experiencing a decline, respectively, in a given geographic region.
"Along with other extender awardee locales, [the Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Collaborative] and other regions are trying to extend the benefit of established clusters in more equitable ways," Erin Raftery, a communications coordinator at Brookings, said in an email statement. "With these resources, coalitions of businesses, governments, universities, and community-based organizations in Allegheny [County] — and counterpart awardee locations — will implement comprehensive strategies to develop nationally critical industry clusters in ways that deliver economic opportunity to traditionally underserved people and communities."
A previous version of this article stated that the Pittsburgh region was one of 60 finalists that won funding from the $1 billion challenge. The article has been updated to more clearly reflect that it was also one of 21 regions that ultimately received the more significant funding allotments from the program. All 60 coalition finalists received $500,000 in seed grant funding to further build out their pitches.
