On Dec. 18, Gov. Gina Raimondo and University of Rhode Island President David Dooley debuted three Rhode Island Innovation campuses, which together represent the initiative's first round of projects.
The trio of campuses includes the University of Rhode Island and Arizona State University Innovation Hub, The Rhode Island "iHub" and Rhode Island Agricultural Innovation & Entrepreneurship Campus. The private investment in the URI-affiliated projects is expected to top $122 million, a figure that a press release on the move said is 10 times the state's investment.
These three spots are "expected to create hundreds of jobs in rapidly-growing advanced industries including cybersecurity, data analytics and agricultural technology in Rhode Island," the statement adds, and is the result of a Rhode Island voter-approved $20 million bond. So far, the first round of campuses utilizes $12 million of the bond, with the second expected to receive more bond funding later in 2019.
"The competition for our Innovation Campus funding has been extremely competitive given the high-quality applicant pool," said Rhode Island Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor. "These three projects have the potential to advance our economy in areas from cybersecurity to agricultural technology to data analytics. This is exactly what we were hoping for when the Governor, in partnership with the General Assembly and URI, proposed this program. We congratulate the designees and look forward to negotiating agreements that enable these Innovation Campuses to launch and flourish in Rhode Island."
Now, the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation and the green-lit projects will proceed with a "negotiation of agreements."
Said initiatives are outlined below, with descriptions from the statement.
University of Rhode Island and Arizona State University Innovation Hub
Location: 2 spots; the Innovation and Entrepreneurship space on the URI Kingston campus and a "incubation/acceleration space" in Providence About: "The University of Rhode Island and Arizona State University will collaborate on an innovation hub to be focused initially on cybersecurity, big data analytics and the Internet of Things. Joining ASU in this collaboration is Cisco Systems, Inc., which has successfully partnered with ASU on numerous programs and projects."
The Rhode Island "iHub"
Location: Providence About: "The Rhode Island Innovation Hub or 'iHub' will be established as a startup incubator and accelerator that will enable and catalyze collaborations between industry, start-ups, entrepreneurs, funders, and academic research entities. iHub was conceived by a partnership between The University of Rhode Island, Brown University, IBM, and MassChallenge. iHub will be formed as an independent non-profit 501c3 to establish an innovation community with physical space powered by curated & proven cutting-edge acceleration programs from MassChallenge and IBM Alpha Zone, free of charge for pre-revenue and early stage startups."
The Rhode Island Agricultural Innovation & Entrepreneurship Campus
Location: West Kingston About: "The University of Rhode Island, in partnership with RI Agricultural Technologies (a partnership made up of Rhode Island Mushroom Company and American Ag Energy Inc.), will create ... [a project that's] anticipated to be situated on 50+ acres adjacent to the URI Kingston Campus and also include over 25 acres of greenhouses adjacent to a [more than] 15,000-square-foot Agriculture Innovation Center, which will be the epicenter for agricultural innovation, entrepreneurism, internships and education. This project will secure Rhode Island's position as the agricultural technology hub of the Northeast."
