Action 3: Foster New Company Creation and Entrepreneurship
Form the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Rhode Island attracts significant federal research funding and boasts one of the highest R&D tax credits in the nation, yet it trails national averages in commercializing
research. Start-up company formation and small company growth remain well below the state’s potential, especially given the region’s strong research base and increasing share of federal research dollars.
We need more effective programs to foster entrepreneurship and to build communities of entrepreneurs. These programs should be supplemented by initiatives to encourage the adoption of new technologies and innovative business solutions by mature companies. Together, such efforts would be an effective recruitment tool for Rhode Island to attract innovative companies and people.
The RIEDC and Brown University have partnered to form the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RICIE), which aims to accelerate new company creation and establish a statewide hub for entrepreneurs. The center will focus on the training and development of entrepreneurs, and host programs that support the state’s effort to stimulate new company creation and produce new high-wage jobs in Rhode Island.
RICIE is a partnership of academic institutions, public agencies and private industry that will provide a physical space located at One Davol Square, a property owned by Brown University, where entrepreneurs from across industries, and at all stages of development, can interact and collaborate.
The center will support the commercialization of new ideas, encourage technology transfer out of our state’s universities, combat the "brain drain" of talented college graduates who now leave Rhode Island in droves once they earn their degrees, and facilitate the emergence of more mature entrepreneurs. The good ideas that are sparked by this collaboration will attract capital into the market.
Brown and the RIEDC are the founding members of the RICIE, and the Slater Technology Fund and the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council have pledged the initial funding. The City of Providence (through the Providence Economic Development Partnership), the University of Rhode Island, Lifespan, the Rhode Island School of Design and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce have also committed their support. The partnership marks an important convergence of public and private sector support for Rhode Island’s efforts to attract and retain entrepreneurs and stimulate new company creation.
The RIEDC will help get the RICIE up and running, work with STAC and the Research Alliance as primary vehicle for user/company-friendly research collaboration, engage with the Business Innovation Factory and other entities to build communities of entrepreneurship and an entrepreneurial culture in Rhode Island, and support broadening the investment activities of the Slater funds.