This moment is what the Center on Rural Innovation was built for

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How much have you thought about space junk??

I’m guessing it’s about as much as I had — until I heard about what?Kall Morris, Inc.?is trying to do from its base in?Marquette, on Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula.

KMI’s three young founders want to solve the real and growing threat that humanity’s?27,000 pieces?(and counting) of orbital debris pose to the space-based economy, which affects so many?aspects of everyday life, from communication to GPS navigation to weather prediction. They’ve developed a system that allows spacecraft to remain in orbit and individually collect multiple small pieces or work in tandem to collect large rocket bodies, minimizing the potential damage to useful technology in orbit. The KMI team has already established a revenue stream with its orbital analyses and is working with NASA to test its technology.?

In fact, the four judges for our inaugural?“Small Towns, Big Ideas”?virtual pitch event on Nov. 10 found the two-year-old space tech startup so promising that KMI won the $10,000 cash prize for best-rated pitch. That was no small feat on a night when each of the 10 participating startups appeared worthy of and ready for investment. It was?a remarkable display?of the variety and quality of innovation —?fintech companies, networking applications, event platforms, agtech innovation, cutting-edge security products — that can be found in rural America.

But that was just one small investment in a month that heralded billions more for rural communities across the U.S. thanks to the bipartisan?Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.?

The bill provides unprecedented resources —?$65 billion?— for getting reliable broadband internet to more people than ever before: More than $42 billion for states to focus on unserved and underserved areas; $14 billion to make high-speed internet more affordable for low-income Americans; $2 billion specifically for the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, and another billion for expanding valuable middle-mile infrastructure. This is the kind of funding that, if spent strategically, can achieve the rural electrification of our time. It won’t happen overnight, but if states and communities?prepare?and do everything they can to maximize these resources, these programs will allow us to finally navigate the last mile, bringing fiber broadband to rural homes and businesses, and connecting the digital economy to people and places that have been overlooked for far too long.?

Foundational investment on this scale creates a moment in which sweeping transformation is possible, as Katy Knight, the executive director and president of the?Siegel Family Endowment, put it so brilliantly in?a recent piece?for Philanthropy Today — and that’s the truly exciting part. New, high-speed broadband will enable more rural places to engage in work like?Red Wing, Minnesota, has done with the nonprofit?Red Wing Ignite, whose entrepreneurial support system and digital economic development efforts have produced success stories like the ones you can read about in our newest “Portraits of a community” project.

This moment is what the?Center on Rural Innovation?was built for.

We believe?the future is rural. There’s no problem too big — whether it’s in orbit or connecting world-class broadband to a farm in the Mississippi Delta — for America’s rural innovators when they have the same access to resources as anyone else. If you believe in that potential like we do, support us with a?donation?to ensure that all of rural America can access the resources it needs to build a bright and resilient future.

-Matt Dunne, CORI founder and executive director (November 2021)