Regional Innovation Clusters ~ a Growing National Resource

Technology clusters are defined by the U.S. Small Business Administration as “geographically concentrated groups of organizations that work together to support the growth of small businesses and their related industry.”? They’ve been around since 2011, most notably as the SBA’s Regional Innovation Clusters (RICs).? Now, after growing their number to 25 nationwide in 2024, the SBA’s Office of Investment and Innovation is leading an effort to better link the resources and best practices residing within them.? Here’s what America’s RICs do, and how you can connect to them.

The RICs include entities such as the eidotech project in Montana supporting quantum, smart sensing systems and photonics innovation; Defense Alliance (operated by LSI ) in the Upper Midwest helping small business to commercialize defense technologies; and AgLaunch in southern Appalachia working to create sustainable, future-ready farms while transforming regional agricultural and food economies.? These are among 25 centers that are perfecting cluster management, and aggressively breaking traditional barriers of industry scope, geography, and outreach to non-traditional partners, funding, activities, and opportunities.? It’s one of the more efficient and effective programs in government.? SBA’s RICs perform the following “five Cs” for small business:

1) Convene:? Gatherings ranging from workshops to webinars to accelerator cohorts bring together the many disparate but vital ecosystem players and change agents needed for small businesses to thrive.

2) Champion:? Getting noticed as a small business is no small task.? Clusters use their years of industry connectivity, trust, and leadership to help give them the exposure they need in competitive markets, from assisting in marketing efforts to representation at conferences.

3) Challenge:? RICs assess both the business and technology readiness of small businesses to compete and commercialize their innovations; and where needed, give advice (including “tough love” at times) for improvement, while providing assistance to connect with needed resources.

4) Connect:? A cluster’s superpower is a robust ecosystem that enhances connectivity to service providers, partners, funding, opportunities, stakeholders, and more.? That includes a newly supercharged effort to enhance collaboration among the SBA’s 25 distinct clusters, and to others outside of that network.

5) Commercialize:? The ultimate success of cluster small businesses is getting innovative products and services to market.? Individual small business success contributes to regional economic development, and ultimately to enhancing the national technology base and America’s economic prosperity.

The best innovation comes from small business leaders who aren’t daunted by the immense challenges of commercializing technology in a chaotic world but rather take them on with all the tools at their disposal.? The expanding and increasingly interconnected Regional Innovation Cluster network of the SBA help many of them do just that.? Learn more and connect to the RIC network here:? https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/sba-locations/headquarters-offices/office-investment-innovation.?

Chip Laingen ~ 2024