“The logic is that to take people who have always worked with their hands — in industries like coal mining or energy distribution — and tweak it so they can still work with their hands,” Strauss says.
The Innovation Center’s role will be to distribute those funds to users like the Athens MakerSpace and the IDEA lab at Zane State among others, based on the roles each will play in the network. The grant will be used to hire staff and provide equipment and material support.
The initiative is not limited to for-profit enterprises.“The ARC believes that any job is a job,” Strauss says.
Strauss added that this will enable the Innovation Center to work with any type of entrepreneur beyond the technology sector. They also hope to see businesses that use 3-D printing, carpentry and small-batch manufacturing. The grant will not focus on food, retail or wellness, areas that are already provided for with funds from the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet).
Two such hubs include Ohio University’s Innovation Center and the Muskingum County Business Incubator (MCBI), which have a long history of cooperation.
Headed by Executive Director Larry Triplett, the MCBI is a standalone incubator in Zanesville. Funded by a state grant called TechGROWTH Ohio,these hubs are part of a common entrepreneurial ecosystem working to get people into jobs in Southeast Ohio.
TechGROWTH (TGO)is a partnership through which entrepreneurs and technology start-up companies in Southeast Ohio can access business assistance and sources of capital to aid with writing business plans, product development,legal services, marketing and executive recruitment. The program helps companies prepare to access seed-stage and angel investment capital, as well as research grants and loans.
These resources have helped area companies generate tens of millions of dollars in additional economic activity. TGO targets seed-stage technology companiesin sectors including, but not limited to: advanced energy, biomedical,information technology, advanced materials and electronics.
Under LIGHTS, that innovation network will be strengthened by bringing together multiple centers for innovation in Zanesville and Athens with those in Marietta and at Shawnee State.
At Zane State in Muskingum County, the IDEA lab is a high-tech workshop with a precision cutting machine (called a CNC), a 3-D printer, carpentry facilities and CAD-based tools, all designed to help entrepreneurs and innovators realize their product ideas and plan for their commercialization. Because of the LIGHTS grant, the MCBI can be physically adjacent to the IDEA lab and the inventors working on prototypes for product ideas. The MCBI will help those inventors commercialize their product. “The opportunity is huge and really exciting,” Triplett says.
Zane State will provide space, marketing and accounting support, in order to facilitate a synergistic partnership between the IDEA lab and the Business Incubator.
“We’re excited about moving beyond office space and providing a space where anyone with a product idea has a place to get help commercializing it,” Triplett says.
“I’m pretty optimistic about the future of the region,” Triplett says. “The shift to Zane State will bring new businesses to MCBI and we’re going to see more business opportunity than ever.”