Brown and the Innovation Economy Strategic Plan

July 10, 2018

Members of the Brown Community,

I’m pleased to share our Brown and the Innovation Economy strategic plan, which you can read here. This preliminary plan is the result of work that transpired over the last year aimed at identifying ways for the University to enhance its contributions to innovation and the growth of stable, well-paying jobs in Rhode Island. The project has entailed approximately 70 meetings, focus groups and interview sessions with an array of leaders and relevant experts from the public, private and nonprofit sectors in our city and state.

The actions we commit to addressing in our work center on the following five areas:

  1. Talent development and retention
  2. Industry engagement
  3. Building capacity for innovation
  4. Supporting an environment for entrepreneurship
  5. Developing regional networks

As noted in the plan, we have started to make progress on some of the commitments outlined in the document. For example, the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship has partnered with the Slater Technology Fund to launch the Brown Venture Founders program, which provides one-year grants of up to $50,000 to enable and encourage Brown entrepreneurs to launch and build their startups in Rhode Island. The inaugural Venture Founder is Michelle Peterson, CEO of TextUp, which was the winner of the 2018 RI Business Plan Competition and one of the winners in Brown’s 2018 Venture Prize competition.

We have an active search underway to identify a managing director for Brown Biomedical Innovations, Inc. (BBII), which we expect to complete this summer. In addition to this, Brown’s office of Industry Engagement and Commercial Venturing is planning a series of Impact Convergence (iCon) programs that will start in the 2018-2019 academic year. Brown is also in the midst of reviewing its IP policies to ensure that they are friendly both to inventors and their potential commercial partners.

I’m enthusiastic about the plans we’ve developed with the guidance and direction of the many individuals who participated in interviews and meetings over the last year. It’s important to emphasize that this is a working document, and we anticipate continuing to make updates moving forward as good ideas and opportunities arise. In particular, we will convene another small gathering in late summer/early fall to focus on the role of the arts in advancing the innovation economy, and to consider opportunities through the Brown Arts Initiative to forge partnerships and enhance impact.

I welcome your feedback and comments.

Sincerely,

Richard M. Locke
Provost

Read related news release here.