Pete Rumsey | Director, Commerce RI Rhode Island Innovation Campus initiative
1. What is your responsibility as director of the innovation campus? I am responsible [for] helping to administer the overall application and selection process. I collaborate closely with a talented team composed of R.I. Commerce Corp. and University of Rhode Island experts and leaders during the entire process.
2. The state has 16 proposals. How are you vetting the companies involved? The responses varied in team composition, capacities, vision and funding requests, with concepts touching almost all of Rhode Island’s high-growth sectors. … The committee will review all proposals, conduct interviews with selected respondents, request best-and-final offers from finalists, and ultimately make recommendations to [the Executive Office of Commerce] for proposed awardees.
3. What industries are most desired for job growth and why? We are very fortunate that we have the [Brookings Institution]’s “Rhode Island Innovates: A Competitive Strategy for the Ocean State” as a resource. This 2016 report … identifies Rhode Island’s key growth industries. Like many other Commerce initiatives, we are focusing on the key industries identified in the report for the innovation-campus project.
4. Should the state be encouraging multiple locations for innovation campuses or concentrate on Providence, for example? We have purposely been location-agnostic in soliciting respondents for proposed campuses. Instead, we have focused on drawing together the very best industry, academic and research institutions to foster collaboration on best-in-class innovative solutions, to help create and grow high-value jobs while also catalyzing private-sector investment. As a result, projects were proposed in eight different cities and towns, demonstrating a commitment and potential for economic development that benefits the entire state.
5. How does the state distinguish its effort from other states? This is less about what other states are doing and more about what Rhode Island can do to grow its economy. We did study what other places had done to create similar projects and incorporated certain elements of those best practices where appropriate. But at the end of the day this is about Rhode Island’s future, and taking some of the assets we have here across multiple industries and injecting some new energy into them. One element of this competition that we are particularly proud of is the opportunity to boost URI’s capacity to contribute to [the state’s] economy.
