Spokane Authors Strategic Plan for Innovation Economy

The City of Spokane and a group of local organizations have penned a strategic plan designed to help the city and the Inland Northwest achieve an Innovation Economy. Sponsored by the Spokane Economic Development Council, SIRTI and INTEC, Developing an Innovation Economy highlights numerous specific actions believed to have the greatest potential to deliver measurable results for the local economy.

The strategic plan does not give a detailed benchmarking of the region’s current economy or emerging clusters, but builds on its fundamental tenet — a "Triangle of Innovation" involving Spokane/Coeur d’Alene, the Tri-Cities and Pullman/Moscow. Within these three points, the plan states, the Inland Northwest has significant research capacity, including several universities (Washington State University, the University of Idaho, Gonzaga University, Eastern Washington University in Cheney and Spokane, WSU Spokane), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and several strong nonprofit research organizations and private firms.

Various new ventures have resulted from the successful implementation of research projects in these communities. However, the authors of Developing an Innovation Economy call for enhanced regional collaboration and a host of priority activities, or action steps, centering around nine broad categories — leadership, investment capital, research capacity, technology commercialization, human capital, entrepreneurial capabilities, digital infrastructure, regional image and a regional cluster strategy.

Ranked as primary, secondary or out-of-the-box – depending on the level of importance – the action steps range from instituting a leadership team focused exclusively on developing an Innovation Economy in the Inland Northwest to creating a sizeable, professionally-managed seed investment fund. Other action items entail establishing databases that detail research projects, researchers and sources of funding in the region, as well as enablers for entrepreneurs and start-up companies. In all, 34 primary and secondary actions are outlined. Out-of-the-box actions are separate actions described as bearing a level of unusual creativity and difficulty.

Developing an Innovation Economy is available in full or by section at: http://www.spokaneedc.org/innovation/innovation.php

Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2003. Information in this issue of SSTI Weekly Digest was prepared under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. Redistribution to all others interested in tech-based economic development is strongly encouraged — please cite the State Science & Technology Institute whenever portions are reproduced or redirected. Any opinions expressed in the Digest do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Commerce.