The global hunt for high value sustainable jobs will be the top policy goal of our new Governor. How he solves this challenge will ultimately be more important than the onerous task of balancing the state budget.
In my capacity as president of TECNA, the trade association for technology councils in the US and Canada, I have been meeting with public policy makers from the Obama Administration to discuss their views of how to create more high-potential tech start-ups. Their efforts to support and coordinate innovation policy are unprecedented since the end of the moon program. Let’s hope they are not derailed by coming budget cutbacks and political changes in DC. We should all work to be certain their efforts spill into places such as Connecticut to make our region stronger and better equipped to grow our key technology clusters.
If the White House, EDA, SBA and others agree to really support a series of regional innovation networks – or whatever they are called – it will be a watershed moment for US policy. First, by encouraging dialogue about innovation based growth between parts of the country, and second, by providing grants and contests that might increase funding for programs that will result in more American research being commercialized here, rather than somewhere else in the world.
A recent survey of the CEOs of fast growing companies in Connecticut confirms the need to build on key parts of our innovation support environment: human and cluster networks, universities partnerships and target early stage capital. The region’s tech community must be strong advocates for connecting our new Governor with key Connecticut resources such as CI, Yale and UConn, CCAT and our base of global private firms with these new concepts to grow our capacity to be a strong environment for fast growing tech start-ups.
By Matthew Nemerson
President & CEO Connecticut Technology Council
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