{"id":142348,"date":"2021-05-25T16:00:40","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T02:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=142348"},"modified":"2021-05-25T13:40:04","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T23:40:04","slug":"grow-entrepreneurship-workforce-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/25\/grow-entrepreneurship-workforce-development\/","title":{"rendered":"$2.7M<\/abbr> to grow UH<\/abbr> entrepreneurship, workforce development programs"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"person<\/p>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/a> will expand its innovation, entrepreneurship and workforce development ecosystem with the support of a $2.7-million CARES<\/abbr> Act Recovery Assistance grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration<\/a> (EDA<\/abbr>). This will be matched with $813,068 of local funding.<\/p>\n

“In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic and world events beyond our control, never has it been more important for an island-state like Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> to develop new industries to supplement its primary, but often fragile tourism-based economy,” said UH<\/abbr> Vice President for Research and Innovation Vassilis L. Syrmos<\/strong>. “We are grateful to the EDA<\/abbr> for their generous grant to the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and for recognizing the importance of our efforts to help diversify the local economy through our growing slate of innovation, entrepreneurship and workforce development programs.”<\/p>\n

Innovation Impact Challenge<\/h2>\n

EDA<\/abbr> funds will help to strengthen, expand and scale UH<\/abbr>\u2019s Innovation Impact Challenge<\/a> (IIC<\/abbr>) initiative, which seeks to utilize and promote Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>-based talent, knowledge and innovation to create a more resilient and sustainable economy. Spearheaded by the UH<\/abbr> Office of Innovation and Commercialization<\/a> (OIC<\/abbr>), the two-pronged initiative aims to develop both UH<\/abbr>-based technologies and a corresponding high-tech workforce to support it.<\/p>\n

Under the IIC<\/abbr> Technology Development Program, OIC<\/abbr> has been working with its industry, community and government partners to identify their unique challenges, and to engage UH<\/abbr> researchers and students to develop new innovative solutions. These innovations may have potential commercial applications that can later be brought to market either through licensing\/patenting of the technology or the formation of a startup company. Current IIC<\/abbr> partners include Hawaiian Electric, Hawaiian Telcom, Diamond Bakery and the National Security Innovation Network.<\/p>\n

The initiative\u2019s second component, the IIC<\/abbr> Workforce Development Program, will seek to establish programs at the UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges to re-skill, up-skill and cross-skill the state\u2019s current workforce in information technology and other in-demand areas, in addition to promoting small business creation.<\/p>\n

“The CARES<\/abbr> grant is a testament to the EDA<\/abbr>\u2019s belief in UH<\/abbr>\u2019s ability to deliver much-needed programs to help stimulate and develop a stronger and more resilient economy for the state of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and its citizens,” said Steve Auerbach<\/strong>, OIC<\/abbr> interim director.<\/p>\n

This project is funded under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES<\/abbr>) Act<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), which provided EDA<\/abbr> with $1.5 billion for economic assistance programs to help communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus. EDA<\/abbr> CARES<\/abbr> Act Recovery Assistance, which is being administered under the authority of the bureau\u2019s flexible Economic Adjustment Assistance<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>) program, provides a wide range of financial assistance to eligible communities and regions as they respond to and recover from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EDA<\/abbr> funds will help to strengthen, expand and scale UH<\/abbr>\u2019s Innovation Impact Challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[734,1432,947,603],"class_list":["post-142348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-office-of-innovation-and-commercialization","tag-uh-system","tag-workforce-development","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142348"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142353,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142348\/revisions\/142353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}