Targeted Industries: Alternative Fuels/ Fuel Cells; Advanced Manufacturing, Healthcare, STEM
Partners: Partners include Michigan State, Saginaw Valley, and Kettering Universities; Mott, Delta, and Lansing Community Colleges; North Coast Ventures; Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; and Center for Automotive Research
The Mid Michigan Innovation team (MMIT), a network of community leaders representing education, business and economic and workforce development, is leading the WIRED Initiative in the region. Mid-Michigan's strategy for economic transformation is built on utilizing the vast research and development resources and expertise of its universities to create new technologies and encourage new companies leading to new jobs across the region. This strategy will include a focus on developing alternative fuels, life sciences, homeland security/defense and advanced manufacturing which hold the promise of an entirely new sector for the state's economy. Developing these four career will bolster the economy and create new opportunities in industry, not only to the Mid-Michigan Region, but to the entire country.
Mid-Michigan also has a strong base of knowledge and infrastructure in manufacturing. The region's success is directly related to its ability to transform automotive supplier firms once tied to General Motors to new manufacturing markets. This will be achieved through working with firms to assess their capabilities, identifying areas of opportunity and embarking on improvements with the retraining of their incumbent workforce.
MMIT's overarching objective - to catalyze regional economic transformation - will be organized under three primary goals:
Reinvent it's industrial base through innovation;
Develop next generation talent through learning; and
Asset-building through connections and partnerships.
Through these goals MMIT will seed new economy industries - creating jobs and diverse business opportunities; making entrepreneurship a viable option for career launch, transition or development; and inspiring a generation of creative, curious and skilled talent that will reinvent the region.
