Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled Thursday his latest economic development initiative that will invest $5 million in a private-public partnership to spur development of promising new Connecticut products, technologies, and companies.
The new program, called Connecticut’s “Innovation Ecosystem,” was launched by Malloy during a Thursday press conference in New Haven.
The ecosystem will have two main elements:
• Four locations in Hartford, New Haven, Stamford, and Storrs have been selected to serve as ecosystem “hubs” and will provide a set of financial, technical, professional, and mentoring resources to participants, as well as collaborative workspace.
• A statewide system for management and collaboration will connect these resources, making them available to every entrepreneur. It will also enable the state to track and systematically evaluate this economic development activity, in an effort to provide greater transparency and enabling the state to target funding and other resources to their most productive uses.
Funding for the program was allocated by state lawmakers during the 2011 special jobs session. The program is being administered by Connecticut Innovations but the ecosystem is designed to become self-sustaining over time as the hubs leverage private investor funds.
