Center of Excellence in Innovation

UA and LCCC, serving as anchors to an Innovation Corridor, will bring a comprehensive mix of expertise and resources to increase innovation, technology transfer, and support for entrepreneurs and new business development through strategic approaches that build on the strengths of northeast Ohio. The alliance will enhance the region’s competitiveness and create a Center of Excellence in Innovation.

The alliance deliverables demonstrate the strategic intent of UA and LCCC to establish a regional response to pervasive challenges that have been documented by the FY2006 Higher Education Funding Study Council, the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and the Economy, and the Fund for Our Economic Future’s Regional Economic Competitiveness Agenda, all of which document the challenges of advanced technology, globalization, the demand for a highly skilled workforce, and the need to curb college tuition costs to ensure increases in educational attainment for Ohio’s citizens.

University of Akron President Luis M. Proenza and Lorain County Community College President Roy A. Church have committed to the following major initiatives in accelerating an innovation ecosystem.

1. Educational Efficiency: Increasing Efficiency – Enhancing Operational Excellence

In the belief that innovation and efficiency is best modeled before it can be taught, UA and LCCC are implementing immediately the following two initiatives.

• Back Office Systems
  UA and LCCC are initiating a study to determine the viability of UA acting as a service provider for LCCC enterprise business applications. Creating this relationship may allow both institutions to co-develop a collaborative back-office operation that could eventually grow into a shared service model. Shared service is the convergence and streamlining of non-competing business processes for the purpose of reducing costs while measurably improving the level and quality of service. It is composed of non-competing technical and functional aspects for operating an organization in a service center structure.
  
  Timeline: Completion of Study – April 2007

• Driving Down Costs
  UA and LCCC will apply basic business systems within their own institutions. Both institutions have trained Six Sigma black belts and LCCC will take the lead in applying Six Sigma principles across LCCC and UA operations. UA and LCCC will share with other institutions of higher learning lessons learned and cost savings from application of Six Sigma business practices. Additionally, UA and LCCC will pursue other mechanisms for driving down costs such as joint faculty and staff appointments, alternative energy sources and other opportunities to keep higher education and tuition costs at a minimum.
  
  Timeline: 2007 - 2008

2. Job Growth: Discovery to Application

The Alliance will increase the capacity for innovation-based economic development, which will help existing industries to grow stronger and assist new industries to take root.

• Accelerating Growth
  By combining the resources of LCCC’s Glide and UA’s Office of Technology Transfer, the Alliance will engage and accelerate the growth of small- to medium-sized technology-dependent companies and entrepreneurs by providing wrap-around business support services, incubation, access to technology transfer, intellectual property resources, and creation of educational pathways aligned with industry engagement.
  
  Timeline: Fall 2007 
   
• The Innovation Fund
  This pre-seed capital fund established through the LCCC Foundation provides entrepreneurs throughout the Corridor with awards that can range from $10,000 to $100,000. LCCC and UA students will engage in work-based learning opportunities for an experience of working directly with the entrepreneur as a business develops or technology is commercialized and introduced to market.
  
  Timeline: Launched December 2006

3. Talent Growth: Growing Talent - Growing Jobs

In order to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving global market place, the Alliance will work with K-12 education partners and industry partners to catalyze the next generation of American innovators and entrepreneurs. By stimulating creative thinking and innovation skill acquisition we create the next generation of highly trained scientists, mathematicians, and engineers and technicians.

• Efficient Degrees – Lower Cost and Less Time
  UA and LCCC will create and deliver joint applied baccalaureate degrees in the high-growth areas of advanced manufacturing, health care and entrepreneurship in order to expand higher education’s impact on the adult workforce. By sharing faculty and student service resources, these joint degrees will be designed for completion in 25 percent less time than a traditional baccalaureate degree and at a 40 percent lower cost. These programs will include enhanced opportunities for mentorships, cooperative education experiences, and internships.
  
  Timeline: 2007 - 2008
   
• STEM Education and Career Pathways
  UA and LCCC will jointly develop STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) strategies that link UA and LCCC with PK-12 districts throughout the Innovation Corridor to create a PK-16 STEM initiative that will be designed to inspire, attract, and begin training the next generation of innovators. Increased dual credit access and attainment will be assisted through educational delivery via interactive video distance learning between UA, LCCC, and school districts throughout the Corridor. Summer STEM initiatives will engage businesses within the Corridor by foster industry mentorship’s the will extend through secondary and post secondary education and eventual career placement.
  
  Timeline: Summer 2007

For more information about the Innovation Corridor, call (888) 570-7147.