Title
To support Central Ohio's application for Third Frontier Project funds and to support TechColumbus' efforts as the region's Lead Applicant and program administrator, and to declare an emergency.
Body
WHEREAS, the Ohio Department of Development has invited applications for grants to be awarded under the Third Frontier Project, an Ohio voter-approved bond program designed to increase technology-based entrepreneurial commercialization outcomes and to focus on technology-based sectors offering important economic development prospects; and
WHEREAS, $15 million is available per each of six regions across the state over a three-year period to support Entrepreneurial Signature Program (ESP) services and an ESP Pre-Seed Fund to meet the need for early stage capital through the establishment of professionally managed, pre-seed capital investment funds to Ohio start-up technology companies primarily in the imagining and incubating stages; and
WHEREAS, Central Ohio is already working on several endeavors that are consistent with Third Frontier objectives-including the City's collaboration with The Ohio State University, Battelle, and others to develop the 315 Technology + Research Corridor-designed to help the region become preeminent in creating, promoting and sustaining innovation-focused, technology-based businesses that produce long-term economic prosperity, and
WHEREAS, because many experts predict that the United States will suffer a severe labor shortage by 2025, suggesting that innovative companies will need to locate where highly skilled, technologically efficient workers exist if they wish to be competitive and successful in the future; it is imperative that Central Ohio position itself to be considered as one of the nation's most attractive "smart capital" enclaves in the future by working to attract and retain what is currently the nation's second largest post-secondary education population; and
WHEREAS, ESP Program funds can prov...
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