Tech 2020 awarded $250,000 EDA grant

Center for Entrepreneurial Growth to administer funds to support entrepreneurs

Tech 2020, a nonprofit corporation that serves to foster entrepreneurship, has received a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, or EDA.

The grant is part of nearly $1.8 million EDA is distributing through its Partnership for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization, or POWER, Planning program.

The POWER Planning grants were awarded to development and entrepreneur groups throughout the country for “developing targeted economic strategies, feasibility studies, impact assessments, asset mapping, and other relevant strategic planning efforts,” a press release said.

“This is a sizable achievement for Tech 2020 as we continue to assist entrepreneurs in growth-stage industries such as advanced manufacturing,” Tech 2020 President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Kragenbrink said.

The POWER Planning grant was awarded due to “Tech 2020’s capacity to provide entrepreneurial support through its Center for Entrepreneurial Growth program,” according to the EDA. “The program will provide increased services to emerging and growth-stage entrepreneurs interested in launching businesses in the manufacturing industries. The project will help spur the region’s manufacturing clusters, promoting economic diversification, resiliency, and growth in the coal-dependent region.”

The POWER program focuses on providing economic assistance to coal-dependent regions. As the U.S. relies less on fossil fuels as primary energy sources, people working in the coal industry will need to learn additional skills in order to pursue jobs outside that sector. The POWER program aims to assist in diversifying coal-dependent economies and to provide training to former coal workers.

“As the U.S. evolves from a coal-based energy sector to one focused more on natural gas and renewable energy, initiatives like the EDA’s POWER program help facilitate that transition, by making sure the proper economic and workforce investments are being made and people in fossil fuel-dependent regions aren’t left behind,” Kragenbrink said. “Awards like the one we received from the EDA go a long way toward diversifying local economies and providing resources to entrepreneurs.”

Tech 2020, a regional venture development organization, or VDO, is a Tennessee nonprofit corporation established in 1995. It was initially chartered to assist with the creation of small businesses through technology transfer from the inventions and technologies developed at the Oak Ridge U.S. Department of Energy sites.

Among the first VDOs in the nation, Tech 2020 has won national awards from the State Science and Technical Institute and the National Business Incubation Association. Tech 2020 was recently recognized by the University Business Incubator Index as one of the nation’s top four incubators and one of the top six internationally. For more information, visit Tech2020.org.

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