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Providence-based Brown University and Rhode Island officials have launched the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to enable collaboration among inventors and business people and help foster new companies.
Located at One Davol Square in Providence, the RI-CIE is a 5,000-square foot facility, complete with conference rooms and meeting spaces. To operate, it is receiving funding of $100,000 for the first two years from several quasi-public sources, including the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. The intent is to create the physical space to foster networking between specialists in biotech, information technology, physical science, engineering and other disciplines from both Brown and other Rhode Island institutions.
As a joint venture between the state, Brown, and the City of Providence, the RI-CIE is intended to help Rhode Island replace its falling manufacturing base and position it as a high tech hub, explained Clyde Briant, vice president of research at Brown. “It’s intended to be at the very start of the process of taking ideas and moving them to commercialization,” said Briant. The RI-CIE will facilitate the move for Providence and the state itself to have a stronger “knowledge-based economy.”
There are five conference rooms that can accommodate up to 10 people at a time, as well areas to hold meetings up of about 100 persons, said Briant. “There’s space for those interested to come and have meetings and talk to the right people,” he said.
There are no labs at the RI-CIE. The intent is that inventors use the facility as a platform to meet with fellow collaborators, and then seek funding to launch a startup with the necessary infrastructure.
There are other ongoing efforts to promote Rhode Island as a high tech center. For instance, earlier this year, the University of Rhode Island opened a $54 million life sciences center at its Kingston campus.
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