RIAN's Guiding Principles

Our future prosperity requires innovation.

1. New entrepreneurial businesses are responsible for the majority of job creation in America [U.S. Census Bureau]. Of primary importance for ensuring America’s global leadership in innovation and opportunity, are young, research & technology enterprises advancing technology commercialization, providing high wage, high quality knowledge-based jobs and attracting capital to a region.
2. For national competitiveness, federal, state and local economic development policy should increase the likelihood of success for high-growth enterprises commercializing technology. Technology-based Economic Development (TBED) is the field of policy and practice addressing this critical need.

Economic development is about jobs.

3. TBED results from discovery and commercialization of innovation through formal and informal networks, organizations, institutions, and resources that collectively comprise a regional innovation system.
4. TBED differs from conventional economic development by encouraging endogenous growth and innovation that, if the regional innovation system is working smoothly, can sustain economic opportunities for the region well beyond traditional strategies focused heavily on business/industrial recruitment and retention. TBED places stronger emphasis on creating new wealth and opportunities by "growing one's own" enterprises than on recruiting companies from other regions.
5. Regional innovation systems across the country vary greatly in structure, effectiveness and efficiency at moving innovation into practice or commercial production. The overall success of a regional innovation system depends upon the quality of the individual elements within the particular region and the linkages between these elements and with other regions.
6. Regional innovation systems ignore local political boundaries. Instead, the constituent elements in an effective regional innovation system draw on participation from all aspects of a regional community (private, government, education, research, philanthropic, financial, civic, etc).
7. The effectiveness, efficiency and resilience of most regional innovation systems can be improved through public policy, program investments, and other interventions.

Venture Development Organizations help companies create innovation-based jobs.

8. One of the more recent and most successful TBED interventions to emerge for regional innovation is an adequately resourced regional venture development organization (VDO). A VDO is a public or nonprofit organization that contributes to economic development by providing a portfolio of services, including: assisting in the creation of high-growth companies; providing expert business assistance to those companies; facilitating or making direct financial investments in companies; and, speeding the commercialization of technology.
9. A high-performing VDO draws on the existing strengths of the region’s innovation system and develop programs and initiatives targeted to overcome the system’s weaknesses. Properly structured VDOs have the ability to work with a wide cross section of the key assets of their particular regional innovation system and the flexibility to adapt the VDO portfolio of services to meet the specific needs of an individual commercialization opportunity or venture.
10. To date, the knowledge to create and implement a successful VDO has been learned through individual experience and trial and error. Means by which to transfer the lessons learned by successful VDOs have not been systematized in a way that is easily exchanged with others. Additionally, the characteristic differences of individual VDOs and the geographic separation of VDOs present several challenges for their own operations. Fiscal strain facing state and local government and foundations is putting great financial stress on VDOs across the nation. These challenges create significant inefficiencies working against national priorities to expedite the movement of technology and innovation into the commercial marketplace as efficiently as possible.

RIAN helps create and improve Venture Development Organizations.

1. These challenges can be overcome and more opportunities for success created through the formation of a collaborative partnership, a Regional Innovation Acceleration Network, of VDOs focused specifically on supporting and growing the community of VDOs. VDOs and TBED organizations operate with the understanding that they benefit by learning from each other and operate in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation.
2. RIAN will work in partnership with federal, state and local governments to expand the ability of many more regions across the country to contribute meaningfully toward ensuring America’s global leadership in economic prosperity and innovation.