About OIE

Established by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 and housed within the Economic Development Administration (EDA), the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) aims to empower communities so that entrepreneurs can launch companies, scale technologies and create the jobs of tomorrow.

OIE manages several grant competitions that support high-growth entrepreneurship, create jobs, and drive economic growth. OIE collaborates across the federal innovation and entrepreneurship policy and program landscape and leads the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

OIE Initiatives and Goals: Grant Programs, Collaboration, NACIE

Signature Program

Build To Scale Logo

The Build to Scale Program seeks to build regional economies through scalable startups.

EDA’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) leads the Build to Scale (B2S) Program which is authorized under Section 27 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. § 3722). Under the Build to Scale Program, EDA manages a portfolio of grant competitions that further technology-based economic development initiatives that accelerate high quality job growth, create more economic opportunities, and support the future of the next generation of industry leading companies.

By The Numbers

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To date, the Regional Innovation Strategies Program (now known as “Build to Scale”) has run six national competitions, soliciting more than 1,300 proposals from across the country and awarding $100 million in grants, matched by over $115 million in community dollars across 224 projects. Collectively, these grants have helped create over 14,200 jobs and driven more than $1.6 billion in follow on investment capital into startups and new venture funds. EDA was appropriated $33 million for this program in 2020 and will release the new competition later this year.

EDA also completed a program evaluation to determine whether the program is achieving its goals and to determine ways the program can improve. The evaluation concluded that EDA’s implementation of the RIS Program “has provided critical funding that would have otherwise been impossible for participants to raise and access” and “should be continued as a vital catalyst for supporting state and regional innovation.” For more information on each individual program and the overall program impacts, please view the executive summary and full reports below.