Impacts

By The Numbers

(Click to enlarge)

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.