Success Stories

EDA investments catalyze strategic, regionally-focused plans to build strong economic ecosystems that will support entrepreneurship and business growth, enhance and grow their existing economic assets, and create well-paying jobs in growing sectors. By investing in bottom-up regional economic development EDA helped communities devise new, well-thought-out, sustainable strategies based on their unique assets.

EDA’s economic footprint is wide and its tool box is extensive—including technical assistance, post-disaster recovery assistance, trade adjustment support, strategic planning and research and evaluation capacity, thereby allowing the agency to offer the most effective investment to help communities succeed in the global economy.

We are proud of our grantees’ accomplishments and encourage you to submit your success stories:

Read some Success Stories from our Annual Reports.

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Small Businesses to Benefit From Innovation Studio at North Dakota State University Sometimes ideas can come from unexpected places. And sometimes, those ideas happen to come at exactly the right time. North Dakota State University’s Research and Technology Park in Fargo, North Dakota, has long been supporting the state’s economy. January 2021
Disaster Recovering from Harvey: EDA Leads Coordination of Federal Resources Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and Louisiana in August of 2017, bringing category 4 winds and catastrophic flooding along the coastline, primarily affecting Rockport, Houston, and Beaumont January 2021
Innovation & Entrepreneurship In Teton County, Idaho, EDA And ECIPDA Incubate Innovation With a population of just 25,000, Rexburg, Idaho, may not be the first place you imagine when you think innovation, but don’t let its size fool you. December 2020
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Upstate New York Start-up Incubator Guides Hardware Entrepreneurs Through Manufacturing Process A spice bottle cap that pre-measures your spices. A breastmilk pasteurizer for home use. Gluten-free, wheat stem straws. A battery for storing renewable energy in buildings. December 2020
Infrastructure At a Landlocked Port, Water is Vital Grant County, Washington, is not where you would expect to find a port. Best known as the nation’s most prodigious potato-producing area, it is a landlocked county covered in dry grassland more than 150 miles from the Pacific Ocean. December 2020
Innovation & Entrepreneurship EDA Supports University of California Efforts to Protect America’s Citrus Crop The commercial production of citrus fruit generates more than $7 billion annually for California’s economy, a contribution credited with supporting tens of thousands of jobs in the Golden State. That vital economic engine, however, is at constant risk from a variety of diseases that have devastated crops in citrus growing regions around the world. December 2020
Economic Development Districts Denim to Dairy in Texas: Lamb County’s Road to Revitalization Through EDA Partnership In 2015, one of the last remaining denim mills in the United States shuttered its doors permanently, leaving 300 workers in Lamb County, Texas, without a job. In an area with nearly 6,000 residents, the loss of the denim mill was devastating to the county and region. December 2020
Infrastructure Decades of Growth and Success: EDA and the New Mexico Sandia Science and Technology Park The Sandia Science and Technology Park (SS&TP) opened its doors in 1998, transforming open desert foothills in southern Albuquerque, New Mexico, into an expansive industrial park focused on high-tech innovation and job growth. December 2020
Small Business/RLF EDA’s Revolving Loan Fund Program Helps Bakers Move from Kitchen to Front Office When the Food Network visited Chico, California’s Upper Crust Bakery and Eatery for a 2019 episode of its popular series “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” viewers got a taste of some of the signature dishes, like black bean chili with jalapeño cheese corn muffin, that have long earned the Upper Crust rave reviews from locals. November 2020
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Purdue University Northwest Leverages EDA Innovation Grant to Help Entrepreneurs Manufacture and Bring Products to Market Michelle Pearson’s idea for an invention came to her in a dream, but the reality of bringing her product to market proved to be a bit more challenging. Pearson’s invention is an automated communion server, which would automatically dispense the wafer and wine during the Eucharist for Christians in churches, hospitals, nursing homes, and correctional facilities. November 2020