Delta Regional Authority Invests $250,000 In Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub

The Delta Regional Authority announced a $251,105 award for facilities and operations for the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub on Monday (Dec. 2).

Announced in July, the Innovation Hub is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing entrepreneurial activity in Arkansas. It will house three inter-connected ventures that will work together to provide education, training, prototyping and startup and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Some features of the center include:

• The Silver Mine – a co-work community for creative entrepreneurs. Already, individual entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes are signing up to have employees placed in The Silver Mine in order to capitalize on the creative climate and exchange of ideas.
• The Launch Pad – a space where youth and adults use advanced technologies to make ideas into something tangible and sellable. During daytime hours, the space will allow for field trips to enhance educational opportunities in introductory engineering. After hours, the Launch Pad will position itself as an “open-source” hub for projects.
• Art Connection – an innovative program that works with students from North Little Rock High School to create a future through art.

“Small businesses and entrepreneurs are a critical part of our local and regional economies.Cultivating an environment for innovation and development is crucial to the growth and success of our local entrepreneurs,” DRA Federal Co-Chairman Chris Masingill said. “The Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub will do just that – providing a space for entrepreneurs to network, collaborate and create the businesses, services and products of the future.”

The Delta Regional Authority is a federal-state partnership that is congressionally mandated to help create jobs, build communities and improve lives in the 252 counties and parishes of the Delta. Funding is provided through the DRA’s States’ Economic Development Assistance Program, which has as one of its priorities investment in small business and entrepreneurship development.

“We are on a fast but focused pace in our development of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub,” said Warwick Sabin executive director of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub. “Last month, we announced our hiring of Joel Gordon to lead our maker space, The Launch Pad. We also opened our temporary headquarters on North Little Rock’s Main Street, hosted a Global Entrepreneurship Week event for area ‘makers’ and launched our website, www.arhub.org.”

The Innovation Hub is in the process of working with various partners to develop programming that will meet the needs of Arkansas’s innovators and entrepreneurs and, in turn, help grow the region’s and state’s economy. An announcement of the first set of programs and partnerships will be made in early 2014, Sabin added.

“We are grateful for this generous award from the Delta Regional Authority,” Sabin said. “What’s more, we deeply appreciate the confidence in the mission and potential of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub that this significant investment represents.”

Groundbreaking for the Innovation Center is expected in early 2014, Sabin said.