The cultivation of ideas has created a culture that supports an entrepreneurial ecosystem. The entrepreneur’s successful commercialization of ideas creates more innovations and business. So, the innovative environment gains more support and continues to grow. In Columbia, there have been groundbreaking collaborations with government, higher education, and the entrepreneurial and business communities that have helped support growth.
Our entrepreneurial ecosystem creates the road map that gets ideas to the third stage of the innovation pipeline: commercialization. Below are the resources that have been key in the process.
The developmental stage has many support systems in place across the Midlands such as:
In June 2007, the South Carolina General Assembly enacted S 243, which established the South Carolina HIDF. The revenues from this fund must be distributed in the form of grants and used for the purpose of promoting the development and deployment of hydrogen production, storage, distribution, and dispensing infrastructure and related products and services that enable the growth of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in the State.
SC Launch, an SCRA collaboration, assists entrepreneurial start-up companies with up-front counseling, seed funding, and access to a powerful resource network. The SC Launch mission is to help generate knowledge economy jobs in SC, enhance, the state’s quality of like and provide opportunity for all South Carolinians in the new economy.
FastTrac, a program of the Kaughman Foundation, is a comprehensive entrepreneurship-education program that provides entrepreneurs with business insights, leadership skills, and professional networking connections so they are prepared to create a new business or expand an existing enterprise. Participants work on their own business ideas or ventures throughout the program – moving their venture to reality or new levels of growth. EngenuitySC, in collaboration with key partners like the University of South Carolina, Midlands Tech, and other regional partners is blazing a trail in the Midlands to incorporate this program as a foundation in our entrepreneurial ecosystem. The FastTrac Midlands Coalition has partnered with ThinkTEC to deploy these programs in the Midlands.
USC Columbia Technology Incubator recruits, nurtures, and deploys new technology-driven and student companies in a collaborative effort with Midlands Technical College. It provides opportunities for entrepreneurs to commercialize their ideas, produce successful, financially viable and freestanding businesses, and creates hundreds of additional jobs in the community.
Midlands Technical College (MTC) Enterprise Campus presents an innovative opportunity for enhancing economic vitality by recruiting and retaining regional business expansions through public-private partnerships. The campus consists of 100 developable acres adjacent to the MTC Center of Excellence for Technology, which offers proximity to the Carolina Research Park, major interstate, and shared technology-specific spaces.
SCRA is a global leader in applied research and commercialization services with offices in Anderson, Charleston, and Columbia. SCRA collaborates to advance technology with industry, government, and research universities like Clemson University, the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina.
USC BusinessLINK brings together five USC economic development and research resources important to the business and economic development communities, and provides these communities immediate access to the services these USC business and economic development resources can provide. The five resources are the USC Small Business Development Center, the University of South Carolina Center for Manufacturing and Technology, the USC Columbia Technology Incubator, the USC Industry Contracts Unit, and the USC Intellectual Property Office.