Jan Morrison, founder and CEO of TIES:
“TIES is pleased to join other leading organizations to leverage the Great Lakes for their immense and vast power to drive learning and economic opportunity. While considered shallow as Great Lakes go, Lake Erie runs very deep in terms of opportunity. We are excited to begin this work to extract value from Lake Erie and other Great Lakes while supporting the development of a ‘blue economy.'”
Cleveland Water Alliance, Fund for Our Economic Future and TIES are Northeast Ohio Partners in Multi-State NSF Regional Innovation Engine
CLEVELAND—Cleveland is among three Great Lakes water hubs that together could unlock up to $160 million over 10 years toward critical water technology innovations and inclusive workforce development. The Great Lakes ReNew collaborative, led by Chicago-based Current and represented locally by the Fund for Our Economic Future (Fund), the Cleveland Water Alliance, and TIES (Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM) today was named a Regional Innovation Engine Type II-2 awardee by the National Science Foundation.
One of 10 groups across the U.S to be named an NSF Engine, ReNew brings together connected testbed capacities through water hubs in Chicago, Cleveland and Milwaukee and represents more than 50 partners across research institutions, industry, investors, government and nonprofit organizations. Great Lakes ReNew aims to transform waste into wealth by developing “selective separation” technologies to remove dangerous “forever chemicals” and valuable minerals from wastewater, with deliberate attention to economic inclusion.
“TIES is pleased to join other leading organizations to leverage the Great Lakes for their immense and vast power to drive learning and economic opportunity. While considered shallow as Great Lakes go, Lake Erie runs very deep in terms of opportunity. We are excited to begin this work to extract value from Lake Erie and other Great Lakes while supporting the development of a ‘blue economy,” said Jan Morrison, CEO of TIES.
“The Cleveland Innovation Project embraced water technology as a priority growth area for Northeast Ohio, and today’s award builds on past local philanthropic and state investments and highlights the importance of technological and workforce innovation for a healthier, more equitable future,” said Fund President Bethia Burke.
“By working together, we can ensure that we have both clean drinking water and innovative wastewater infrastructure to protect public health, provide for a high quality of life and enable economic and employment vitality,” said Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who has established water technology as a priority through the H2Ohio plan.
The NSF Engines award is the third recent major win for national innovation investment across Northeast Ohio in recent months, with Case Western Reserve University winning an NSF Engines Development Type-1 Award, and Akron named a Regional Tech Hub for Sustainable Polymers in October.
The National Science Foundation’s announcement about the 10 Regional Innovation Engines named today can be found here. More information about Great Lakes ReNew can be found at greatlakesrenew.org.