Originally published in the Kitsap Business Journal on March 8, 2022, KEDA's Executive Director, Joe Morrison, breaks down what an economic cluster grant could do for the Kitsap business community.
As I write this, the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance (KEDA) is in the final stages of signing a $500,000 contract. We are set to receive a two-year grant to launch an innovation cluster in autonomous and unmanned water vehicles.
Let’s break it down a little — and talk a little bit about economic clusters, entrepreneurship and innovation, and why it’s important communities and economies are aspirational.
Economic clusters date back to 1890, when English economist Alfred Marshall first described them as a "concentration of specialized industries in particular localities.” The general idea is that firms in the same industry gain a variety of synergies when they locate near each other.