The Showcase organizers and participants are convinced now is time to create a Life Sciences Innovation Hub to connect all the valuable assets supporting Rhode Island’s life sciences community.  The Showcase is just a first step.  If we don’t keep momentum, we will lose a critical opportunity to contribute to RI’s economic sustainability.  Saying biotech and health care innovation is here isn’t enough.  We need to better connect organizations, seek collaborative grants, work as ambassadors to companies within and outside RI, and support our current cohort of entrepreneurs.  The Hub align and coordinate resources.  Individual institutions, the private sector, and government must all have a seat at the table and contribute to maximize the Hub’s effectiveness.  Help us grow the Hub,  and let us know what you are doing so we can connect you.  Get engaged in the action. Contact RI-CIE to find out more and see what you missed, and stay tuned on oscarri.org for upcoming hub activities.

We talk about sustainability, but really. . . what do you want to sustain – our current economy, climate change, healthcare access, escalating energy costs?  Who wants to support or nurture our broken-ness? Let’s restore our state to a better place,  to a higher state. We want to regenerate the state.

Sustainability, Economic Development, Innovation, Knowledge  – we all are saying the same thing, but we are speaking different languages.  These words imply we all want more for our state, and we all want a change. So let’s stop using terms as barriers and mobilize this energy.

Take a look at the Green the Knowledge District (GKD) status report.  The GKD team finished their six-month pilot in the City’s much-discussed jewelry district, and beyond the data we collected on buildings and things . . .  we collected people. . . people who live, work and enjoy the district; students who want to explore, test and build solutions for the district; and stakeholders who want to grow, retain and recruit enterprise.  They want to learn more, to explore the possibilities and collaborate for change. They want to contribute to the dialogue for a renewed quality of life.

The GKD discusses preliminary energy results, but also discusses the many questions that we need to ask to do this right. Let’s begin to translate what we want, and make it happen and build our future together. Read the report. Talk about it. Tweet and blog about it. We need translators to mobilize the effort that means change!

Open this for the GKD Status Report, and open this one for the GKD Student Research Reports.

Rhode Island has the requisite independence, innovation and determination to make something transformational happen. Let’s get started. Presidents Simmons and Dooley

The question is do we have trust in each other to get started. We always list our amazing resources and strengths . . . scale, access, capacity, natural assets. What we need to focus on is the governances that manage these resources, and learn to trust them.  We need to believe they are willing to take risks for each other and for their shared vision. We need to change a culture. I’m not saying a new accent, I’m talking a new attitude.

We have always focused on the transactions between government, academic and industry sectors. The taxes, the tuition, the sales — all about the get and never about the give. And in this Projo oped, two highly regarded university presidents give their commitment — not take, but commit to Rhode Island.  They offer what is possible, not what is limiting us.  It is time to take them up on their offer and see what can be possible.

In recent study at Harvard, “Effects of University Innovation on Local Economic Growth and Entrepreneurship” by Naomi Hausman on 1/23/11, we are reminded of what universities make possible if we embrace them, and we should really leverage this opportunity. Remember Silicon Valley, North Carolina’s Research Park, and even Boston Route 128! Were they not transformative to the local economy? and weren’t they conveniently located next to universities?

The statement is not “let’s get started” it’s more like “what are you afraid of?” Come on, we got the sectors to agree to travel to Houston together, next stop. . . disneyland! That’s pretty magical!

In this TEDTalk from 2005, Smart Mobs author Howard Rheingold puts forth a very convincing defense of the value of collaborating. After probing deeply into the alternative theories and puzzles about how we interact, he suggests that we’re now entering a new phase of economic and social cooperation. Certainly, we are living in a new technological, academic and entrepreneurial environment that lets us work together like never before. OSCAR is committed to keeping this collaboration at the forefront of all our work, from the Green the Knowledge District Initiative onwards to making Providence a Smarter City for the decades beyond our reach.

This “Map of Scientific Collaborations from 2005 – 2009″ (http://collabo.olihb.com/) by Olivier H. Beauchesne  at science-metrix,inc. says it all. And if you experienced it. . . there is no need to read on, but to feel this absolute work of art made up of people who share values. It is our future, and it will bring solutions to the challenges we face today.

We talk about collaboration. We use and sometimes overuse the word to position for many rewarding outcomes. But if we stop for one moment to understand what it means to truly collaborate, we will never underestimate this word’s value again. It is not something that you label or add into a grant. It is not something you create from the top-down.

Collaborating means people trusting and sharing values enough to engage in a shared vision. It takes leadership with integrity and connectivity among people who believe in each other. Once you have this — you have the power to change the world.

Thank you Olivier H. Beauchesne and science-metrix,inc for sharing your view. Thank you to collaborators around the globe for finding each other! Go forth and innovate!

Providence is one of 22 global cities selected by IBM in its 2011 Smarter Cities Challenge. Go Providence, RI!  From Tshwane-Pretoria, South Africa to Guadalajara, Mexico to Nice, France to Townsville, Australia to Providence, RI, we will explore in the coming months how urban concerns are addressed “by implementing *smarter* technologies and processes.” As IBM stated, Providence was a city that

demonstrated a solid track record of innovative problem solving

IBM plans to announce 100 smarter cities through this challenge, and, as one of them, Providence will have access to some of IBM’s top talent and resources, who spend time in our city-state, living and working among us to help us tackle a tough issue.

OSCAR has and will be working closely with the City of Providence to share with you more information about this amazing opportunity that just accelerated our city and state from what Travel & Leisure referred to as an underdog city, to a very visible city via the IBM challenge. Congratulations Mayor Taveras! And thank you OSCAR Stakeholders!

Welcome to Little Rhody, Big Blue! Catch the Wave of Innovation! Follow oscarri.org as we track this opportunity.

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Update: Mayor Taveras has released the following to congratulate Providence and OSCAR in the wake of this wonderful news:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - March 9, 2011 — Mayor Angel Taveras today announced that Providence is a winner of the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge. The grant provides Providence with access to IBM’s top experts to analyze and recommend ways that the City can become an even better place in which to live, work and play.

Teams of specially selected IBM experts will provide leaders in Providence and Rhode Island with analysis and recommendations to support economic development, better delivery of municipal services, more citizen engagement, and improved efficiency in the capital city.

Providence was among 24 cities worldwide that IBM selected in its first Smarter Cities Challenge, a competitive grant that the company will award to 100 municipalities globally in the next three years. The technology and services that Providence will receive from IBM under the Smarter Cities Challenge grant are equivalent to as much as $400,000.

In awarding Providence with a Smarter Cities Challenge grant, IBM said the City demonstrated a solid track record of innovative problem solving. Providence created its winning proposal in collaboration with the Ocean State Consortium of Advanced Resources (OSCAR), a partnership of leading universities, government institutions, private companies, and social agencies aimed at tackling statewide problems in health care, education, economic development, and energy and the environment.

There are more than 40 organizations involved in OSCAR including: The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island, AS220, Brown University, the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, Helicos BioSciences, IBM Corp., Johnston & Wales University, Lifespan, OSHEAN, the Office of Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, the Rhode Island Quality Institute, The Rhode Island Foundation, the Office of Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, Slater Technology Fund, Social Venture Partners Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Science & Technology Advisory Council, ThoughtCap, the University of Rhode Island, and Women & Infants Hospital.

A press conference will be held at Providence City Hall on Wednesday, March 16 from 10-11AM, to announce the details of the Smarter Cities Challenge project that will occur in Providence with IBM.

“I am excited that Providence has won the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge, and thank all of the City’s partners at OSCAR who helped to make this happen. The IBM Smarter Cities Challenge will benefit us all – helping us to collect, share and analyze the City’s data to better understand our strengths and develop innovative and cost-effective strategies to deliver services and build a stronger economy in Providence,” said Mayor Taveras.

IBM’s consultants and technology specialists will help the City of Providence analyze and prioritize its needs, review its strengths and weaknesses, and learn from the successful strategies used by other cities worldwide. After studying the role that intelligent technology might play in uniting and advancing different aspects of life in Providence, IBM will outline a range of concrete strategies to help make the City healthier, safer, smarter, more prosperous, and attractive to current and prospective residents and businesses.

“We selected Providence because of its commitment to the use of data to make better decisions, and for its desire to explore and act on smarter solutions to its most pressing concerns,” said Jennifer Crozier, IBM’s director of corporate citizenship and corporate affairs. “The cities we picked are eager to implement programs that tangibly improve the quality of life in their areas, and to create roadmaps for other cities to follow. The stakes have never been greater but we’re excited at the prospect of helping cities tackle the most pressing challenges of our time.”

The need for better city management has never been greater. In 2008, according to the United Nations, more than half the world’s human population began living in cities for the first time in the world’s history.

“I applaud IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge for selecting the City of Providence to engage in the dynamic Smarter Cities process and identify creative solutions for more effective systems supporting city services,” said Governor Lincoln Chafee. “I look forward to working closely with the City as it takes on the Smarter Cities Challenge.”

Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts said, “It has been exciting to work with the Mayor as part of the OSCAR collaborative to develop a partnership to engage the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge. There will be great benefit to be gained for both the City and the State as we work together with IBM to improve the way we collect information and use it to plan for the best solutions to some of our common challenges.”

“I am extremely excited about this opportunity for Providence, and the role OSCAR played in helping the City win the IBM award,” said Clyde Briant, vice president for research at Brown University and co-chair of OSCAR. “The work that OSCAR stakeholders have done together over the past two years has created a culture of trust that made OSCAR’s talented, visionary partners available to the City. Because of our culture of collaboration, OSCAR was able to help the City move quickly and flexibly to pursue the IBM Challenge, enter the new economy and aspire to become a global city.”

“IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge desire for broad-based, research-driven collaboration spoke directly to AICU Rhode Island’s mission for supporting cooperative activities through academic partnership,” said Dan Egan, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island, an alliance representing eight independent institutions of higher learning in the state. “Thank you to IBM for affirming that Providence, and Rhode Island, are poised and ready to grow the knowledge economy, both in the Knowledge District and beyond.”

At the start of this month, the Federal Reserve released its “Beige Book survey,” forecasting a steadily improving economic recovery in New England. And nationwide, February marked the 12th consecutive month of growth in the private sector, with companies adding 222,000 jobs–expansion that the Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein labeled “the best jobs report in three years.”

Closer to home, exports are quickly rising and according to Providence Business News, “consumers and business leaders are growing confident that the economic rebound will continue in 2011.” Although it’s still too early to make any predictions, Rhode Island’s new governor Lincoln Chafee is holding a tough but optimistic line. In his budget address earlier this evening, Chafee said, “All of our challenges are made easier by a growing economy. If we demonstrate fiscal discipline, our economy will prosper…The many challenges facing our state are intimidating, but not insurmountable.”

That’s all well and good. But there’s still a long, tough road ahead.

As the Providence Journal recently pointed out, the city has not faced such a tough fiscal climate since the dire days of the early 80s, when budget deficits made bankruptcy a very real threat for Mayor Cianci during his first stint at City Hall. Our new mayor Angel Taveras has shown a real commitment to addressing the city’s economic woes, but there are no simple or easy fixes to be made. Progress is still slow and tentative, and more than ever, Providence needs a plan for sustainable growth that will cement it as a modern urban center of innovation and creativity.

That’s where OSCAR comes in. We’re coordinating the state’s diverse resources like no one ever has before, and directing their efforts towards the grand challenges that truly make a difference. Through projects like Green the Knowledge District, the potential for improvement is vast; our mantra is “catch the wave of innovation,” and we hope you’ll join us as we ride it into a smarter, brighter future.

“Rhode Island should choose to be extraordinary not ordinary.” Mark S. Hayward, Director, US Small Business Administration at Bryant University’s Challenges and Opportunities Summit 

We continue to discuss our environment and propose solutions to move us forward as a state. We talk about leadership and partnerships as foundational building blocks to move us to economic stability. Taxes, strategic plans, corporate incentive packages and start-ups are the tools to recovery. Where is the action. People use tools, move policies and add value. It is time to leverage our scale and our amazing talent and relationships and stop dialoguing and start doing. As Neil Steinberg stated months ago, and is requoted by many leaders, “Just do it.” Let’s get started RI. Let’s build the campaign with our friends, family and leaders and move the dialogue to actionables. Let’s say “we did it, together.”  Nike didn’t wait.

ICERM is and an exciting moment for the knowledge economy here in Rhode Island.  Its presence in the knowledge district strengthens and lengthens the global outreach for little Providence in this global world.  We are now more strongly positioned to follow Senator Reed’s mantra “out-educate, out-innovate and out-compete”.

The project kicks off at 70 Ship Street, a Brown Medical School research building. Looking at a wide variety of data related to building use, energy use and materials use, among others, Brown’s Dr. Chris Bull will lead a team of students from Brown, URI and RISD in developing a template that can then be used to assess other buildings in the district “so we can compare one piece of property to another, one organization to another, and correlate this data with other places in the country.”

To read more of STAC’s take on OSCAR, click here.