Here’s the proposal for a $2.5M effort to spur Delaware’s economy

One of the first moves by the Carney administration when it took over this year was the formation of what was named the Delaware Economic Development Working Group. The roster of people involved includes a litany of execs, elected officials and entrepreneurial community shapers. The charge of the group was to produce a report that would “explore how state government can work with the private sector to improve economic development efforts in Delaware.”
The group has officially released their report, which you can dig into right here. Its a proposal for the formation of a new P3, or public-private partnership, “between the state’s economic development efforts and the broader business community.” That P3 has provisionally been named the Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP).
The released report is lengthy and dives into guiding principles, outlines and timelines. The report pegs the effort at an estimated $2.5 million, $1.5 million from the State and $1 million from the private sector, and outlines a year-long plan to pass legislation around the effort, fundraise and hire a CEO.
We asked Mona Parikh, Community Engagement Liaison for the UD Horn Program who is part of the working group, to point us towards one key section for our readers, and she recommended the following.

Entrepreneurship & Innovation: The DPP will have a central coordinating and marketing role in building a deep and diverse entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in the state and promoting the Delaware for entrepreneurial ideas, talent, and capital. In this role, DPP will:

• Provide dedicated support to startups and early stage ventures;
• Emphasize high-growth firms that will serve external markets;
• Closely coordinate and collaborate with organizations and institutions in the state who are also working to enhance Delaware’s entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem; and
• Support educational institutions and other organizations seeking to bolster technology transfer/commercialization and the attraction of federal research grants (e.g., NIH, SBIR/STTR).

We’ll likely be citing this report a lot in the future, so definitely take a few minutes to look through it. The Working Group’s recommendation to form the DPP could affect the community for a long time.