LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Economic Development Collaborative (EDC), a network of campus and community stakeholders who oversee the University of Kentucky’s economic development and business engagement activities, has recently published their 2023 annual report.
Strategies and plans in the report focus on increasing collaboration among UK entities, collaboration with private business and growth and support of the student body, faculty and staff.
One of the primary functions of the EDC is to effectively communicate and coordinate the economic development efforts of UK. The annual report serves as one of the tools for fulfilling this function. It is crucial to emphasize that the news featured here does not exclusively represent the work of the EDC, but rather highlights the contributions of various collaborators throughout UK.
Additionally, the report reviews the EDC’s progress with five bold ideas and five goals.
“One of the first actions of the EDC was to focus on three bold ideas that would proactively grow economic prosperity in the Commonwealth. Now that the first three bold ideas have gained traction and enter their second phase, two additional bold ideas have been added,” said George Ward, EDC chair and associate vice president for economic development and real estate at UK. “This focus helps UK achieve its economic development goals which are reported on in this annual report.”
Bold Idea #1 – Provide the staffing and other resources necessary for a successful Office of Business Engagement reflective of a university of the same size and scope as UK, including access to business intelligence data.
Bold Idea #2 – Develop the UK Innovation District (Scott St to Bolivar / Limestone to Broadway) including co-location space for UK students/ researchers and industry partners.
Bold Idea #3 – Develop multi-disciplinary institutes (and consortia) to grow UK’s impact on the Commonwealth.
Bold Idea #4 – Create an Equity Map of central KY and focus on Equitable Economic Development.
Bold Idea #5 – Over the next __ years, retain __% more UK graduates for jobs in Kentucky by inspiring a campus-wide career ready culture that focuses on the workforce needs of the Commonwealth. The Board of Trustees will fill in the blanks as part of its efforts to accelerate the number of educated Kentuckians.
Some of the report’s highlights and milestones include:
- A first-year class of nearly 6,500 students this fall pushing UK’s overall enrollment to a historic high of 34,000 students. The number of degrees conferred by the university, reached nearly 8,200 in the last academic year.
- The Office of Technology Commercialization submitted 114 invention disclosures, 161 patent applications and were issued 32 new patents. A total of 37 new licenses and options were executed and five new startups affiliated with UK were launched.
- The official ribbon cutting of the new regional headquarters of Kinetic by Windstream at the Coldstream Research Campus.
- The development and launch of the holistic business engagement system, OneUK.
- UK Purchasing increased its diverse vendors from 1,359 in FY22 to 1,866 in FY23, a 37% increase.
“Looking back over the past year, I clearly see the enhanced focus and momentum that has been built around economic development at UK and for the Commonwealth,” said Melody Flowers, UK assistant vice president for economic development and real estate. “I am excited to expand on this work in 2024.”
This publication is the fourth annual report assessing economic development efforts at UK.
Access the full publication report at: https://edc.uky.edu/sites/default/files/2024-01/2023%20Annual%20Report.pdf
