Sward_Thoughts on UC Application

My recommendations for our UC application focused on addressing barriers to TLED that were articulated in class lectures and readings. In several cases, my proposals drew on lessons learned or best practices from other university centers.

• University centers sometimes experience difficulty in reaching/assisting distressed areas. My recommendation included a targeted technical assistance component, including outreach to firms/organizations in these areas. Services might also be subsidized for certain businesses or within certain regions.
• Demand for technical assistance often outpaces supply, which points to the need for a strategic planning component (which is surprisingly absent from many UC programs). The process, which would involve an environmental scan and a multi-stakeholder planning process, would help focus university resources in ways that are expected to contribute to regional TLED development and other identified goals. We would need to be careful not to duplicate other planning efforts.
• Despite the presence of high-tech activities in Prince George’s County, I haven’t identified a cohesive high-tech community. As suggested by several of our readings, connecting these stakeholders to each other and marketing the area as a high-tech hub is important to advancing TLED locally. My suggestions included creating a centralized web portal that pulls together all the TLED resources in the region and building a directory of the local TLED “community”.
• Jerald Hage pointed to the need for new data related to technology transfer to guide planning efforts. Our proposal might address this issue by facilitating the exchange of data among stakeholders across sectors and levels of government and convening a work group focused on developing new TLED indicators for the state. We would need to ensure that such efforts go hand in hand with similar efforts at the national level.