Ingram's August 2022

Missouri’s Innovation Ecosystem The Show-Me State has an impressive array of organizations, public and private, focused on creating technologies and processes that will drive the economy of the future.

I nnovation, broadly understood, might be a little too broad to describe as an attribute that helps define a state. But if you don’t try to eat the elephant at once, and instead look at individual bites, it soon becomes clear that Missouri has a robust web of interconnected pub licly funded, private-sector operated and university-level research entities. While they don’t all march to the same beat, they are responding to a shared under standing that if the state is to remain an attractive place to own and operate and grow a business, innovation in many forms must be the operating standard. Through various cabinet-level agencies and departments, that clarion call is an swered with public dollars, some directed toward enterprises that promote innova

tion; some steered to research universi ties, and some going directly to fledgling companies to help get their visions off the ground. Through private investment, espe cially from foundations, dollars are steered toward programs that foster innovation and provide resources for start-ups and the next generation of “gazelles” to thrive. Across a network of more than a dozen state-funded universities, new products and produc tion processes are being researched that can create new industries and completely transform existing ones. The beauty of that innovation ecosys tem is that there is no one entity pulling all the levers—each part of the system oper ates, sometimes independently, often col laboratively, to drive progress and growth. Here are some of the state’s high-profile ventures, and some whose work may soon earn that level of recognition. Cortex Innovation Community

venture by Washington University in St. Louis, BJC Healthcare, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Saint Louis University, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. From the wreckage of a blighted, 200 acre parcel and an abandoned warehouse, its backers have created the largest region al anchor of a growing ecosystem of inno vative startups and established technology companies. Since its founding in 2002, Cortex has developed 2 million square feet that are home to 430 tech-commercial companies, university academic units, residential developments, and additional supporting retail. Those entities, com bined, have 6,000 employees working within the district, with a goal of building on the original bioscience focus to include all technologies today. And it’s still growing: By the time the site is fully built out, it will double from its present size to more than 4 million square feet of new and rehabilitated facili ties, $2.5 billion of facility investment, up to 15,000 permanent jobs, and more than 600 companies. T-REX A few miles to the east of Cortex, near the banks of the Mississippi River, stands

KC Street Car tionally and internationally for its work in technology commercialization. It was founded as a collaborative In St. Louis, Cortex is a 20-year-old innovation hub that has earned recognition na

Innovation in Action | Cortex, an innovation hub in St. Louis, has helped ignite growth among start-up businesses by providing work space, network ing and other vital resources for entrepreneurs.

Ingrams.com