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Ohio development officials keep coming up with ideas purportedly designed to support the kinds of innovation (and employers) that will keep the Buckeye State's economy growing and diversifying. Last month, Gov. Mike DeWine announced another such project, with the launch of the Northwest Ohio Glass Innovation Hub, at the Owens-Illinois campus in Perrysburg. It will be, as a WTOL report put it, "a place for industry and academia to come together."
With more than $31.3 million in state funding and more than $10 million matched by local companies, the possibilities are exciting -- not just for Owens-Illinois, Owens Corning, Pilkington, Libbey Glass and First Solar, but for college and high school students in the region, too. The research hub will create 1,600 jobs, $284 million of economic impact and increase state tax revenue by $25 million over the next seven years. But even more exciting, DeWine said he plans to announce more innovation hubs throughout the state in the coming weeks.
Ohio is known for innovation, and each region has its own resources to help propel the economy -- provided these hubs become more than simply industry and academia operating in a stagnate and expensive bubble.
If done right, the hubs could be real drivers of change. Here's hoping that change will come to all of Ohio.