Trenton Awarded NJEDA Innovation Challenge Grant

Grant will fund City partnership with regional college and university consortium to bring brick-and-mortar higher education center to North Broad Street

Trenton N.J. – Mayor W. Reed Gusciora provided the following statement today regarding the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) announcement that the City of Trenton will be one of the recipients of their Innovation Challenge grant initiative.

The City’s project, the “Trenton Production and Knowledge Innovation Campus” (TPKIC), will be created in the city’s creative, education, and transit districts. Anchored by a build-out of Mercer County Community College’s James Kerney Campus, the TPKIC will be a multi-university collaborative hub and a new research and commercialization nexus near Trenton Transit Center led by a consortium of all five institutions of higher education in Mercer County: Mercer County Community College, Princeton University, Rider University, The College of New Jersey, and Thomas Edison State University. Other partners include Greater Trenton and New Jersey Future.

“With all of the institutions of higher learning in our region, this consortium draws on the expertise of those organizations to bring a collaborative, research-driven incubator and maker’s campus to the Capital City. And from what I understand, by engaging multiple institutions, the City had a proposal that really stood out to the grant providers. This will engage students from Trenton, including high schoolers, to spur a new breed of inclusive innovation projects. We are extremely excited to get this moving,” Mayor Gusciora said.

The vision behind TPKIC is to build a collaborative research-driven incubator and maker’s campus for existing and start-up innovation economy businesses, local creators, students and faculty at partner colleges and universities, and Trenton Public Schools students and recent graduates. TPKIC will be a place where people of all skill levels and interests can learn how to turn an idea into reality, develop a concept, product, or business, and create something you only dared to dream up while growing your skills and finding your passion.

The NJEDA Innovation Challenge initiative is designed to drive inclusive economic growth and increase opportunities to build wealth, such as:

• Improving supportive infrastructure, such as broadband capacity, walkability, or access to public transit
• Growing the number of local small businesses
• Providing better access to STEM jobs and ladders of opportunity
• Attracting top talent and employers
• Increase commercial activity in under-developed metro areas
• Building an entrepreneurial culture

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