Regional Economic Development

The New York Academy of Sciences is assisting urban areas around the world to develop science- and technology-based initiatives that leverage local resources to meet regional needs. In New York City, Upstate New York, London, Mexico City, Beijing, and Shanghai, the Academy is working with local leaders to create untapped synergies among institutions and helping them to cooperate in ways that will make them more competitive in the global economy.

These local consortia choose the Academy because of its brand, its global network, and its independence. Nearly 200 years old, the Academy is a neutral, non-governmental, and non-national institution that can network institutions and leading scientists with our 24,000 members, scores of Nobel laureates and leaders of international science, our university and industry partners, and our allies in a burgeoning list of cities, provinces, and nations.

Our programs focus on one or both of the following:

Top-down scientific development

The Academy convenes local and international leaders of academia, industry, and government to address regional competitiveness challenges and opportunities. The Academy also prepares recommendations on science- and technology-based economic development strategies based on these meetings.

Bottom-up scientific capacity building

The Academy is building local communities of scientists and other stakeholders–such as leaders of government and industry–in science and technology. We facilitate the exchange of knowledge in emerging areas across disciplines and institutional and economic sectors, helping these local groups to tap into our larger global science communities.

We achieve these goals by:

• Identifying areas of existing scientific and technological excellence, as well as new areas in which a region might develop excellence
• Catalyzing collaborations among traditionally competitive institutions
• Building communities of local stakeholders and international leaders for strategic planning
• Convening academic and industry researchers to encourage information exchange and the development of local alliances
• Recognizing promising young investigators, mentoring them, and connecting them locally and globally to leaders in academia, industry, and finance
• Marketing the competitive strengths of a city or region globally and, more specifically, to industry and financial institutions
• Connecting the leaders of a partner city or region to the Academy’s growing global network of leaders in other cities and regions

Current ongoing projects in the Academy’s Regional Economic Development program include the following:

Mexico City

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has made it a priority to revitalize Mexico City by engendering a shift from a manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy. Having developed the city's first Science & Innovation Week, the New York Academy of Sciences is now organizing a series of workshops to bring together key Mexican and international leaders to plan the transformation of Mexico City into Latin America’s knowledge capital. See the eBriefing

NYSTAR-NYSERDA

The New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR)—the State’s leading organization for planning science- and technology-based economic development—and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) have contracted the Academy as an advisor on a new strategic plan outlining the science and technology investments that will yield maximum economic benefit. The Academy organized a series of workshops and conducted follow-up interviews with stakeholders in business, academia, and government, and is now preparing a set of recommendations for NYSTAR and NYSERDA to present to the Governor. See the eBriefing

Contact Us

The New York Academy of Sciences can market your region's strengths and enhance your competitiveness. We invite you to join our system for incubating cutting-edge science and technology to drive economic and social development. You will find that the Academy is ideally suited to partner with your region, to catalyze your science and technology community, and to create "a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts."