HCC's West Houston Institute awarded $750,000 EDA pandemic grant

Apr 29, 2021

Houston Community College’s West Houston Institute (WHI) was awarded $750,000 from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA).

The grant comes as part of the EDA’s 2020 Scaling Pandemic Resilience Through Innovation and Technology (SPRINT) Challenge. The grants are aimed at harnessing innovative entrepreneurial efforts to address economic, health and safety risks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The institute will establish the Crisis to Opportunity (C2O) Consortium with the grant to provide short- and long-term strategies for responding to the pandemic and to promote regional development. The organization will include regional partners from across the manufacturing, innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Members include the City of Houston, the Gulf Coast Economic Development District, Harris County Public Library, The Cannon, Projects-Matter, Connect Community, re:3D and Creatorspace.

Other local, national and international collaborators will be added to help with scalability and transfer of the model as the project expands.

“I am proud of our HCC team that put together the (grant) proposal and grateful for the support from our regional partners,” said Jordan Carswell, WHI interim director. “Together, we will be able to provide timely and needed resources for local businesses while helping to build long-term resilience in our communities.”

Grant awardees included higher education institutions, nonprofits and entrepreneurship-focused organizations selected from among nearly 240 applicants in 25 states.

Learn more about the West Houston Institute at https://www.hccs.edu/programs/west-houston-institute/.