Last night in a speech at the Economic Club of Chicago, Mayor Lightfoot discussed her 10 year economic development strategy for Chicago focusing on seven industry clusters.
The clusters are split into two main categories. Foundational clusters includes industries like manufacturing, food processing, and professional and corporate services. The second cluster are growth industries like technology, tourism and healthcare and life sciences. Specific details on the economic plan have not been release yet.
Chicago is home to world class academic research institutions with a growing focus of translating research into new companies. These new enterprises will drive growth in our community. It takes a complex web of resources to ensure that new companies can form and succeed while remaining in our community. To support their growth, state, local and private sector resources need to be realigned to increase investment into needed infrastructure expansions and to increase access to early-stage capital. iBIO’s State of the Industry Report released in March, outlines a roadmap for future growth in the life sciences industry.
iBIO commends Mayor Lightfoot for identifying the Life Sciences Industry as a key growth industry for Chicago and we look forward to working with the Mayor and her staff on the continued growth of our life sciences community.
For more information, read Greg Hinz article “Here’s how Lightfoot aims to reboot Chicago’s economy”