Julie Kirk was appointed by Secretary Pritzker to lead the Economic Development Administration’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) in May 2014. As Director of OIE, she is charged with driving programs and priorities that support innovative economic development such as innovation-based entrepreneurship and regional innovation clusters. She took a few minutes to answer some questions about her first year in the role and what she hopes will be her EDA legacy when her term is over.

How do you see the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship's work fitting into the larger EDA mission?

OIE provides subject matter expertise for EDA regional teams and communities across the nation in leveraging innovation and entrepreneurship as a driver of economic growth and resiliency, a key pillar of EDA’s mission. We help amplify the great work going on in our regions and create national grant programs such as the Regional Innovation Strategies aimed at helping communities support the building blocks of an ecosystem of innovation.  

How has your first year at EDA been and what are some projects that OIE has accomplished during your first year?

Being an entrepreneur in government has been a bit of a challenge, yet incredibly rewarding. It has been an extremely great growth opportunity for me personally and professionally.

The biggest surprise coming from the outside is the amount of innovation going on in this agency and that there are so many people who are passionate about what they do. That’s not always the picture you get from the outside.

It’s hard to believe it has been a year already! During my first year, we re-established the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), which is undertaking some groundbreaking projects aimed at tasks such as standardizing labor market data, creating and implementing a Community Playbook for regional innovation, and exploring ways to incentivize companies to conduct more collaborative R&D in the nation.

We also distributed nearly $15 million as part of the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) initiative through 39 grants – all within a year. Additionally, we will be releasing another $10 million in grants for the second round of RIS later this summer.

As we developed the RIS, we not only introduced a new program aimed at helping get more seed capital into the hands of startups, but we also restructured the i6 program to reach more communities by decreasing the maximum amount of each award. We didn’t allocate a certain number of awards per region, making this a truly national program. In the end, a number of smaller and rural communities that may not have been able to compete at a larger grant level received funding. We are very excited to see what kind of outcomes they produce.

What do you see as the greatest challenge and as the greatest opportunity facing your office?

The greatest challenge is to continue our outreach to new communities who perhaps have never had an opportunity to receive a grant from EDA. Starting in FY2014, RIS funding was provided under the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation (RAMI) authorization. Under this legislation, applicants are not required to document distress, which opens up the field of potential applicants. However, we will continue to focus our investments on the most impact.

The greatest opportunity OIE has in front of it is focusing on how we can help EDA as a whole evolve as the role of economic development changes and more and more communities’ needs shift to resources and a culture that supports innovation and entrepreneurship. 

What do you hope to accomplish during your tenure with EDA/OIE?

My goal at the end of my tenure is for OIE to be established as a value-added resource for all of EDA, the Commerce Department, and the Administration. Additionally, I want to ensure our role as a contributor to the overall mission of EDA is documented and solidified. 

I am proud to have brought together an awesome team in career positions for OIE, ensuring the office will be sustained despite the inevitable changes in Administration.