Smart City Works Announces Award of New Grant by Go Northern Virginia to Support the Northern Virginia Smart Region Initiative

Northern Virginia, April 27, 2021 – Smart City Works, with partners Washington DC ArchAngels and VA Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), announced a new grant award supporting the Northern Virginia Smart Region Initiative. The $1.9 million grant was approved by the Virginia Growth and Opportunity State Board.

With the Go Northern Virginia grant, Smart City Works will fill a much-needed gap supporting high-growth, technology start-ups and SMEs in Northern Virginia; accelerating their growth; and creating commercialization pathways to spur sustained near- and long-term economic development.

The project will strengthen and diversify NOVA’s economic development portfolio, enhance its long-term job-creating power, and put it on a more-competitive footing as a regional technology leader and global destination for tech companies, entrepreneurs, and high-skilled talent relative to other global technology clusters.  

“We are looking forward to continue to build on our innovation ecosystem with the GOVA grant and work with our partners in government, universities, businesses, and nonprofits, to help make Northern Virginia one of our nation’s crown jewels for innovation and economic growth,” said Carola Mandelbaum, Executive Director of Smart City Works, Inc.

This project represents a broad partnership across the region of academic, business, and government organizations aligned to foster greater economic development and technology innovation in Northern Virginia.  They include almost every jurisdiction in Region 7— the counties of Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun, and Prince William; the cities of Fairfax and Manassas; and Towns of Herndon and Vienna—plus Stafford County from Region 6, AWS, Virginia Tech, Venture Labs, Pillsbury Law, EAEC Council, the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) and Washington DC Arch Angels. In kind and/or cash commitments from these partners represent 35% match of the total project budget.

“We are excited about the opportunity to work with the Smart Cities Initiative.  This initiative promises to attract new businesses to locate in the smart urban technology cluster here in Northern Virginia and help them grow and scale.  Projects like these are important to the economic growth and diversification of start-ups in our region, particularly after the challenges of the pandemic.”  Sid Banerjee, GO Virginia Region 7 Council Chair

To learn more about The Northern Virginia Smart Region Initiative visit: https://www.smartcityworks.org/smart-region-initiative/

Smart City Works is a nonprofit organization focused on solving urban challenges through innovation that foster economic growth.  Welead the Northern Virginia Smart Region Initiative, funded by the U.S. Dept of Commerce and GO NorthernVA.

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