Christine Nolan

Sam Cordes

The Indiana Economic Development Council is currently executing its responsibility to update the State economic plan in a new context that includes 12 newly-established Department of Commerce regions. Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service is collaborating with the IEDC in plan development, providing business and industry cluster expertise and analysis to help guide the planning process, assisting in goal and strategy development that will boost Indiana's competitive strength in the global and national arenas.

Strategies to maintain, develop or increase the competitive strength of the clusters in an area focus on groups of industries that are connected to each other and interdependent in various ways. Each group forms a cluster of industries that are located close to each other, and the strategy seeks to create or strengthen links between cluster industries themselves and the network of support and infrastructure that they need to thrive. Because of this, the process of implementing a cluster strategy is intensely local, and requires "mediation" by persons who are highly embedded in the community. Extension educators are often uniquely equipped to assist in this process, due to their local knowledge and large networks.

Purdue CES has developed a proposal for a pilot project in Indiana Department of Commerce Region 5, to test the effectiveness of the cluster concept for developing new economic opportunities in rural Indiana, by creating cluster-based Employer Learning Networks around rural-friendly industry clusters, thus continuing its partnership with the State and extending the collaboration down to the local regional level.

Presentation (PDF format, 111 kb)

Handout: Sample Research Products (PDF format, 285 kb)