WIRED Innovation Fund

Project Showcase

Click here to check the progress of several Innovation Fund projects.

Round III Targeted Initiatives

1)Employer-Led Workforce Development Collaboratives

West Michigan TEAM has been selected as the vendor to assist with the development of the collaboratives. Information sessions for employers are being scheduled through November,  2009. 

To read a brief overview of the Employer Resource Network, click HERE.

 2) Green Collar Talent Development

Jobs for the Future, has been selected to complete the work. 

3) Building the M7 Water Generation

Ten proposals were received on 8/31/09.  The RWA Steering Committee met on 9/23/09 and selected the following four proposals for funding: 

 a) Articulation Task Force Agreement from UW-Parkside

b) Headwaters from Milwaukee Public Schools

c) High School Cohorts from UW-Milwaukee Great Lakes Institute

d) Freshmen for Freshwater from UW-Whitewater 

Please check back periodically for updates on these three initiatives.  

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View Rich Meeusen's, President and CEO of Badger Meter, Inc. and Chair of the Milwaukee 7 Water Council, response to the announcement that $500,000 of WIRED Innovation Funds will be focused on "Building the Water Generation" below:   

UN Global Compact City Designation Briefing

UN Global Compact Sub-Projects Descriptions

Innovation Fund Guidelines and Resources

Purpose of the WIRED Innovation Fund and Background.doc(31.5 KB)

Source_Allowable Uses of Funds_Fiscal Requirements.doc(36 KB)

A Discussion of Match and Leveraged Resources document.pdf(158.8 KB)

WIRED Grants Uses of the H-1B Funding rev3.pdf(54.7 KB)

Match-Leveraged - Federal funds flow chart.pdf(11.5 KB)

Match-Leveraged - Non-Federal funds flow chart.pdf(12.5 KB) 

What is the WIRED Innovation Fund?

Over 2008-09, Southeastern Wisconsin’s WIRED Innovation Fund will invest in projects to transform education, economic, and workforce development to create a pipeline of talent to grow our region’s economy in the 21st Century. This Innovation Fund will invest in a portfolio of programs, projects, and activities that provide new and improved talent development solutions to the business, jobseeker, and incumbent worker communities using a competitive application process.

RWA WIRED funds projects based on the RSTI Table.doc(30.5 KB)

R – Regional and Replicable

S – Strategic and Sustainable

T – Transformational and Targeted

 I – Industry-driven and Innovative

 On March 26, 2009, Susan Koehn, WIRED Innovation Fund Specialist. gave members of the RWA Local Elected Official Oversight Board an update of funded projects to-date.  To view the update and see how many partnerships the RWA WIRED initiative has helped 'seed', watch the segment below:

The WIRED Innovation Fund has made investments in three categories:

Exploratory Investments, awarded in amounts between $5,000 and $35,000, stimulate the development and application of new ideas and solutions. The smaller investments allowed stakeholders to develop clear blueprints for new approaches and to create a proof of concept or business plan. Exploratory Investments were accepted on a rolling basis between April 28, 2008 and March 5, 2009. **The RWA Steering Committee voted on March 5, 2009 to conclude the Exploratory phase/funding and focus on targeted Round III investments.

Demonstration Investments , awarded in amounts between $35,000 and $100,000 pilot new talent development innovations and build on successful solutions already in place.

Implementation Investments , awarded in amounts between $100,000 and $250,000, fund promising practices in talent development innovations and support efforts to bring them to scale across the Milwaukee 7 region.

Round I of the Innovation Fund launched in April, 2008 and awards were announced in June.  Round II launched in September and awards were announced on December 11, 2008. Organizations or partnerships interested in applying for WIRED Innovation Fund dollars should check back for further information about Round III funding. Round III will be a series of targeted RFPs beginning in the spring of 2009. Areas to be targeted are:

1) Employer-Led Workforce Development Collaboratives

2) Green Collar Talent Development

3) Building the M7 Water Generation