Ideas for Impact RFEI: Strategic Priorities
NYCEDC has 5 key focus areas where it would be particularly interested in exploring partnership opportunities through the Ideas for Impact RFEI. This list can help potential respondents better understand if and how their ideas relate to NYCEDC’s priorities. Ultimately, the goal is to encourage submissions from Respondents with a clear vision of how partnership with NYCEDC can amplify their proposal’s impact in the listed strategic priority areas.
These impact areas, listed below, constitute a “living list” of current priorities that will likely evolve over time. While NYCEDC is primarily focused on partnership ideas that align with its strategic priorities, proposals are not required to fall neatly into the categories described below. In addition to sourcing ideas that address current organizational goals, the Ideas for Impact RFEI is also designed to identify highly impactful proposals that illuminate unfamiliar but important challenges facing NYCEDC and the City.
General Considerations
Like other NYCEDC projects, proposals across various focus areas should seek to:
- Address a market failure or advance a policy goal
- Promote equity and inclusion by benefiting underrepresented groups and people with lower incomes
- Catalyze private sector investment
- Work to establish models that can be self-sustaining or scaled over time
- Be done in coordination with other City agencies or government entities where appropriate
Impact Areas
NYCEDC is particularly interested in exploring partnership opportunities in the following areas:
Green Economy
For NYCEDC, green economy is defined as a set of industries that directly contribute to the achievement of decarbonization and climate resilience goals. Our Green Economy work aims to drive job creation, investment, and industry diversification, as well as climate change and equity outcomes.
Proposal focus areas include, but are not limited to:
- Making buildings and our city more energy efficient and achieving emissions targets (e.g., Local Law 97)
- Developing renewable energy and grid infrastructure
- Supporting worker training and new technologies and innovation in the 'green economy' (including but not limited to solar, wind, energy storage, low-carbon transportation, energy efficiency building retrofits, proptech, climate adaptation, urban agriculture, materials science, and climate finance)
- Improving NYC’s resilience to the impacts of climate change
- Support innovation in materials, food and agriculture, and energy at the intersection of sustainability and biotechnology (e.g. alternative fuels, biosequestration, food tech) through the cycle of R&D to commercialization
Life Sciences
Today, the NYC metro area has the largest life sciences economy in the country and boasts many advantages for leading in the industry. NYCEDC is working to continue building on NYC's strengths and investing in the spaces, companies, and talent that will create life-saving cures and treatments, while catalyzing new economic opportunities for the people of this city.
Proposal focus areas include, but are not limited to:
- Connecting existing researchers and institutions to the resources needed to advance translational research and development (R&D) programs
- Unlocking lab or other specialized space for life sciences companies to grow within the city
- Building a pipeline for the talent and workforce needed to support these companies across the five boroughs
- Support the development of life sciences clusters through ecosystem programming
- Develop hubs for key subsectors to support the development of new innovations
- Support innovation in materials, food and agriculture, and energy at the intersection of sustainability and biotechnology (e.g. alternative fuels, biosequestration, food tech) through the cycle of R&D to commercialization
Economic Mobility
New York City is home to a dynamic economy, but disparities in economic opportunity require a forward-thinking approach to building a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable economy. NYCEDC aims to ensure that more good jobs in priority industries are available and accessible to all New Yorkers, and to enable low- and moderate-income New Yorkers to reach financial security, build wealth, and move up the economic ladder.
Proposal focus areas include, but are not limited to:
- Empowering workers through targeted workforce development strategies to ensure New Yorkers from all backgrounds can access high-quality jobs
- Improving diversity in high growth/high paying fields
- Developing new financial tools for people who are disconnected from traditional financial systems
- Developing tools and ideas that improve efficiency and lower costs of government delivering services to New Yorkers
- Improving childcare access for New York City families
- Promoting Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and immigrant entrepreneurship
Shaping a “New” New York
NYCEDC is committed to establishing New York as the best city in the world to work, invest, and do business in by making New York the best place, period.
As part of this ongoing mission, NYCEDC supports the development of projects and technologies that address the unique challenges and opportunities associated with our urban environment.
Proposal focus areas include, but are not limited to:
- Creating flexibility to repurpose space and fill vacant buildings with a variety of uses
- Investing in beautiful, permanent public space
- Improving quality-of-life issues across our business districts, such as sustainability and cleanliness
- Offering new reasons to go to business districts
- Strengthening employment hubs and workspaces across all five boroughs, so that people can work closer to their homes
- Reducing demand for cars and trucks
- Establishing New York City as a hub for future industries and innovation
Tech
NYC’s tech ecosystem is ranked as the second-largest in the world, providing high-wage employment to New Yorkers working within the tech industry itself and within NYC’s traditional sectors including finance, media, and insurance. NYCEDC is committed to ushering in the next wave of tech sector growth and innovation while ensuring that all New Yorkers, especially those from underserved communities, can participate as workers, owners, and beneficiaries. NYCEDC is focused on championing and growing emerging tech sectors and areas including AI/ML, deep tech, cybersecurity, fintech, blockchain and web3, and digital health.
Proposal focus areas include, but are not limited to:
- Supporting commercialization from academic institutions to create more spinouts that stay and grow in NYC
- Supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion within the tech sector across the startup value chain
- Supporting the growth of tech startups and companies already located in NYC and helping attract new companies to expand to NYC
- Developing effective pathways for New Yorkers to access and thrive in careers in the tech workforce
- Supporting the development of emerging tech sectors through ecosystem programming and branding opportunities
More details on the above and other NYCEDC priorities can be found in the following reports: