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What is VIPA?

The Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA) was established in 2020 to support the life cycle of innovation, from translational research; to entrepreneurship; to pre-seed and seed-stage funding; as well as acceleration, growth, and commercialization, resulting in the creation of new jobs and company formation. The Authority provides a collaborative, consistent, and consolidated approach that will assist the Commonwealth in identifying its entrepreneurial strengths, including the identification of talents and resources that make the Commonwealth a unique place to grow and attract technology-based businesses.

Investments

The scope of programs the Authority may undertake is broad. It provides for a wide range of powers and programmatic development.The critical needs and opportunities the Authority can address include:

The scope of programs the Authority may undertake is broad. It provides for a wide range of powers and programmatic development.The critical needs and opportunities the Authority can address include:

  • Promote the technology-based economic development of the Commonwealth by building, attracting, and retaining innovation and high-technology jobs and businesses in Virginia.
  • Increase industry competitiveness by supporting the application of innovative technologies that improve productivity and efficiency.
  • Attract and provide additional private and public funding in the Commonwealth to enhance and expand the scientific and technological research and commercialization at the state and federal research institutions and facilities, including by supporting and working with technology transfer offices to advance research from proof-of-concept to commercialization resulting in new business and job creation.
  • Attract and provide additional private and public funding to support and enhance innovation-led entrepreneurship ecosystems and coordination of existing activities and programs throughout the Commonwealth to create new job opportunities and diversify the economy.
  • Ensure promotion and marketing of Virginia’s statewide innovation economy and support and coordinate regional marketing efforts to align local and statewide objectives.
  • Close the Commonwealth’s support gap through pre-seed and seed-stage investments, coordination of private investor networks, and enhanced deal syndication.

The VIPA, with VIPC as its operating arm, brings together components of existing and new program activities in an approach through which the whole is greater than the sum of the individual programs. VIPA’s design includes governance and management capabilities to ensure that programs generate transformative and
measurable results.

-Board Meetings and Announcements-

Archived Meetings

-Board of Directors-

Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA) | Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)

CEO, the National Spine Health Foundation

Commonwealth Secretary of Commerce and Trade

Executive Director, Institute for Engineering and Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University

Executive Director, 757 Angels

Managing Director, Orion Capital

President & CEO, Washington Resource Associates

Executive Chairman of the Board, NTELX

Managing Partner, Kefiweh Group; President, Kelley W. Powell, Inc.

Head of Virginia Public Policy, Amazon

Independent Nonprofit Centers of Excellence

In the 2020 legislation that created VIPA, four existing Commonwealth-funded nonprofit Centers of Excellence, in addition to VIPC itself, were brought under the VIPA umbrella. This new structure allows for greater coordination across these organizations, as well as unified periodic reporting through VIPC to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade and other Commonwealth of Virginia stakeholders.