Who We Are - Overview

The Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness is an independent 501c(3) non-profit affiliated with George Mason University and C2ER.

Created in January 2000, the Center is organized to support the development of innovative approaches to creating jobs in the knowledge economy with better information and strategies. The mission of the Center is to promote knowledge-based economic development efforts at the local and regional level. This mission is achieved through efforts that

• enhance understanding of the forces impacting regional and local economies through research and analysis,
• assist economic development organizations in formulating knowledge-based strategies, or
• result in pioneering models for knowledge-based economic development.

The Center, working with its sister agency, C2ER (a national membership organization of economic development analysts) designs and implements training for economic development practitioners aimed at enhancing the use of methods and tools for understanding local economies.

Center staff also provides direct technical assistance in designing regional strategies and conducting regional industry, cluster, and occupational analyses.

Center staff is currently working on projects with or on behalf of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the State Science and Technology Institute, the Arizona Department of Commerce, the Western Piedmont Council of Governments, the Durham Workforce Development Board, the National Center on Education and the Economy, and the National Association of Workforce Boards.

The Center also provides presentations to national, state, and local leadership on innovations in regional economic strategies, making presentations to groups such as the California Workforce Association, the South Carolina Association of Governments, the Governor’s economic development summits in Wisconsin and Arizona, the Utility Economic Development Association, as well as a regional leadership summit for Northeast Ohio in Cleveland.