Helping Communities Shine

Whether researching and implementing ways to shape a community's economic development plan or partnering to create ways to put people to work, CREC connects researchers and policymakers with:

• Data training
• Custom portfolios that aid regional competitiveness

Project Profile

Roanoke Regional Cluster Analysis

Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission
Start Date: Jan 2003 — End Date: Oct 2004

The Council for Community & Economic Research (C2ER) and the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) conducted a targeted cluster analysis aimed at identifying existing technology-based clusters in the “NewVA” region, which includes nine cities and counties, including the Roanoke and Blacksburg metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) as well as their surrounding rural counties.

The goal of the exercise was twofold: to help the region better understand its economic base and to identify progress in developing technology-oriented clusters of development. C2ER/CREC worked closely with the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission (RVARC) staff to provide training on how to conduct such analyses in the future.

About the Client

Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission

The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission was formed in 1969 and is one of 21 regional planning agencies in Virginia.