ANN ARBOR – The Ann Arbor IT Zone?s 21st Century Job Fund grant proposal is moving to the interview stage in August. Ours is one of the 179 proposals (out of the original 505 submitted in March) advancing to the next phase of the selection process.
The jobs fund, administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, was formed last year to diversify the state?s economy by promoting job formation in life sciences, homeland security, alternative energy and advanced automation. We?ll be presenting to the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences on August 15. Our presentation will consist of an overview of our project and responses to the comments and questions from the technical review of our proposal.
The IT Zone is proposing an information system to recruit and retain talent in Michigan. Using both Internet-based tools and in-person and software-assisted networking, we?ll match employers with employees, consultants with projects, and entrepreneurs with start-up management teams and other resources. Some of the software tools we propose include job posting and social networking software, which are readily available and adaptable for our purposes. Our goal is to use those tools, in combination with others, to develop an innovative and systematic way to distribute and share information throughout a networked community. This system will include face-to-face interaction and information sharing as well as the intelligent management of the volume of information that will be captured and distributed over the Internet.
Contributing partners to our proposal include Compuware Corporation, the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor SPARK, University of Michigan Office of Technology Transfer, Washtenaw Community College and University of Michigan School of Information. Their involvement and support provides a strong foundation for developing a successful program.
The 21st Century Job Funds awards will be announced in September.
