Creating an Incubator for Entrepreneurs

The College of Staten Island has been awarded a $70,000 grant from National Grid’s Economic Development Program to help support the College’s Clean Tech initiative through the CSI Tech Incubator. With this funding, the Tech Incubator can continue to support local startup tech and entrepreneurial projects.

The CSI Tech Incubator is driven to provide opportunity and unleash technological innovation in the Borough to create a true tech ecosystem. Although the Incubator is relatively new, it has already transformed Staten Island into a hub for creativity, entrepreneurship, and growth. The Clean Tech grant from National Grid will continue to help provide entrepreneurs with competitive advantages through access to mentors, talent, investors, and the resources of CUNY. It will also help to ignite economic development and socioeconomic opportunity for New Yorkers.

“This remarkable opportunity has allowed the Incubator to continue to produce programming in support of a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem on Staten Island’s North Shore,” said Robert Wallace, Interim Vice President for the Division of Economic Development and Community Partnerships. “With National Grid’s support, we have nurtured STEM education and fueled entrepreneurship through the JumpStart program. We look forward with great anticipation to the future, as we continue to collaborate with National Grid, building on the success of companies like Digital Power Optimization to further elevate our impact on the Staten Island community, foster economic growth, and empower the next generation of tech-driven innovators.”

The grant award continues a great partnership the Tech Incubator has had with National Grid. The Tech Incubator, along with College of Staten Island faculty and technology-sector professionals with the support of National Grid, created a six-month JumpStart Program intended to help participants grow their businesses. The program consisted of seminars, workshops, mentoring, advising and networking. It is tailored and customized to the distinct needs of each cohort of participants. This approach, modeled after the most successful technology incubators across the country, maximized the learning experience for the batch, which consists of participants and their companies. 

“Funding the Incubator is a sustainable and successful driver of economic growth in the borough. National Grid is committed to playing a leading role in enabling and accelerating the transition to a clean energy future, by supporting projects like this. National Grid is proud to partner with the College of Staten Island and I am especially excited as I am a graduate of the College of Staten Island,” said Niles French, Senior Representative of Economic Development.

For more information on the economic development grants visit ShovelReady: Downstate Grant Programs.

About National Grid

National Grid’s Economic Development Grant Program maintains a strong focus on site development, urban revitalization, strategic marketing, and facilitating customer growth through infrastructure assistance, energy efficiency and productivity improvement. The Program reflects an increasing emphasis on sustainable development, the efficient use of existing energy infrastructure, and the strategic deployment of renewable generation technologies.  Since 2017, the Downstate Economic Development Programs have awarded over $5.8M and paid out $3.1M in funding to New York City and Long Island businesses, local development corporations, universities and IDAs.  During 2022, the Program (for Staten Island, Brooklyn and Far Rockaway Queens) awarded $287,400 in funding, paid out $658,300 in grants, contributed to $451,177,805 in capital investments and created 252 jobs. 
 
About National Grid: National Grid (NYSE: NGG) is an electricity, natural gas, and clean energy delivery company serving more than 20 million people through our networks in New York and Massachusetts. National Grid is focused on building a path to a more affordable, reliable clean energy future through our fossil-free vision. National Grid is transforming our electricity and natural gas networks with smarter, cleaner, and more resilient energy solutions to meet the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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