Tennessee Valley Corridor
Initiatives & Ventures

Since its formation, the Tennessee Valley Corridor has been the catalyst and early incubator for several successful ventures and initiatives designed to advance and promote public and private sector collaborations for potential new investment and job creation in the region.

Over the next three years, the Corridor will expand its work to actively develop a small number of new and continued Corridor-wide initiatives and collaborations to unite interested partners and to serve as a national model around four specific focus areas:

Energy Independence and Sustainability

During 2010, the Corridor and the Corridor Foundation launched and is actively developing a bold new Tennessee Valley Nuclear Energy Coalition (TVNEC) for the region.  As the Corridor continues to be a leader in energy innovation and the nuclear renaissance, the TVNEC works to meet nation's rising need for new sources of safe, clean and abundant energy.

After securing private sector funding and an EDA matching grant, the TVNEC is now underway developing specific market studies and business plans to take full advantage of America’s potential new push into more nuclear power generation.

Over the next three years, Corridor board and staff will continue to expand and support this new and important Corridor-wide coalition. Click here to learn more about the TVNEC.

Other activities to be developed under this focus area include:
·         Explore a Similar Initiative around the Uranium Center of Excellence
·         Develop a new Alternative Energy Innovation and Sustainability Initiative

More Small Business Job Creation

The Corridor region is home to many successful small businesses responsible for supporting national missions and projects of great importance. We should embrace and promote our existing small businesses and help grow new small businesses in our region.

Activities to be developed under this focus area include:
·         Convene or Promote a Series of Federal/State Contracting/Funding Seminars throughout the Corridor;
·         Convene or Promote Existing SBIR/STTR Training Sessions to maximize awareness and participation in the region.

Building Tomorrow’s STEM Workforce

Over the past few years, the Corridor board and staff helped envision and create a successful “Vets to the Valley” initiative that includes “America’s Veterans to Tennessee Engineers” in the Oak Ridge area and the “NEW-STEM” effort in the Huntsville area.

The Non-Traditional Emerging Workforce in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (NEW-STEM) Initiative was created to fill the current shortage of scientists and engineers in the Tennessee Valley with the flux of technically-trained Warrant Officers (WOs) and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) departing from the military.  The Initiative links WOs (Ranks W1-W5) and NCOs (Ranks E5-E9) leaving the service with job openings in participating federal agencies and private sector companies in Huntsville, Ala.   Selected candidates attend the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAHuntsville) to gain their engineering degree while participating in a co-operative educational assignment/work study program being offered by one of the participating federal agencies or private sector companies.  Upon the participants college graduation, they receive priority consideration for a full time position with the participating organization they worked for during their co-operative educational assignment.  Click here to learn more about this initiative.

The Corridor’s Oak Ridge and Knoxville, Tenn. communities are sponsoring “America's Veterans to Tennessee Engineers” program for military members completing their service to our country and interested in becoming Nuclear, Chemical, Electrical or Mechanical Engineers.  The program supports veterans that are using their GI Bill benefits to complete their Engineering degrees and will provide them a guaranteed job upon graduation.  In addition, the community and corporate sponsors offer part time employment, community sponsors, and academic mentors.  Click here to learn more about this program.

More participating employers and funding sources are needed to accelerate and expand these initiatives, and special effort will be made to explore an expansion of the program into Western North Carolina in partnership with NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center.

Creating National Security Solutions

Several partners in the Corridor are actively at work developing a new Forensics initiative for the Corridor.  Led by Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Western Carolina University, Eastern Kentucky University, Wallace State Community College in North Alabama and many others, the Coalition is finalizing the objectives for the initiative. A communications plan is being put together to share the various expertise, assets and projects going on throughout the Corridor in order to help position the region as a national leader in the Forensics industry.

In the next three to five years, the forensics industry in the will experience accelerated evolution, moving rapidly from a disparate, disjointed collection of resources towards a coherent national system. The coming consolidation of the forensics industry presents a rare opportunity to expand on existing resources and build an emerging new industry for the Corridor in order to diversify our region's economic portfolio, complement our current industrial base, and result in good paying jobs. Click here to learn more about the TVC's Forensics Initiative.

Other activities to be developed under this focus area include:
·         Explore a Corridor-wide Initiative to Create a new National Training Center of Excellence for National Security and Emergency Management.