The Prima Civitas Foundation is a direct outgrowth of the 150th commemoration, in 2005, of the founding of Michigan State University and President Lou Anna Simon's Boldness by Design Initiative. As part of her effort to redefine the land grant philosophy, President Simon commissioned Dr. Paul Hunt to do an environmental scan and determine the best practices of those communities that were thriving, both in America and around the world, and what role, if any, universities had in those vibrant communities.
After months of research, Dr. Hunt reported that the most robust communities had four things in common:
1. A university that was fully engaged
2. Communities that were redefining themselves in newly configured regions based upon market forces, not traditional municipal boundaries
3. Business people who were driving innovation and policy
4. Business people who were organizing themselves through non-governmental organizations (NGOs), both as profit and nonprofit entities.
As Michigan examples, Dr. Hunt pointed to SPARK in Ann Arbor and The RIGHT PLACE INC in Grand Rapids, and called for the creation of PRIMA CIVITAS (meaning first city or first state) to advance the interests of Mid-Michigan.
Based on these findings, and in keeping with her commitment to redefine the land grant philosophy and get the university more fully engaged in the region's economic and community development, President Simon announced several initiatives. She proclaimed that MSU would lead the world in the post-petroleum economy and created the Center of Biomass Technology; launched the Prima Civitas Foundation; and commissioned a study on ways to streamline MSU's commercialization, intellectual property, and technology transfer processes. Taken together, these bold and visionary initiatives offer great hope for the transformation and diversification of Mid-Michigan's economy.
In January 2006, a group of academic, community and business leaders came together to create the Prima Civitas Foundation, a nonprofit, regional economic development organization. The mission of Prima Civitas is to diversify Mid-Michigan's economy and transform the region into one of the most innovative in the world, while aligning the region's educational and training programs for the emerging jobs of the new economy. PCF's purpose is multifunctional: to promote business, improve educational outcomes, enhance cultural opportunities, encourage municipal collaborations, develop regional strategies to recruit and retain skilled workers, and market the region as a center of innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship. While independent of MSU, Prima Civitas enjoys a special relationship with the University that focuses on commercialization of research and increased flow of technology transfer and intellectual property.
Most recently, Prima Civitas was chosen to manage the U.S. Department of Labor Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant for Mid-Michigan. This effort has evolved into the Mid-Michigan Innovation Team (MMIT), which seeks to develop a comprehensive, long-term economic diversification strategy for a 13-county region that is anchored by the cities of Flint, Saginaw and Midland and comprises nearly 2 million people
