Part 2: Northeast Ohio’s Role
Being situated on a Great Lake is a competitive advantage for Northeast Ohio that is often taken for granted. The Fund for Our Economic Future, along with the Cleveland Water Alliance and TIES, are part of a new multi-state coalition called Great Lakes RENEW focused on strengthening the industries, technologies and jobs built around water. In this two-part series, we chat with Alaina Harkness, CEO and principal investigator for Great Lakes RENEW, about the importance of the Great Lakes and the efforts to create economic opportunity across the region.
For more on the state of the Great Lakes and their impact on the economy, check out this recent City Club of Cleveland Forum featuring Bryan Stubbs, president and executive director of the Cleveland Water Alliance.
What is Great Lakes RENEW?
Great Lakes RENEW is an 80+ partner coalition anchored by Current and backed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that is solving some of the world’s most pressing water challenges while creating economic opportunity across the Great Lakes region. Our goal is to accelerate innovation that helps recover valuable resources from wastewater, remove contaminants like PFAS, improve water efficiency for industry, and prepare more people for family-supporting careers in a growing water workforce.
The Great Lakes region is uniquely positioned to lead this work because we already have the ingredients for success. We have world-class research institutions, a strong manufacturing base, utilities and industry interested in collaborating, entrepreneurs developing breakthrough technologies, and a growing community of people who recognize water as both a defining natural resource and a critical economic asset. Together, the Great Lakes water economy supports more than $1 trillion in GDP across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
No single organization, city, or even state can solve today’s water challenges alone, and we’re stronger when we win together. That’s why Great Lakes RENEW exists. We’re connecting the strengths of partners across the Great Lakes—including Northeast Ohio—to create a regional innovation ecosystem that’s far more powerful than the sum of its parts.
Why is Northeast Ohio such an important partner?
Our 2026 State of the Great Lakes Blue Economy report shows that Ohio has emerged as one of the region’s leading destinations for water innovation, tying for the highest number of venture-backed water companies in the Great Lakes and maintaining a strong national presence in water treatment patents. The state’s blue economy contributes more than $210 billion to Ohio’s GDP, and supports 1.56 million jobs across nearly 63,000 establishments. Since 2015, Ohio-based water startups have also attracted more than $224 million in venture capital investment.
Northeast Ohio is at the heart of that momentum. The region has built one of the country’s strongest water innovation ecosystems, leading research institutions, engaged utilities, and a growing network of entrepreneurs and industry partners. Its location on Lake Erie provides not only an extraordinary freshwater resource, but also a living laboratory for developing, testing, and deploying solutions that can be scaled across the Great Lakes and around the world.
The Cleveland Water Alliance has created an internationally recognized model for testing and validating emerging water technologies in real-world environments. TIES plays a critical role in connecting innovation with workforce development and entrepreneurship. And the Fund for Our Economic Future helps ensure these innovations translate into long-term economic growth by bringing together partners across sectors and aligning investments around shared regional priorities. Northeast Ohio is also home to NEO-SMART, a new Regional Innovation Engine focused on sustainable manufacturing—major congratulations to all involved! I am grateful to be supporting the effort as an external adviser. We now have the potential to generate collaborative solutions across two related Engines and industries.
The NSF also just announced up to $45 million in new funding for Great Lakes RENEW, bringing total federal support to nearly $60 million. What does this investment make possible?
This investment allows us to move from building the foundation of Great Lakes RENEW to catalyzing its impact all across our region. During our first phase, we established a six-state coalition, invested in cutting-edge water research, built workforce initiatives that trained adults and engaged youth, and created new pathways to help promising water technologies reach the market faster.
This next phase will allow us to scale that work. We’re investing in more research, supporting more commercialization, developing the workforce, and convening an ecosystem around a shared agenda and vision. We’re really just getting started, and we’ll have more to share soon about what to expect in the years ahead.
Ten years from now, what will have been achieved?
Right now, we are laser-focused on the achievements we want to make by year five, which is 2028. These are:
- Establish a durable, collaborative ecosystem for water innovation in the Great Lakes—convergent and cross-disciplinary in nature—that drives scientific progress and economic growth by addressing real market needs and opportunities.
- Advance selective separation technologies for the recovery of valuable resources (e.g., critical minerals and nutrients) and the removal of contaminants (e.g., PFAS).
- Support 44 use-inspired RD&T projects across six states, resulting in new publications, intellectual property, licensing agreements, startups, prototypes or minimum viable products (MVPs), and commercialized technologies.
- Build a connected, multiscale testbed network of 40 sites that supports 300 companies to pilot new technologies in a variety of settings (utility, industrial, open water).
- Support 100 companies to identify and secure new customers and 30 companies to double their initial valuation.
- Develop and deploy a robust capital stack for blue economy technologies, supporting 30 investments in promising technologies.
- Train over 3,000 people for blue jobs.
- Reach 5,000 students in K-12 STEM education programs about water.
Plus, delivering on a plan for the five years after that. By year 10, my goal is for everyone in the Great Lakes region to have forgotten how radical the premise was when we started. To have mainstreamed circular water management as an expectation, and to see the blue economy as a pillar of every state’s plan for growth and sustainable development. For private capital to be crowding in on top of the public sector’s commitment.
If we’re successful, it won’t just be the number of new technologies and companies and the people we’ve trained and prepared for the jobs of the future. Success will be demonstrated by the policies, systems and markets that have moved these concepts from marginal to mainstream, allowing Great Lakes RENEW and whatever comes next to move on to the next set of bold, catalytic ideas for water. Realizing Great Lakes RENEW’s mission and vision is a multi-decade project, but we’re already starting to see signs that it is changing the state of play. We’re encouraged by the momentum.
Missed part one of this series? Find it here.
