Blue Ridge Innovation Corridor Logo

The Blue Ridge Innovation Corridor (BRIC) is a nonprofit connecting communities, institutions, and industry across Southwestern and Southern Virginia, spanning Danville, Martinsville, Roanoke, and the New River Valley.

BRIC’s mission is to amplify existing initiatives, uncover new opportunities through strategic research, and bring together and equip leaders to advocate for investment in transformative initiatives and infrastructure.

Ben Davenport and Heywood Fralin serve as co-chairs for BRIC’s executive committee of business leaders. The nonprofit has almost 60 total board members, which include CEOs and senior leaders across the BRIC megaregion.

BRIC’s GO Virginia project, a multiregional effort that includes Regions 2 and 3, will develop a long-term strategy that strengthens economic growth by aligning industry, infrastructure, and institutional partnerships across the region. It will provide strategic guidance to scale key sectors – advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and emerging technology – while improving connectivity and investment across the corridor.

Core partners in the project include the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research and Virginia Tech. The team is also working with community colleges and regional economic development organizations.

The project will result in a plan called Vision 2050, a long-term playbook roadmap for the region on how to become the number one economic powerhouse in Virginia.

S.I.R., a management consultancy, is working with Deloitte to create this plan. To help craft the vision, Deloitte has spoken with over 100 stakeholders, including economic development leadership, localities, schools, workforce development organizations, nonprofits, community colleges, and other higher education institutions.

In the past couple of decades, there has been strong growth in the Blue Ridge Innovation Corridor region, in both additive manufacturing and advanced materials and the growing biomedical industry.

"When you combine the economies across the BRIC region, we are Virginia's fourth economic engine, after Northern Virginia, Richmond, and Hampton Roads," said Rachel Yost, executive director of BRIC and managing partner at S.I.R. "Virginia's three established engines are all growing more slowly than their peer regions nationally, and the state trails every other southeastern state in population, employment, and GDP growth. For the commonwealth to stay competitive, it needs a fourth engine that is strong and being invested in.”

The Vision 2050 plan will cover infrastructure that needs to be in place to support growth, such as transportation, utilities, housing, and childcare.

In particular, the project team is looking at improvements to Route 220, including connecting it more effectively to I-81. Route 220 is a key artery with several large industrial sites nearby. If those sites get filled, it could result in tens of thousands of jobs.

The team is also looking at different funding mechanisms at the local, regional, state, and federal levels to support the growth.

The playbook will be released in the fall.

“We've got the right leaders at the table. We have a university, Virginia Tech, at the center of this. We have a bold goal of becoming a robust economic engine for the state,” said Yost. “When you look at other communities that are experiencing strong growth right now, they had the key leadership, including the business community at the table. They had a university at the center of it. They had a clear goal of what they wanted to become. That's the model we're following.”

In the next five to ten years, Yost said she hopes the project will result in a united effort to grow the region. “I hope to see our population, employment, and GDP growth accelerating, and more companies wanting to relocate to the region in key sectors,” she said. “I also hope to see retention of talent. Hopefully, students are staying in the area because there's great jobs for them and there's a coordinated workforce development ecosystem that's readily training people for jobs that offer opportunity for economic mobility and growth.”