Do North Requests Proposals for Ecosystem Mapping

Do North has issued an RFP for a consulting partner to conduct a mapping exercise of the innovation and entrepreneurship landscape of the Northeast Kingdom. The work builds on initial research carried out by the Center for Rural Innovation to map the digital economy ecosystem of the region in 2021. This update exercise is intended to:

1. Track change among key actors. Regional players change, anchor institutions falter and new ones arise. We’d like to understand how things have evolved since 2021.
2. Put a finger on progress. What goals or opportunities identified in 2021 have realized progress, which have fallen to the side, and what insights can be learned from these experiences?
3. Enumerate networks. To whom do people in the Northeast Kingdom look to for leadership, and where do those leaders nourish their ideas and their energy?
4. Identify energy pockets. Where is there creativity, enthusiasm, and energy to build innovative and entrepreneurial opportunity in the Northeast Kingdom today?
5. Pin the big ideas. What themes animate people’s thinking in the Northeast Kingdom? Are there sectors that are “ripe” for growth, are there activities that could be seen as “low hanging fruit?”

Mapping an entrepreneurial ecosystem can be a complex and time-consuming process. Do North is looking to move fairly quickly through this exercise, and is aware of the constraints that can arise as a result. Since a share of this work can be considered an update to existing work, we’d like our consulting partner to bring attention to less known actors, networks, and activities in the region – the “emergent” qualities of the Northeast Kingdom as much as the legacy entities that underpin our economic conditions.

DOWNLOAD THE RFP