UN Women -- On the fertile and lush fields of the Dibra region, one of the poorest in Albania, located on the north-east border of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 47-year-old Emrie Lata and her husband collect their daily harvest. Emrie has worked on this land most of her life, collecting forest fruits, vegetables and medicinal herbs, which she sells for a profit. Her husband is unemployed and Emrie has to support the family, including their three sons. One of them has emigrated abroad in order to help the family, but his income alone is not enough.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet today announced the SBA’s support of four new Regional Innovation Clusters, adding to its portfolio of high-performing regional innovation networks across the country. “Clusters are public-private partnerships that are driving innovation and job creation in our most promising regional hubs for innovation,” Contreras-Sweet said.

The RENACER program and framework consists of highly customizable and practical training programs, prepared and delivered by the specialized institutions and individual stakeholders collaborating with the program, which will:

For 28 years, the National Association of Development Organization (NADO)’s Annual Innovation Award program has honored members who have made significant and positive impacts on their regions through innovative approaches to problem solving and program delivery. The Innovation Award honors significant advances in community and economic development, including but not limited to small business finance, energy and infrastructure projects, housing and human services, sustainable development, workforce development, and more.

Business incubators used to be considered an innovative approach to supporting small businesses. Now they are ubiquitous, but some cities are taking the concept a step further and aligning incubators more strategically with their economic development plans. They create incubators that bring together entrepreneurs around a specific industry cluster, such as energy or food.

Kingsport Times-News -- The next big startup ideas in 21st Century auto technology got a test drive during a recent event held at the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce. Six of those ideas were pitched to a group called autoXLR8R — an auto business startup program based in Middle Tennessee — plus members of AccelNow, located at the Kingsport chamber.

Both autoXLR8R and Accel-Now are focused on bringing new auto technologies to market, and at least getting those ideas to the business incubator stage to draw interest from investors.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has received more than 800 applications from accelerators and incubators hoping to win one of 50 cash prizes of $50,000 each in the SBA's first Growth Accelerator Fund competition.  August 2 was the deadline to submit an application.

On Capitol Hill on July 22, 2014, I joined leaders of JP Morgan Chase as they announced a five-year, $30 million philanthropic investment to support the pioneering work of American small businesses joining “regional clusters.” Clusters are public-private partnerships that convene a region’s corporations, small businesses, universities, investors and regional economic organizations to achieve synergies and productivity levels that a single company could not. Chase’s commitment is believed to be the largest private-sector contribution to date in support of clusters.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. today launched Small Business Forward℠, a five-year, $30 million grant program to boost small business support networks that help growing enterprises in specific industries. Small Business Forward connects entrepreneurs with critical resources to help their businesses grow, create jobs and strengthen communities.

The U.S. Small Business Administration is launching a $2.5 million competition for accelerators and other entrepreneurial ecosystem models to compete for monetary prizes of $50,000 each to fund operating budgets. To award the prizes, applicants will be judged by an expert panel that will consider each applicant's stated mission, founding team members and business goals among other core components. The application deadline is August 2, 2014.