MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC) officially launched Vision 2030 to the public earlier this week.
Vision 2030, developed in collaboration with RTI International and Keen Point Consulting, is a plan designed to make West Virginia more competitive when it comes to science and technology grants and create a skilled workforce that will attract high-paying industries.
Dr. Janet Rorrer, Senior Director of Science, Research, and Technology at HEPC, joined WAJR’s “Talk of the Town” to further describe HEPC’s call-to-action plan.
“It’s meant to be a blueprint for West Virginia’s universities, entrepreneurs, innovators, businesses, and industries to really utilize to see where they can fit in the state’s strategic plans, and how we can move forward together as a group,” Rorrer said.
As part of their joint group effort, RTI conducted over 60 interviews to receive input from universities, government agencies, and industries to create four high-priority areas, in which HEPC will focus on. Those high-priority areas include: Life Sciences: Health Science, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Resilience, AI/ML and Data Science: Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Data Analytics, and Data Science, Advanced Manufacturing: Robotics and Autonomy, and, finally, Advanced Energy: Energy Reliability & Efficiency and Exploration & Production.
HEPC’s four key areas will also target research and STEM education for students from kindergarten through community or technical colleges and universities.
“One of our goals is to really interact and engage with those young individuals, and create that curiosity and intellectual questioning, especially that relates to science, technology, engineering, and math,” Rorrer stated.
In addition, HEPC’s executive committee will meet at least three times annually to check in and see how they can work together to identify where the initial growths are occurring, where additional support may be needed, and to decipher how they can continue to move Vision 2030 forward in the future.
Vision 2030 also meets key requirements that allow West Virginia to qualify for funding through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Search (EPSCoR).