The Blueprint

These four pillars create the foundation to building a strong and sustainable health care innovation industry and providing hyper-localized opportunities for all of Salt Lake City’s residents

Recommendations in Brief

Brand, Promote,
& Grow

  • Growing and maintaining Salt Lake City's reputation as one of the nation's top locations for health care innovation is instrumental to the city's success. We offer three recommendations to help accomplish this:

    1. Build global brand;

    2. Increase awareness of job opportunities; and

    3. Highlight successes

    • Partnered with the Biohive to help tell the story of life sciences and digital health companies in Salt Lake City and build a sense of community among employees of these companies

    • Created branding and marketing materials to share digitally and physically with strategic partners and community members. This includes our website, booklets for Doing Business in Salt Lake City, Health Care Innovation Blueprint, and advertisements in industry specific publications

    • Created a branding campaign that includes Bus and Trax wraps and banners in strategic places throughout the city

    • Leveraged the reach of our partners at Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah) on campaigns that help support and grow this industry

    • Created a page on our website that hosts entry level career opportunities with some of Salt Lake City’s largest life science employers

    • Coordinated communication and marketing meetings among our partners at The Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah), University of Utah PIVOT Office, Biohive, BioUtah, and World Trade Center Utah (WTC) with our Department of Economic Development.

    Updated Feb. 2023

Emphasize Pathways
& Partnerships

  • Available, accessible, and affordable education and training opportunities are imperative to supply as workforce for Salt Lake City's fast-growing health care innovation economy. We offer three recommendations to help accomplish this:

    1. Create education-to-workforce partnerships;

    2. Connect pathways; and

    3. Identify alternative pathways.

    • Human Innovation Day held Nov. 10th to introduce students to diverse opportunities in health care innovation

    • Altitude Labs Demo Day for K-12 student interaction with health care innovation

    • Workforce and education collateral posted on site

    • Listening tour of major health care innovation businesses to debrief MIP

    • Structured an memorandum of understanding with the Salt Lake Education Foundation

    • Established weekly discussion with Salt Lake City School District CTE director, Talent Ready Utah and STEM Action Center to move toward a robust BioTech CTE pathway in K-12

    Updated Feb. 2023

Increase
Investment

  • With the objective of increasing social and income mobility through the health care innovation industry, the city can help inform and connect available public and private funding to support the innovation ecosystem in the City. We offer three recommendations to help accomplish this:

    1. Maximize industry partnerships;

    2. Capitalize on private capital; and

    3. Target social impact investments.

    • Worked closely to establish regular discussion with The Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, Bioutah, Biohive, U of U PIVOT Center, Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah), World Trade Center Utah (WTC), Altitude Lab and large, medium, and small health care innovation companies

    • We’ve supported and sponsored the industry’s top events that bring local and outside investment groups to Salt Lake City to connect with our entrepreneurs and startup companies within digital health and life sciences. BioUtah’s Entrepreneur & Investor Summit and Altitude Lab’s Demo Day take place on an annual basis and bring the top innovators and startups to get in front of venture capital and seed funds.

    • Hosted National Lab, Department of Defense, higher education, and industry associations with partners across the city and state to showcase our capacity and desire to increase Research and Development activities in our ecosystem.

    • We’ve worked with local non profit, education and community foundations to establish a coordinated effort to help underserved and marginalized communities see the options and opportunities in this industry.

    Updated Feb. 2023

Strengthen Foundation
& Remove Barriers

  • Salt Lake City's health care innovation ecosystem is only as strong as the foundation that supports it. Streamlined regulations and up-to-date information can help the industry flourish. We offer four recommendations to help accomplish this:

    1. Create a baseline;

    2. Reduce business barriers;

    3. Inventory R&D opportunities; and

    4. Ensure lab and office space is available.

    • Worked with the Department of Community and Neighborhoods and their Planning Division to update our city’s land use definition and land use tables to support the growth of the tech industry.

      • This includes new definitions: Bio-medical facility & Technology facility as well as updated definitions for Laboratory, medical related, and Research & Development Facility

    • The Department of Economic Development works with the local development community through the Downtown Alliance’s Development Committee to create awareness of new space, projects, and to get feedback on policy and land use changes.

    • The Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency, in conjunction with federal and state partners, is identifying strategic parts of the city to create a sense of place for health care innovation companies and community organizations.

    Updated Feb. 2023

Learn more about Health Care Innovation’s impact

STUDENTS

RESIDENTS

WORKFORCE

This blueprint includes our vision, mission, guiding principles, action steps, and recommendations, to guide the daily and long-term direction of Salt Lake City’s economic and social development efforts.

Download the Blueprint