Top Five destination for Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Technology – National Hydrogen Association, 2009
Nation's first National Science Foundation Industry/University Center for Fuel Cells
Southern Innovator Award for Alternative Energy Economic Development Programs– Southern Growth Policies Board, 2009
Nationally recognized SC Launch! Technology-based economic development program
Over $50 million in public and private hydrogen and fuel cell investments
8th Best Mid-sized city for entrepreneurship – Entrepreneur Magazine
Where the Power of Ideas Meets The Future Of Power
The University of South Carolina - City of Columbia Fuel Cell Collaborative was formed by the University of South Carolina, the City of Columbia, EngenuitySC and SCRA to position Columbia, SC as a leader in hydrogen and fuel cell innovation and technology. Its mission is to attract private sector partners, top fuel cell scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators to the Columbia region; as well as to collaborate with private sector leaders from all areas of the fuel cell market for the unprecedented deployment of fuel cell and other alternative energy technologies into multiple city, university and commercial applications throughout the region.
The activities supported by the collaborative are intended to help create and expand an "innovation pipeline" for fuel cell technology, which includes efforts to build a critical mass of research knowledge (the discovery phase), to commercialize the fruits of that research in specific applications for product creation and company formation (the development phase), and then to create incentives to grow and attract industries into enterprise clusters (the deployment phase).
