CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ventas, Inc., (NYSE: VTR) has been named a “Founding Partner” of The Global Institute on Innovation Districts (“GIID”) a practitioner-led and empirically grounded not-for-profit organization designed to strategically advance innovation districts worldwide through the creation of a global network and focused research initiatives.
Today, by conservative estimates, there are more than 100 innovation districts emerging around the world. These integrated ecosystems are built to thrive on the close proximity of research institutions, mature companies, start-ups and scale-ups, co-working spaces, and supportive intermediaries. As the number of districts continue to grow so does their need for dedicated fact-based research support to both define and differentiate themselves. To support this evolution, GIID will: identify and monitor the global growth of innovation districts; capture and dissect critical opportunities and successes; provide detailed, evidence-based strategies and data to accelerate their work; facilitate communication and shared learnings; and foster collective engagement on top priorities such as access to capital and IP protections to create norms around growth, finance and governance.
“Investments in our University-based Research & Innovation (“R&I”) portfolio are recognizing strong, sustainable growth because of high-quality institutional tenants and growing university demand for knowledge communities,” said Debra A. Cafaro, Ventas Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “There is close alignment between the objectives of GIID and Ventas’s investment focus on our R&I portfolio. We are proud to support GIID’s research-driven approach to understanding and growing these valuable knowledge epicenters across the globe as a Founding Partner of the Institute.”
The GIID is led by Julie Wagner and Bruce Katz, co-authors of the 2014 Brookings Research paper “The Rise of Innovation Districts,” and influential leaders active in the growth and advancement of innovation districts around the world together with seasoned industry practitioner and intellectual advisor on the development of innovation districts in the U.S., Thomas Osha, who also serves as senior vice president, innovation & economic development for Wexford. GIID recently released its first research paper, “The Evolution of Innovation Districts: The New Geography of Global Innovation,” which follows five years of subsequent research and on-the-ground practice and offers new insights on how successful innovation districts are organizing themselves to forge ahead and to establish a formal network-based organization to support the growth and impact of innovation districts around the world.
Ventas joins two other GIID Founding Partners: Lendlease, a global property and infrastructure group and The Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University. Founding Partners will serve on the GIID’s Steering Committee.
The Ventas R&I portfolio currently includes 33 University-based R&I properties located in established and emerging knowledge communities and are principally anchored by highly-ranked research universities including Brown, Duke, University of Pennsylvania, Wake Forest, Washington University in St Louis and Yale, which together account for 10 percent of all university research and development spending in the United States. Ventas has an exclusive development partnership with Wexford Science & Technology, LLC, the leading developer of University-focused real estate solutions.
About Ventas:
Ventas, Inc., an S&P 500 company, is a leading real estate investment trust. Its diverse portfolio of approximately 1,200 assets in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom consists of seniors housing communities, medical office buildings, university-based research and innovation centers, inpatient rehabilitation and long-term acute care facilities, and health systems. Through its Lillibridge subsidiary, Ventas provides management, leasing, marketing, facility development and advisory services to highly rated hospitals and health systems throughout the United States. References to “Ventas” or the “Company” mean Ventas, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Ventas and Lillibridge can be found at www.ventasreit.com and www.lillibridge.com.
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