It’s no secret to the outside world that Utah is a great place to do business. Among the many accolades Utah has been recognized for in recent years, the Forbes rankings continue to stand out. Forbes has ranked Utah the “Best State for Business” eight of the last nine years now and there are no signs of that changing anytime soon. The Wall Street Journal also just recently published an article on how Utah’s robust labor force has contributed to the state’s economic expansion, which has outpaced the rest of the country since 2010.
This booming business climate has generated growth across many industries, especially the fast growing tech sector in Salt Lake and Utah counties. Deservedly so, many successful tech startup companies have been praised for creating jobs and attracting outside investment and tech talent to Utah in recent years.
The tech startups are not the only ones leading the way in new business creation, however. Other industries across the state are growing such as the advanced materials and manufacturing industry which UAMMI represents. While much of the growth in this field is happening within larger companies such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Hexcel, and others, there is also growth happening in the small and medium sized businesses and even new startup businesses.
Capitalizing on this growth and prime business climate, I am excited to announce a new UAMMI program that aims to foster even more growth in the industry. The program is a new startup accelerator for Utah entrepreneurs in the advanced materials, advanced manufacturing or additive manufacturing (3D printing) fields. 
This 10-week bootcamp-style accelerator will help innovators and new companies get their business of the ground faster and with more precision. It will be implemented by our partners at Grow Utah, who have many years’ experience teaching and mentoring startups. In addition, the Davis County Economic Development team will underwrite the program costs by providing tuition to qualified startups.
This new accelerator program will be called RAMP and it will begin accepting applications from small businesses and entrepreneurs in the coming weeks. In the meantime, more information can be found on our website at: www.UAMMI.org/ramp
While the outside world already knows about Utah’s bursting tech startups, we aim to do the same thing for Utah’s advanced materials and manufacturing entrepreneurs. It’s a perfect time to run a program like this in Utah and we are confident that it will lead to even more successful companies across the state.