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Irvine staff and Chamber lay out 5-year plan to grow an innovation economy; forecasts 23,000 jobs locally in target sectors
Summary
City staff and the Greater Irvine Chamber presented research forecasting growth in enabling/creative technologies, healthcare innovation and decarbonization, and outlined five "levers" including access to capital, sites and regulatory streamlining to boost startups and R&D.
City staff and the Greater Irvine Chamber presented a research-backed framework Jan. 28 aimed at growing an innovation-driven economy in Irvine, with consultants forecasting as many as 23,000 new jobs in enabling and creative technologies over the next five years and another several thousand in healthcare innovation.
The presentation summarized work by BW Research and a local consultant team that identified four target sectors — enabling and creative technologies (including AI, software and gaming), healthcare innovation and medtech, climate transition and decarbonization, and defense-related next-generation technology. The consultants placed enabling and creative technologies in the highest‑probability, highest‑impact quadrant; their forecast estimated 15,593 net jobs in that sector in Irvine over five years.
“Enabling and creative technologies is the sector that’s poised to grow the most,” Dave Cafaro of the Greater Irvine Chamber said during the presentation. The staff and chamber stressed the need to connect the city’s highly educated workforce, university research and commercial real estate to create an entrepreneur-friendly ecosystem.
Pete Carmichael and other staff outlined five “levers” the city and partners can use: (1) improve access to early-stage capital, (2) mitigate physical infrastructure gaps (small-scale R&D and affordable maker space), (3) streamline regulatory burdens and permitting, (4) strengthen new business formation supports, and (5) align workforce and housing policy to keep talent local. Staff also reported a pending federal grant application for a proposed Irvine Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship — a hub for prototyping, investor matchmaking and small-scale R&D — with a business plan due in coming months.
Council members asked about housing and workforce implications and suggested scheduling a study session to dive deeper into the recommendations. Staff said additional proposals on defensive policies to prevent decline and on housing affordability for lower-income households would return in spring.
The presentation was received and filed; no formal council action was required on the research itself.
