The Department of Commercialization and Innovation actively promotes and seeks out a wide range of partnerships and alliances between government, academic institutions, economic development organizations, and industry. These collaborative efforts provide synergy and access to resources that often exceed those of individual members.

DCI works with many partners, including:

• Governor's Office
• Education Cabinet
  Department for Workforce Investment
• Cabinet for Economic Development
  Bluegrass States Skills Corporation (BSSC)
  Commonwealth Seed Capital (CSC)
• Universities and Colleges
• Finance and Administration Cabinet
  Commonwealth Office of Technology (COT)
• Community and Technical College System (KCTCS)
• Center for Information Technology (CITE)
• Dataseam Initiative, Inc.

Broadband Access for Regional Development (BARD)

DCI has initiated the Broadband Access for Regional Development (BARD) alliance, which will bring a bold new approach to workforce and economic development. It’s based on innovative initiatives and applications enabled by the completion of the nation’s first broadband communications infrastructure providing high-speed Internet access across a 120-county, 40,000-square-mile regional labor and economic market – the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

BARD will facilitate more accessible and advanced online workforce education and training, turning even the most remote areas of the region into viable places for knowledge-based and high-tech companies to locate. Many of the economic and educational disadvantages experienced in these areas will be reduced or eliminated, leading to expanded high-skill and high-wage opportunities within the regional economy.

Measurable results of the BARD project will include increased job growth, reduced "brain drain," increased average wages, reduced unemployment rates, increased high school graduation rates, improved workforce performance, and increased employer satisfaction.