Dayton, OH -- Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Lt. Governor Jon Husted, and Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik on Aug 19th, announced that Dayton has been selected as the site of Ohio's second innovation hub.

Supported with $35 million in state funding from the Ohio Innovation Hubs Program, the new on Main Innovation Hub will bring together government, academia, and private sector industry partners to make Dayton a global leader in the research and development of digital transformation technologies. The project is also supported with a local match of at least $23 million and a private sector investment of up to $37 million. 

State funding will primarily be used to construct the onMain Innovation Hub's Digital Transformation Center (DTC) on the former Montgomery County fairgrounds site in the greater downtown Dayton area. The DTC will serve as the hub's headquarters, where partners will collaborate to create digital technology that will drive advancements in aviation and national defense. Among its top priorities, the onMain Innovation Hub will support the digital transformation of the U.S. Air Force to revolutionize how it designs and manufactures everything from airplanes and missiles to sensors, hardware, software, and more.

"The Miami Valley has always been a place where big ideas take flight, and the unprecedented collaboration that will happen under the umbrella of the onMain Innovation Hub will lead to digital technologies that will impact lives across the world," said Governor DeWine. "This new collaboration will be transformative for this region, leading to more investments, more jobs, and more of the world's most innovative thinkers calling Dayton home." 

“The Dayton Innovation Hub will pull together the talent, research, and private/public partnerships the region needs to be a world-class leader in digital integration for defense and aerospace,” said Lt. Governor Husted. “As for its location, this is something I and many others have worked on for a very long time as we transition the former site of the county fairgrounds into a world class hub for research and collaboration.”

Led by onMain, Inc., a collaborative venture between the University of Dayton and Premier Health, other key partners supporting the onMain Innovation Hub include Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the University of Dayton Research Institute, the City of Dayton, Montgomery County, JobsOhio, and the Dayton Development Coalition. By 2031, partners anticipate that the work of the hub will lead to 2,000 new jobs, more than $39 million in additional state and local income tax revenue, and $500 million in new research dollars.