By: Nathan Buttrey, Senior Advisor to the Commissioner, Office of Innovation, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD)
Every state says it wants to be more innovative. Fewer are willing to ask what that actually requires of state government, beyond just the companies they’re recruiting.
Early last year, Governor Bill Lee and Deputy Governor/TNECD Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter began asking what it would take for Tennessee to support innovation more intentionally. The result was the Office of Innovation within the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD).
Innovation was already happening across Tennessee, in nuclear, quantum, AI, advanced materials, life sciences and a dozen other industries most people wouldn’t think to include in the “innovation economy.” What didn’t exist was a dedicated office focused on connecting those efforts, supporting them and helping them grow.
On August1, 2025, I joined the department to lead that work.
Recognize, resource and commit—those three words—are the operational architecture of this office. They’re worth explaining because they frame both the role and impact of our work.
Recognition means seeing the innovation for what it is: an economic driver that exists across industries and every stage of business, but one that presents challenges traditional economic development wasn’t designed to solve. A pre-revenue quantum computing company and a 50-year-old manufacturer investing in automation are both part of this story, even though almost nothing else about them looks alike.
Resource means harmonizing how the state supports our citizens, organizations and institutions, as well as emerging industries like AI, quantum, nuclear and advanced materials, all of which are experiencing the effects of innovation. Harmonizing isn’t a small word. It means the state’s support must be curated and collaborative, across programs that had not previously integrated with each other to address those distinct challenges.
Commitment means more than just dollars through our grants, incentives and programming. It’s a commitment to a legislative and regulatory environment that supports innovation. We want Tennessee to be a state where companies can start, scale and stay. Too many states work hard to attract or cultivate entrepreneurs and companies only to repel them with overreaching bureaucracies and high corporate or personal income tax rates. Tennessee can create opportunity for its citizens by being an oasis for innovative entrepreneurs and businesses.
Turning Strategy into Action
Our first initiative under this framework is the IRIS grant, designed to inspire industry investment in R&D right here in Tennessee. We have extraordinary companies doing business in this state, and we want them to know they can meet their R&D goals through partnerships with the world-class research infrastructure we already have, including our universities and institutions like Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). These institutions can be flywheels of innovation. Tennessee industry can be the force that keeps them spinning.
Whether it’s nuclear, quantum or the acceleration AI is driving across nearly every sector, innovation is an economic driver in Tennessee today, not a future aspiration. The Office of Innovation exists to provide leadership, to put real resources behind that momentum, and just as important, to help tell that story clearly, to the people building it and the people deciding where to build next.