Jor­dan Jacobs, PR Counsel

North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport

(850) 879‑2250; jordanj@​themooreagency.​com

FOR IMME­DI­ATE RELEASE

North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP) Announces Strate­gic Part­ner­ship with Flori­da State Uni­ver­si­ty’s InSPIRE Initiative

Pana­ma City, FL – Decem­ber 18, 2024 – North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP) is pleased to announce the sign­ing of a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU) with Flori­da State Uni­ver­si­ty’s Insti­tute for Strate­gic Part­ner­ships, Inno­va­tion, Research, and Edu­ca­tion (InSPIRE). The MOU was offi­cial­ly signed today at the ECP Board Meet­ing, mark­ing the begin­ning of a trans­for­ma­tive part­ner­ship aimed at advanc­ing aero­space engi­neer­ing, test­ing, and man­u­fac­tur­ing in the region.

This col­lab­o­ra­tion will estab­lish ECP as the home of InSPIRE’s advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing and aero­space facil­i­ties, which will include one of the largest and most advanced hyper­son­ic wind tun­nels offered by any uni­ver­si­ty in the nation. The selec­tion of ECP for this initiative’s loca­tion was an impor­tant deci­sion with impacts to region­al eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, job cre­ation, and tech­no­log­i­cal innovation.

“We are thrilled to part­ner with Flori­da State Uni­ver­si­ty to bring a hub of cut­ting-edge inno­va­tion to Bay Coun­ty,” said Mark Shel­don, Chair of the Air­port Board of Direc­tors. ​“The estab­lish­ment of InSPIRE at ECP will make our region a leader in aero­space and advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing research and with it cre­ate high-wage jobs and edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for the region.”

InSPIRE is ded­i­cat­ed to fos­ter­ing research excel­lence and inno­va­tion through strate­gic part­ner­ships with indus­try lead­ers, gov­ern­ment agen­cies, and aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tions. This part­ner­ship with ECP fur­thers InSPIRE’s mis­sion to dri­ve inno­va­tion and lead­ing-edge research that sup­ports indus­try part­ners’ require­ments and serves the community’s needs. 

In April, Tri­umph Gulf Coast gave the final sign-off on $98.4 mil­lion in grant fund­ing that will sup­port the project. 

FSU will invest anoth­er $65 mil­lion over the next 10 years and has com­mit­ted to secur­ing more than $235 mil­lion in grant funding.

“We look for­ward to work­ing close­ly with part­ners through­out the com­mu­ni­ty to help bring our col­lec­tive vision of a thriv­ing inno­va­tion ecosys­tem to life,” said Stacey Pat­ter­son, FSU VP for Research. ​“The devel­op­ment of unique facil­i­ties will attract aero­space and defense indus­tries and will cre­ate qual­i­ty career paths that ulti­mate­ly ben­e­fit the entire North­west Flori­da region.”

The sign­ing of the MOU is a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in the ongo­ing efforts to enhance the eco­nom­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal land­scape of North­west Flori­da. ECP and FSU InSPIRE are com­mit­ted to work­ing togeth­er to achieve shared goals and cre­ate a future where research and inno­va­tion have a pro­found, sus­tain­able impact on society.

For more infor­ma­tion about the part­ner­ship and upcom­ing ini­tia­tives, please vis­it FSU InSPIRE.

About North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport

North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP) is locat­ed less than 30 min­utes from Pana­ma City Beach, Pana­ma City, and the beach­es of South Wal­ton. Today, with ser­vice from Amer­i­can Air­lines, Delta Air Lines, South­west Air­lines, and Unit­ed Air­lines, ECP’s air­line part­ners pro­vide dai­ly flights to world­wide des­ti­na­tions, includ­ing year-round and sea­son­al non­stop flights between ECP and Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS) Bal­ti­more (BWI), Char­lotte (CLT), Chica­go (MDW/ORD), Dal­las (DAL/DFW), Den­ver (DEN), Hous­ton (HOU/IAH), Indi­anapo­lis (IND), Kansas City (MCI), Nashville (BNA), St. Louis (STL), Wash­ing­ton DC (DCA), and more. ECP pro­vides North­west Flori­da with first-class facil­i­ties and was strate­gi­cal­ly devel­oped for major eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. ECP is the gate­way to vis­i­tors seek­ing North­west Florida’s famous beaches.

About InSPIRE

The Insti­tute for Strate­gic Part­ner­ships, Inno­va­tion, Research, and Edu­ca­tion launched with an ini­tial grant from Tri­umph Gulf Coast, Inc. InSPIRE is help­ing FSU fuel the region­al inno­va­tion econ­o­my and will serve as a bea­con to attract invest­ment and oppor­tu­ni­ty to the region. The InSPIRE ini­tia­tive includes not only applied research, advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing and aero­space test­ing and pro­to­typ­ing facil­i­ties but also funds ded­i­cat­ed to increas­ing the num­ber of engi­neer­ing grad­u­ates. InSPIRE is also com­mit­ted to STEM out­reach and devel­op­ment of K‑20 stu­dents and teach­ers to build the work­force tal­ent need­ed to serve the high-speed aero­dy­nam­ics and advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing industries.