The TEAM TN Engine will power digital innovations essential to the electrification and automation of mobility through use-inspired R&D (URD) strategies focused on ten technologies: Onboard intelligent applications, transportation network analytics services (public and private), vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems, transportation network systems and sensors (public and private), energy and transportation integration services, vehicle grid integration services, short and long-range LiDAR (light detection and ranging), 6G wireless technologies, and cyber security services.

TEAM TN stakeholders are qualified and ready to advance these technologies, representing an estimated $1.8 trillion market opportunity for the state.  

• Generate continuous streams of URD outcomes to foster advanced mobility industries based on ten identified technologies.
• Expand existing and/or establish new open testbeds and facilities to support collaborative URD, foster industry and community engagement, de-risk promising technologies, and explore mobility solutions at scale.
• Develop and implement new incentives and reward mechanisms to recognize and celebrate exceptional TEAM TN mobility innovators.

Not surprisingly, electrification and automation are reshaping job prospects and industry requirements—the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects faster-than-average growth in mobility occupations through 2032.

By 2030, the global stock of EVs is projected to reach ~140 million, up from 10 million in 2020. This move will spur demand for increased technical and engineering knowledge and skills in the mobility workforce to support the design, development and use of new products and services across the mobility value chain and to support, service and repair them. To realize the over $1.8 trillion market opportunity, TEAM TN will reinvent its workforce development strategies, particularly in growing and disrupted sectors in the mobility value chain.

• Increase the number of diverse Tennesseans completing STEM programs at all levels (certificates and two-year, four-year, and graduate degrees).
• Increase the number of diverse out-of-state students enrolling in and completing TN’s higher education STEM programs.
• Develop learner-centered pathways to support the development, reskilling, and upskilling of workers and job seekers, ensuring that all Tennesseans have access to good jobs, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or socio-economic status.
• Provide students enrolled in STEM programs at all levels with the opportunity to develop AI/IT competencies to succeed in the mobility innovation economy.

Tennessee’s limited investments in technology-based economic development impede startup creation and growth. Identifying a sustainable capital stack may be the most significant challenge TEAM TN faces in moving innovations from the lab to the marketplace. The T2P working group will use the following strategies alongside the URD working group to strengthen tech-based economic development and support high-tech startups.

• Using the I-Corps Mid-South Hub, provide entrepreneurship training for hundreds of innovators annually, engaging diverse communities of faculty and students at all TEAM TN colleges and universities. 
• Develop and implement a common IP and data management model to streamline translation.
• Substantially increase the (annual) number of high-quality invention disclosures produced and licenses issued by TEAM TN partners by engaging the Tennessee Technology Advancement Consortium.
• Source additional high-risk capital to serve a diverse community of entrepreneurs in the TEAM TN ecosystem. A Sustainable Capital Subcommittee is exploring existing and new funding sources to meet our ecosystem needs for the foreseeable future, this includes a venture studio fund
• Substantially increase the number of high-growth companies recruited, incubated, and accelerated in our ecosystem.

Many TN households face financial hardship. Approximately 44% of Tennessee’s 2.8 million households live below the Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) threshold. They include at least one working adult who cannot afford the basic cost of living in their counties.  

While wages have risen over the last three years, Tennessee families living below the ALICE threshold have increased by 15% since 2010. Disparities among racial and ethnic groups persist—58% of Black and 53% of Hispanic households lived below the ALICE threshold in 2022, compared to 40% of White and 33% of Asian households. Many families and workers believe they have no access to opportunities created by TN’s growing innovation economy. TEAM TN seeks to change this.

• The DEIA WG prepared a DEIA Implementation Guide structured around a five-principle DEIA framework: policies, practices, procedures, programs, and people. 
• The Implementation Guide provides a comprehensive approach to weaving DEIA into the fabric of TEAM TN’s work, ensuring that TEAM TN strategies implemented in URD, T2P and WFD programs are equitably available and include proactive plans to remove barriers for underserved populations.
• Representatives from the DEIA WG are embedded in each programmatic WGs (URD, T2P and WFD) to ensure these DEIA principles are integrated throughout.