ABOUT BRIC
From a bold idea to a working pipeline.
In 2016, a group of neighbors decided Springfield's story wasn't finished. Ten years later, BRIC runs rural Vermont's opportunity infrastructure — STEAM education, workforce training, and startup support, under one roof in Precision Valley.
2016
the idea takes shape
$4.5M
in federal grants
200+
summer campers in 2025-26
110+
startups supported since 2021
The idea
Community leaders begin work on an innovation campus for Springfield — betting that a former manufacturing town can build a digital future.
2016
The campus
BRIC announces its home in the historic 1890s Park Street School and wins a $1.4M federal EDA grant to get started, with early backing from the Kauffman Foundation and Siegel Family Endowment.
2018
The pivot
When COVID hits, BRIC launches remote-work certification and online computer science training with CORI and the Flatiron School — and welcomes Arsana Health as the campus's first startup anchor tenant.
2020
The breakthrough
A $2.9M EDA Build to Scale award — one of just eight rural grants nationwide — scales Actuator across the region, alongside a federal earmark toward the Park Street School renovation.
2022
The expansion
A NASA Goddard technology-transfer partnership, a BRIC-supported innovation hub launches in Randolph with GMEDC, and a new Actuator curriculum and cohort model launches.
2023
The classroom
BRIC's STEAM programming launches across Windsor County schools — summer camps, after-school clubs, and educator professional development.
2024
The next chapter
VRmont Studios opens on Main Street: 5,000 square feet of VR, drone sports, and hands-on STEAM learning; the Park St School renovation continues; and the Imagine Vermont campaign begins.
2026
OUR MISSION
Imagine a region that builds its own future.
BRIC exists so that rural Vermonters don’t have to leave home to find opportunity. We inspire students through hands-on STEAM education, train workers for careers that pay, and launch founders who build companies here.
Three pillars, one campus, one goal: a vibrant region that embraces innovative technology — and owns it.
Be part of the next chapter.
The story is still being written — by students, founders, and neighbors.