Advanced Materials Fueling Sustained Economic Growth

M-SPIRE plans to accelerate research and translation activities to reimagine today's plastics industry. Over the 10-year grant period, M-SPIRE would become a comprehensive growth engine that deploys technologies, businesses, and jobs to improve local economies and elevate communities while solving a grand societal challenge. The project’s diverse coalition of participants are committed to build a plastics future that is economically robust, sustainable and benefits the environment. The project’s “cradle-to-grave” product cycle network plans to address challenges that cannot be solved individually.

M-SPIRE Vision

Our vision is to establish our region as the global center for sustainable plastics innovation, producing discoveries, technologies, jobs, and new businesses that unlock, promote, and perpetuate a circular plastics economy.

M-SPIRE Mission

Our mission is to empower, connect, and champion innovative individuals, businesses, services, communities, and physical assets to generate inclusive economic growth, solve the plastics waste crisis, and catalyze a plastics circular economy.

M-SPIRE Network

M-SPIRE is a joint venture of four of the state’s leading organizations dedicated to serving the region. In addition to their common mission to serve the citizens of Minnesota, these four Core Partners have experience collaborating in multi-member cooperative organizations pursuing a shared goal.

Core Partners

Regional Expertise, National Reach

Map on MN with 13 counties pulled out and highlighted.

Our other partners and participating organizations are notable for the depth of industry involvement across market sectors and company sizes, ranging from Fortune 500 companies based in our region and elsewhere to the nation’s largest private company to leading materials manufacturers, to the most significant material recovery companies in the region to small suppliers and regional startups.