Our research resulted in a published report titled, "Benchmarking U.S. Regional Cities: A Study and Guide for Transformation" (2014). Based on our findings and strategic advice, IEDC created the Regional Cities Initiative to incentivize regional collaboration, cross-sector partnerships, bold planning, and quality of place investments by offering $126 million in matching funds to competing regions. In the end three regions were chosen to receive a state investment of $42M each to support a range of economic and quality of place investments. The Fourth Economy team supported the development of two of the regional plans.  According to a report by Ball State University in December 2017, just two years after the three winning regions created their plans the Initiative’s $126 million leveraged $1.2 billion in additional non-state investment, $802 million of which came from the private sector.

In 2021, Governor Holcomb, changed the name of the program to the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) and made $500 million (up to $50 M per region) in competitive funding available for regions to develop a data-informed regional development plan with the goal of accelerating population retention and attraction. READI builds on the framework and successes of the Indiana Regional Cities Initiative and the 21st Century Talent Initiative, encouraging neighboring communities across the state to work collaboratively to develop a bold vision for their future that, when implemented, will attract, develop and retain talent in Indiana. Fourth Economy supported three regions in the development of these plans and in 2022 they were awarded a combined $130M.  The commitment of $500M has led to private and local government commitments of $15B to support the defined community needs. This program is having a significant and lasting impact in Indiana.