A Lorain County Community College-led partnership has received a nearly $500,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration's i6 Challenge.The initiative, which is called the Northeast Ohio Regional Acceleration in Digital Innovation, or NEO ReADI, will "support innovation and commercialization of key technologies anchored in the region," according to a news release from the college.Lorain County Community College will manage the three-year grant through its Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise technology incubator. The release said partners include DigitalC, BioEnterprise, JumpStart Inc., Magnet, Team NEO, the Youngstown Business Incubator and Braintree Business Development Center.The goal of the program will be to "grow and attract investment for the core regional digital technology cluster," the release stated. NEO ReADI's focus will be on "accelerating proof-of-concept and enterprise development services" of digital technologies ranging from sensors to the Internet of Things.It plans to work with eight to 12 companies, all with proven concepts and markets, in those first three years. After that, it wants to continue to move at least four ventures to "marketability and commercialization" each year.The partnership will use the programs of the partners to help the startups. NEO ReADI is also aligned with two seed funds — the DigitalC Fund and Innovation Fund Northeast Ohio — to support the clients in the program financially. The release noted that the Innovation Fund Northeast Ohio is administered by the GLIDE and the LCCC Foundation, along with five partners in higher education.The EDA's news release has more details on all of the investments made last week.