Identify · Step 01
Identifying where a project can do the most.
Before a project exists, there is a need — a gap in capacity, a stalled corridor, an underused asset, a supply chain exposed to risk. We work with regions, agencies, industries, and institutions to find those needs and judge where coordinated development would matter most.
What identification means
From a general concern to a specific opportunity.
A capacity gap
A region loses an employer, a supply chain concentrates offshore, an industry cannot scale for lack of infrastructure. These are signals that development is needed.
Can a project address it?
Not every gap is a project. We ask whether a defined, deliverable initiative — with a sponsor and beneficiaries — could credibly close it.
Does it serve a public purpose?
We prioritize opportunities that strengthen national or regional capacity, resilience, and economic opportunity, not narrow private gain.
A candidate opportunity
What emerges is a specific, describable opportunity ready to be originated into a project concept.
How we identify
Where the signals come from.
Priority mapping
We track national and regional priorities against where capacity is thin.
Institutional intake
Agencies, companies, communities, and technical bodies bring us needs directly.
Screening
Each candidate is screened before development resources are committed.
Stage 1 of 5 · Identify
What must be true to leave Identify.
- Identify
- Structure
- Develop
- Prepare
- Deliver
We work with regions, agencies, industries, and institutions to surface development needs and screen each candidate for public purpose, deliverability, and fit before development resources are committed.
- Step 01Identify Development NeedsThis page
Gate 1 · public purpose · deliverability · fit
Public purpose, a path to delivery, and fit — screened before development time is committed.
No project moves to the next stage until this is true. The standard is the same for every sector and every sponsor.
Next stage · StructureOriginate ProjectsCommon questions
Not every gap is a project.
Yes. Governments, companies, communities, and technical experts can present a development need or opportunity for preliminary review.
No. Presenting a need is the earliest and lowest-cost stage of the work, and it carries no obligation. It simply lets us assess whether a coordinated project could address the gap you have identified.
Among the candidates that clear screening, we rank by the scale of the capacity gap an opportunity would close and how squarely it advances national and regional priorities.
By whether it strengthens national or regional capacity, resilience, and economic opportunity rather than narrow private gain. The test is applied before an opportunity advances, not after it has absorbed development work.
Know a capacity gap worth closing?
Tell us about a region, sector, or asset where a coordinated project could strengthen American capacity.