In 2005, CIT celebrated 20 years of creating technology-based companies and strategies for innovation. From its original mission to enhance the research and technology transfer activities of Virginia universities, CIT has moved its focus toward the new technologies, entrepreneurs and technology companies that make innovation happen.

Today, CIT’s operating structure consists of service lines that enable it to respond quickly and efficiently to new opportunities with government and private sector clients. The service lines – CIT R&D, CIT Entrepreneur, CIT Broadband, and CIT Connect – establish a clear identity that allows us to meet our goals and close innovation gaps.

CIT R&D focuses on delivering strategic direction, solutions, and highly specialized program management in areas that will yield significant economic impact and replace older economies.

CIT conducts cutting-edge research and development (R&D) programs that focus on translational technologies addressing national and regional challenges. These technologies also provide the foundation for the creation and growth of industry clusters -- clusters that become the foundation of an innovation economy. With the development of the Commonwealth Innovation Index, CIT collaborates with Virginia's regions and technology councils to help build and shape a competitive innovation economy and spur technologically advanced regional economic development. CIT R&D, in collaboration with academia and industry, also supports the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority (IEIA) in its charge to develop a comprehensive R&D strategic roadmap for the Commonwealth. The roadmap will identify research areas worthy of institutional focus and recommend alignments of research and development and economic growth. 

Creating entrepreneurial technology ventures requires CIT to leverage both federal and private investments. CIT’s GAP Fund was created in 2004 to help innovative technology start-up companies secure their first seed stage investment. Over the last year, CIT created 12 new companies with a direct investment of $1.2 million, which then leveraged another $4.6 million in private equity.

CIT Broadband seeks to accelerate the socio-economic growth of the Commonwealth's rural and underserved areas through the application and use of broadband communications, a critical telecommunications infrastructure that provides communities with the foundation necessary for economic growth and a sustainable quality of life. Too many communities across the Commonwealth - both rural and urban - do not currently have equal access to affortable, reliable broadband telecommunications, reducing their ability to participate in enhanced social, education, occupation, healthcare, and economic development opportunities. CIT, with the Office of Telework Promotion and Broadband Assistance (OTPBA), works to encourage public and private sector efforts in the deployment of telework policy and strives to eliminate the barriers that are preventing broadband from becoming accessible and affordable throughout the Commonwealth.

Sensing a new and growing market opportunity, CIT created CIT Connect, a new service line dedicated to helping large-scale federal and corporate consumers of technology identify and assimilate innovation created in private sector start-up companies.